Shadow sick STILL after several vet visits, possibly FIV?

Shadow is 4 years old and has had stomach problems off and on since I got her from a shelter at 1yr old. She's gone 2 times and diagnosed with food allergies and once with upper respritory infection.

She ALWAYS is weezing and the URI never seemed to fully clear up.

This last bout with diahrea and throwing up I took her to a new vet for another opinion. He did stomach x-rays and her intestines were inflammed. This was two weeks ago. He gave her cortisone shots and antibiotics and a supressant to stop the diahrea.

Last week I took her back because she's sneezing her pretty littke head off.

The vet doens't want to give her URI antibiotics until she has finished the stomach antibiotics. But on Thursday he is giving her a head x-ray to see her sinuses.

Could this be FIV? I have three other cats and two are new additions. At the shelter they tested negative but I am wondering now that Shadow is soo sick.

What are the symptoms? I have asked that the vet test her Thursday when she goes in for her head x-rays to be sure.

FIV is just like Human aids in that that virus doesn't actually have any symptoms, its regular illnesses that can become life-threatening because the kitty is immuno-suppressed. has shadow ever been tested for FIV? this is just MO, but even if the new cats have an undiagnosed case of FIV, it is EXTREMELY unlikely that they passed the disease to Sahdow as the only way to spread the disease is thru mating or deep bite wounds and as long as the kitties are not fiting to the death (I'm assuming everyone is fixed or too young to be thinking about adult topics?) I would definitely get the test done, just to rule it out, but I am of the VERY strong opinion that you can have FIV positives and negatives living in the same house and you do not have to euthanize if Shadow does happen to test positive

Thanks for this. I was very worried, and will still get the test done to rule it out. I wouldn't put her to sleep if she had it. I thought they could get FIV from the litter box and the food dishes too?

But yes, all cats are fixed other than a new kitten that will be fixed shortly. No one else is sick just her.

Maybe she's just a sickly cat. Hopefully this new vet can find some relief for her. He seems to be a good dr. and running tests to get to the bottom of it rather than just chalking it up to a food allergy like the last vet.

I will let you all know,

Jenn

Nope, that's FeLV (leukemia) that can be spread thru litter boxes and food/water dishes. I hope you can find some answers!

What are the symptoms of Feline Lukemia? And is that another test I should have them run?

Originally Posted by jenkitty

What are the symptoms of Feline Lukemia? And is that another test I should have them run?

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Well, basically leukemia causes a lot of secondary diseases, cancer, anemia, etc, it is also considered an immuno-suppressive disease, and most cats don't live past their 3rd birthday if persistently infected. It is different from FIV though. If you're getting the FIV test run, may as well get the FeLV as well, couldn't hurt.

I personally wouldn't have thought that it would be FIV, and if you test and it is postive, it doesn't mean this illness is due to it, there could still be another reason - have they ever tested for anything like pancreatitis, or looked into IBD?