FIV + and pregnant

I need some vibes & some advice. The shelter has a female that is FIV positive and pregnant. What is the likely hood that her kittens would be positive? She is also enimic, so she will need a transfusion to even have the kittens. Because I'm on the board, I may get a call to help decide what to do about her. It's breaking my heart I've never had to help make the decision to put a cat down, but this might be the first. I just don't know what the right thing to do is. I don't want her or the kittens to suffer, but it would be a very hard decision to make.

oh gosh, that is a tough situation!! just to answer your one question, a mother does not always pass on FIV to her babies, but to be safe and if you have the resources I would separate the babies from her and hand rear them as soon as they are born. lots of well wishes for the poor girl

Wow - I'd contact a few vets and ask their advice in this situation. I have no experience with FIV, FELV positive cats (thank God!)

Yeah, we are going to be calling a local cat specialist to get her opinon before making any kind of decision. She has worked with us before and we are hoping will be able to give us a break if we decide to go ahead with the transfusion.

we've had a fiv positive cat deliver 5 kittens. when she first came in, we had no idea. when she delivered a few days later, everything was fine. but after the fourth week, the kittens began to die rapidly. they seemed to come down with a flu and go in 24 hours despite our interventions.

we then checked and she was confirmed FIV. only one kitten survived. she seems fine and fighting fit. mom is ok, no complications. she just seems to have a weak-ish immune system.

maybe you'll be lucky too?

what I would honestly do in this case is spay the mother which will abort the kittens. Then deal with mom. Pregnancy and nursing is really hard on the females body and adding anemia and FIV which already weakens the immune system, I don't think I would want her going thruough it at all anymore. Plus if every one of those babies turns out FIV+, you are going to have a hell of a time trying to find homes for them. If the abortion is what is holding you back, think about the fact that you are in a shelter and you of all people know the overpopulation problem that is going on. The world doesn't need more kittens, especially FIV+ ones.

I found out over the weekend we had to make that very difficult decision to end her suffering. The vet felt she was so far gone that even a blood transfusion would not have saved her and that the best thing we could do for her was end her suffering. I posted a tribute to her (her name was Honey) in the corssing the bridge forum.