FIV positive :( - Page 2

Just wanted to add my support and reassurance. I've fostered four FIV+ cats, all adult males, including two in the past year, who have had contact with my own four kitties (who are neg). My vet, along with the rescue's vet, both very knowledgable and up to date on their research, assured me the risk to my own cats was virtually non-existent. They wouldn't have had contact with mine otherwise. The FIV+ boys I've fostered have been total lovers, not fighters, among the sweetest and most gentle cats I've encountered and have gotten along famously with mine. One of them, Danny Boy, was adopted by a young woman who later added two neg. cats to the family, again with the ok from her vet. Many folks I know have positive and neg. cats living together without issue and I wouldn't hesitate to adopt an FIV+ cat in the future.

Good luck to you and your kitties!

Glad things are working out for your guys! I suggest getting your FIV+ cat retested down the road using the Western Blot test. It's entirely possible it was a false positive the first time around. And again, FIV is ultimately not the boogeyman it's often made out to be. Raised well, they can live as long as regular cats. Good luck!

Many years ago (I won't age myself lol) I had an FIV+ cat - and 2 other kitties.... who never ever got it

I had first a female cat with a heart murmur - no other health issues.
I added an adult male cat - was feral and I tamed him - no health issues.
THEN I added my FIV+ kitty - all lived together just fine, with wrestling and playing and sharing dishes.

If they are already buddies I would say leave them to enjoy their life together - my vote is up there with "hard" for them to share it. I am not a vet but as I said I had experience with the situation first hand.

I do agree also that not all vets have all the information about everything and some even have somewhat ulterior motives (think about the unhealthy food they often push because they make deals with companies to do so, etc).

Good luck which ever path you choose though

Years ago, we rescued a stray who turned out to be FIV+. Luckily, our vet was up to speed on FIV transmission and told us there was no need to euthanize or separate from our other 3 cats as long as there was no vicious biting between him and our other 3 cats. He lived with us for 5 years before he passed away. He never infected our other 3, who all lived to 16 and 17, respectively. So as long as there are no vicious fights involving exchange of blood, I would not hesitate to keep an FIV+ kitty with FIV-.

From what I've seen at the clinic I've worked at, is that FIV is much harder to pass than FELV. Alot of people get the two diseases confused. In fact, many clients think that if their cat is tested positive that it means that the cat automatically needs to be put down. Not so, and my vet that I work for won't do it.
We have gotten false positives on the Elisa tests and if we do get a positive on an other wise healthy cat, we send it out to the lab for verification. If we get a positive at the lab, we tell the owner that there is a chance that the cat will fight it off on it's own and we retest in 30-60 days. We had to do this with a hospital cat that we had. She was kenneled for the duration, but came back with a clean bill of health on the second test. We have seen quite a few kittens come in that test positive as well. Young ones that are coming in for their first visit. If we get a positive we won't give vaccines and wait to retest. We have found that about 60% come back negative. Lately I haven't had much faith in the Elisa test, and hope that owners don't make rash decisions based on it.
FELV is the worst one as it is much more easily transmitted. Even then it isn't a death sentence as it can be managed. I wouldn't recommend having an FELV positive cat with a FELV negative one, but we have had owners that decide to pursue the disease and the cats live a decent relatively normal life. One owner even adopted another FELV kitty from an adoption agency, which I thought was cool, as that cat most likely wouldn't have gotten a home.

Cheer up, having FIV is not the end of the world for your kitty. FIV cats can live many years, and if they are lucky, they won't even go into the active stage of the virus for quite some time after contracting it.

My FIV+ kitty is as happy as can be, lazing around all day, being a pest at night and winning my heart over with his cute eyes and lovable purs. He currently is on no medications, doesn't need any special food and has the shiniest coat around.

Your cats also don't need to be separated as FIV is only contracted through deep bite wounds or mating. So they can continue to leave together in peace.

I'd take him in and have him checked for a UTI. Peeing outside the box is usually a pretty good sign that he has one. Won't hurt to have it checked.

2nd this. Peeing outside the box is usually a medical problem. It's one of the few ways they have to tell you there's a problem.