Possible FIV - need comforting words and vibes

So this time of year is vaccine time at my house. I brought my one cat Mew in yesterday for vaccines. As I was going through her record, I realized that when I brought her in for the first time, they never checked her for FIV or FeLV. So I had them send off a senior wellness profile since she is 6 years old and thought it was the most for my money. (It includes a FIV, FeLV, t-4, cbc, chemistry, heartworm, and urinalysis.)

Let me just say, I have checked all of my other animals for FIV and FeLV before bringing them into the house. When we got Mew, I was 17 and knew nothing about the disease and simply trusted that the vet would do everything they need to do to make sure she was healthy before bringing her into my home.

Well, I decided to check and see if her bloodwork results where back from the lab. This is what I saw when I checked on her FIV test results online:

FIV Antibody \t \t \t \t \t \t \t
\tThe result is being rechecked and will be set up on our next regularly scheduled test run.

The only time I have know the lab to recheck a FIV test, is when it is a weak positive. It is only a ELISA test and NOT a western blot, but it still means my cat COULD have FIV. She has never been vaccinated for FIV so I know that its not from a vaccine...

I don't know what to do if she turns up positive. I have 2 cats who, do to health problems, can not be vaccinated.

I'm a nervous reck now, wondering if she has it... Please send vibes and prayers that it comes back negative. She is my DH's cat and getting rid of her is NOT an option, but I don't know what to do if she's positive.

Anyone who has an FIV positive cat in a house with other cats, please send me suggestions and let me know what kind of health problems and life span a cat with FIV has. I have never researched it because I never thought it would be a problem for me.

Sorry if this thread is kinda all over the place, I'm just a little nervous about the results.

Thank you all for reading my rambling.

I know two people with FIV+ kitties and they are happy and healthy. It isn't the FIV that kills them, it is the secondary infections. You need to keep the cat preferably indoors so it can be as healthy and long living as possible. The people I know have one who is two and the other people I know have one who is 5 years. They are fat and healthy and fine. They may live a shorter life, but that is where you come in keep stress and illness away so that he doesn't get sick. But the only way to transmit FIV is thru very very serious deep bite wounds so unless your cats regularly tear each other up, I wouldn't worry.

Ready.... BREATHE! haha... but seriously, a nice big breath will help to start with...

My Oliver has FIV.... and you'd never know it! He is my only cat, so I can't really give first hand advice about a multi-cat FIV+ house... were all your other cats vaccinated against FIV when they tested negative? If so, there's no problem at all! Having an FIV+ cat really isn't as bad as it sounds, I swear... someone else just recently posted about finding out one of their kitties had FIV... Oliver is 5 and I rescued him right off the streets up at school, we assume he got the FIV in street fights (he was in tact when he was found, so I'm sure he fought alot, plus he had a good chunk out of his ear - it's cute now though, looks like a pizza slice out of his left ear)... anyway, back to the point - Oliver does NOT require any kind of regular medications or anything along those lines. Basically the only extra precautions I take are, if he gets the "sniffles" (runny nose, goopy eyes) I don't take any chances by sayin "oh he'll just get over it" I get him into the vet and on meds - so far so good... also, your vet, boarder, groomer, pet sitters, etc will need to be notified if in fact the test is positive - this is just to make sure the disease doesn't get transfered within common areas... speaking of: FIV is pretty much like human HIV as far as transferring: your other kitties will NOT get it by sharing water, food, toys, litter, bedding, you, brushes, etc - basically your babies would have to get in a pretty serious fight with each other (ie: deep puncture wounds) in order to transfer... and like I said, if the others are vaccinated, not a problem... for example: last summer, Oliver was accidentally scared by my mom, causing him to fly in the air and came down on the sliding glass door track which split his foot open... when I took him in to Dr. Kathy for a patch up, the room had to be carefully disinfected after we left since he has FIV (If a spot had been missed, for example, and another cat with an open wound came into contact with it, there'd be a SLIGHT possibilty of that cat getting it)

FIV kitties can and do live long, healthy, happy lives, just like FIV neg kitties... it's a shame, because a lot of people don't understand this/are under educated about it and it scares them off, leaving many FIV+ kitties that would make wonderful pets to sit in shelters...

Just try to relax - I know there are other people here that have experience with FIV+ kitties (I'll see if I can find that other thread I mentioned earlier, I posted there too)... first of all, you're not even sure your baby has it yet... second of all, if he does there's still no reason to freak out - you will be able to keep all your babies together happily!

Ok, here's the other thread I was talking about... I basically said the same thing there, but there are posts from other people too that might be helpful

http://www.thecatsite.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=137639

I know of a woman with 5 cats, 1 of them FIV+. He's never transmitted the disease to his fellow housemates. Like Jen said, it mostly passes through fighting and needs to get directly into the blood stream.

Hopefully, it won't be an issue and the weak positive will only indicate that the kitty was exposed but not infected before coming into your household. Our no-kill shelter actually gives health guarentees on the FIV-positive cats when adopting them out to reassure owners that they really can live normal lives for the most part. I'd especially check out the first link below for more information and reassurance if he does test positive.

http://www.bestfriends.org/theanimal...e/cats_fiv.cfm
http://www.thecatsite.com/Health/89/FIV-in-Cats.html
http://www.peteducation.com/article....&articleid=213

I'm mostly nervous that if she is positive, her and my cat Pheelicks do get into fights... There are never any deep bite wounds, but there are spots of missing hair and scabs on Pheelicks from where his his hair gets pulled out. (He likes to start things with the other cats and them he winds up getting his butt beat for it.) So if she is positive, he will have to be vaccinated for it.... Which will be a major mission since when he goes to the vet, he has to be sedated. He's the sweetest cat at home... He loves everyone, but when you bring him into the vets office, he will bite the tar out of anyone who messes with him.

Since she was about 2 years old when we found her, I'm hopeful that maybe her previous owners vaccinated her for it. (Where I live, pets who are vaccinated for FIV must be microchipped so that if animal control picks them up, they wont be put down if the test comes up postive.) Unfortunaly she doesn't have a microchip, but maybe the they didn't have a chance to chip her...

I don't know. I'm just going to keep praying that the test was wrong or she was vaccinated or just exposed to it...

Our sweet Oreo is FIV+ . We adopted her from a shelter when she was 9 months (approx.). We already had two cats (Tosh and Princess) at this time. A year later we found out about FIV and had all them tested. Well Oreo obviously tested positive and the other two where neg. Oreo has been with us for over four years and all other cats are neg. for FIV. They all share litter boxes, water, food and Oreo grooms Snickers a lot. Anyway, you can have FIV+ and FIV- live together as long as there is no fights where blood is drawn.
So sorry you are having to deal with this. It was terrifying to hear Oreo had FIV. Thankfully she has done well. She has had a couple ear infections and UTI's but otherwise is happy. Praying for you.

Some of you sound a little light hearted about this illness. My best friends Ragdoll was just positively diagnosed today with FIP and was given a couple weeks to live if that. She has another Ragdoll that she's concerned about now. The one with FIP has had problems since he was born, but no vets ever tested him for FIP. Now it's gotten to the point where the kitty is having difficulty breathing and has fluid in his system. I feel so bad for my friend. She's obviously very upset over this. Her precious "Socks" is only 2 yrs. old. He's a VERY loving and affectionate kitty. So please don't take this so lightly. Some people aren't as lucky.

Originally Posted by Lndscpsam

Some of you sound a little light hearted about this illness. My best friends Ragdoll was just positively diagnosed today with FIP and was given a couple weeks to live if that. She has another Ragdoll that she's concerned about now. The one with FIP has had problems since he was born, but no vets ever tested him for FIP. Now it's gotten to the point where the kitty is having difficulty breathing and has fluid in his system. I feel so bad for my friend. She's obviously very upset over this. Her precious "Socks" is only 2 yrs. old. He's a VERY loving and affectionate kitty. So please don't take this so lightly. Some people aren't as lucky.

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We aren't talking about FIP, we are talking about FIV. Those are two completely different things

Originally Posted by Worriedmommy

Our sweet Oreo is FIV+ . We adopted her from a shelter when she was 9 months (approx.). We already had two cats (Tosh and Princess) at this time. A year later we found out about FIV and had all them tested. Well Oreo obviously tested positive and the other two where neg. Oreo has been with us for over four years and all other cats are neg. for FIV. They all share litter boxes, water, food and Oreo grooms Snickers a lot. Anyway, you can have FIV+ and FIV- live together as long as there is no fights where blood is drawn.
So sorry you are having to deal with this.

It was terrifying to hear Oreo had FIV. Thankfully she has done well. She has had a couple ear infections and UTI's but otherwise is happy. Praying for you.

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oh my gosh that is so wonderful to hear!! you are such a wonderful person for sticking it out with Oreo

Originally Posted by Lndscpsam

Some of you sound a little light hearted about this illness. My best friends Ragdoll was just positively diagnosed today with FIP and was given a couple weeks to live if that. She has another Ragdoll that she's concerned about now. The one with FIP has had problems since he was born, but no vets ever tested him for FIP. Now it's gotten to the point where the kitty is having difficulty breathing and has fluid in his system. I feel so bad for my friend. She's obviously very upset over this. Her precious "Socks" is only 2 yrs. old. He's a VERY loving and affectionate kitty. So please don't take this so lightly. Some people aren't as lucky.

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Originally Posted by Jen

We aren't talking about FIP, we are talking about FIV. Those are two completely different things

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FIP and FIV are very very different and I am so sorry to hear about your friend's kitty, I've lost kitties to suspected FIP also.

I want to echo everyone else's sentiments that it is possible to have negs and positives living together, the risk of FIV transmission is very very low. I take in leukemia cats and I currently have double positive and I have no fear about him passing the FIV on....can't get much worse the FeLV anyway

Originally Posted by Jen

We aren't talking about FIP, we are talking about FIV. Those are two completely different things

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oooops, don't I feel silly! I didn't even notice the FIV. Thanks for pointing that out and disregard my email.

After doing some research, I have realized that there is no way to tell if a cat was vaccinated or truly positive.

We got her in 2003, one year after the vaccine came out. So, if she was vaccinated, she may not have been microchipped since the vaccine was so new at the time.

Does anyone know if a cat who was vaccinated will test negative after a certain number of years or will they always test positive? Shouldn't the antibodies wear off after several years?

I'm still waiting on the final results... its driving me crazy... I wish the lab would speed things up a bit.

Originally Posted by Shorty14788

After doing some research, I have realized that there is no way to tell if a cat was vaccinated or truly positive.

We got her in 2003, one year after the vaccine came out. So, if she was vaccinated, she may not have been microchipped since the vaccine was so new at the time.

Does anyone know if a cat who was vaccinated will test negative after a certain number of years or will they always test positive? Shouldn't the antibodies wear off after several years?

I'm still waiting on the final results... its driving me crazy... I wish the lab would speed things up a bit.

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I am no expert on it but I will say that when we got Snickers and Marbles we had them vaccinated for FIV to be on the safe side because of Oreo. Well it has been about 1 1/2 years since Snickers was vaccinated and I had her test for FIV again and it showed negative still. SO...don't know what that means or if that gives you any idea or not.

Originally Posted by katiemae1277

oh my gosh that is so wonderful to hear!! you are such a wonderful person for sticking it out with Oreo

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Awww, well thank you but I love all my kitties SO much and we just could not part with her for that. As long as it is not putting the rest in jeopardy or hurting herself, we plan to stick with her for as long as her body keeps going.

YEAH!!!!!! Its Negative. The lab had a false positive on the first test...

That's great news!

Glad to hear everything turned out ok for you and your little one!

I am so glad to hear it is negative.

I bet that was a relief!

That is great news, it must be such a relief