Not sure what path to take ............

Hi..I am new to this group...I have a question and I am not sure what path to take...I have been taking care of a feral young adult

male cat ...I trapped him as he was begging to eat..every day just waiting and waiting for me to put out food.  He is in

my basement right now to keep him warm and comfortable through the winter...even though the winter has

been mild in the northeast this year but I didn't know it would be mild in November of last year.  I have been slowly getting

him to accept me and he sometimes will eat in front of me and I can now pet him under his chin ..but only when he is still in his "hole/den".  Before he was released in my basement, he was neutured and had a large open sore or cut on top of his head

which the vet stapled for him.  He also tested positive for feline aids.  My problem is that I do not know what to do at this point...keep

socializing him or release him since the weather is now getting nice.  My original plan before I found he had aids was to release

him but he is becoming domesticated...even though it is only with me.  Truthfully, I don't know if he will ever accept anyone

else but time will tell. I also have about 4-5 regular cats upstairs in my main house...so they do not mix.  I am afraid that

a fight will start and my cats will become infected with feline aids.  I have one male neutured cat that goes head to head

with the dog so I doubt if he will let a strange cat just intermingle.  Also I do not want the feral outside now that I know he

has feline aids as he is really so fearful and there are neighborhood cats that wander outside and I would not want a fight to

start and those cats get infected.  Also I don't think the feral is a good hunter...and it could be because of the aids - I don't know. 

He has no outward signs of the disease.  I recently gave him a feeder mouse (dead) to see if he would eat it and he wouldn't touch

it.  I've had experience with feral kittens and have been successful in socializing them and they became wonderful pets. I am not sure

what to do about Mr. HoBo.  Thanks. B

If you can proceed, so I think you should.

HOW you are doing it, you already know. You can also read treads here in our forum.  

They can live long good years with this.  So it is not necessarily a problem.  Some even manage to live together with other, not infected cats.   (there is also some chance the test wasnt correct  If the test says ok it is correct afaik, but if the test tells contagion it is not seldom false. But dont take risks!)

Best option would be of course, if he can be alone cat with somebody who accept a little shy cat. Perhaps a senior citizen.

If he warms up to you, he will surely with time warm up to his new owner.  Second time is always easier.

For strangers he will probably always be shy, but it doesnt matter much for the owner.

My oldest resident is such a shy cat, yet wonderful family cat - thus he is for me a good example for an adopted ex-ferale.  

Tx for helping this guy (and the ealier you fostered).

Welcome to the TCS site and our Forums!

Good luck!   *vibes*

THANK YOU for caring.

Given Mr. HoBo has FIV I would not release him; he could affect others through no fault of his own (that is, other cats attack him).

LDG is a real expert in this subject; search for her name, read some of her posts; she welcomes pm (private messaging).

Vibes/thought with you..

Aw, welcome to TCS! And what a sweetheart you are!

As to Mr. HoBo... he's happy down there, so there's certainly no reason to rush. I'm wondering how FIV literate your vet is? Did they call it Feline Aids? Did they recommend he be separated forever? If so... are there other vet options in your area? Because those are both signs that the vet knows very little about the disease. We work with three different vets at three different practices, and all of them (thankfully) are FIV literate.

The way to think about FIV is totally the difference between HIV and Aids in people. For kitties, being infected with the Feline Immunodeficiency Virus does NOT mean that they have AIDS. It can LEAD to AIDS. But it is such a slow-acting virus, that in many cats, they die of something else before they even get to the AIDS stage. And in people, someone with HIV (or AIDS, for that matter), can't infect anyone else unless they have sex or share a needle. But a non-HIV infected person can certainly share an apartment with an HIV-infected person. They can share water glasses, eat food off the same plate, etc. etc. etc., with no threat of infection to the non-HIV person.

In cats, as you seem to be aware, the main modes of transmission are sex and a deep tissue bite wound. For sterilized animals, that leaves only a deep tissue bite wound as the concern.

When we rescued Chumley, we were in a real quandry. We live in an RV. At the time, we had 7 cats, one of whom (at the time) was immuno-compromised. We now have a cancer survivor. But we have no way to separate someone here. So we rented Chumley his own trailer. He needed to be socialized AND introduced to our crew over here. After a couple of months, he was still scared, but knew we meant food and care and play (he loved interactive wand toys once he got over being terrified of them LOL). During that time, we started scent swapping. We brought one of the blankets he'd been sleeping on over here, and took a slept-on blanket from here over there. When we brought his blanket over here, we took it around and let everyone sniff it. Let's see... what else did we do. We brushed everyone, and then took that brush over to brush Chum. (It took a little while to brush him on the cheeks, but he came to love that. He likes it better than hands. :nod: ). We bought a new brush for Chum, and brushed him with it, then brought that brush over for everyone to smell.

We also rubbed Chum's cheeks a lot with a wash cloth, and put it under our cats' food dish. And we rubbed our kitties all over with a wash cloth, and put it under Chumley's food dish.

We scooped out Chumley's pee, and rather than throwing it away, we put it in one of the litter boxes over here. We got them used to smelling his pee (and poop - sorry, but...) in their litter boxes.

When they seemed "immune" to his scent, we began bringing him over here in a crate. We were NOT looking to introduce them. His first time here, most of them were asleep somewhere. We let him out... in the living room I think. He checked out the cat tree. I think one or two cats came out. I don't remember what we did - maybe give them treats. But we kept it to about five minutes, and then took him back home. The idea was to let him get used to it VERY little by little over here - and for them to get used to his scent being around their stuff. We brought him over every day (would be the equivalent of you taking him upstairs every day), each time for a little longer. I think it was about a month, and he just never went "home." (Back to "his" trailer).

Now - we could at least pick up Chumley and put him in the crate, and he did NOT freak out being in the crate. So... you either need to be able to pick up Mr. HoBo, or he needs to consider a crate as a safe space.

If you want to read about our journey with Chumley, it's documented here: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/217397/help-charlie-is-fiv (He used to be Charlie, and we renamed him Chumley).

Personally, I wouldn't take a cat as being aggressive to a dog as a given that he'd attack another cat... especially if you take it slow, and get everyone desensitized to each other's smells first.

BTW, here is the best website there is on FIV: http://www.fivtherapy.com

Of course, having him live in your basement long term is an option! :heart3: Vibes for you and your boy!

And please, feel free to ask questions!

WELCOME!!!!!!!!!!!! So glad you found us and thank you for taking Mr. Hobo :rub: Bless you for caring. Laurie has such great advice and knowledge in FIV+ kitties. And as she says, the only way to transfer the disease is though a deep bite wound. It is a tough call about whether to release him OR keep him in your basement until you can socialize him further and possibly find a loving home - someone who will understand about FIV kitties :cross: It is possible and there are such people out there that have FIV kitties living with other non-FIV cat's, very peacefully with no troubles at all!!!! Who knows.... he might be just fine where he is for now - with you and in your care. Maybe in time - your other cat's will accept him. You say you have a dog aggressive neutered male cat?? That doesn't really mean that he will go after this kitty. Sometimes, they surprise us that way. They could become fast friends and your male cat might have a soft spot for a frightened, submissive feral cat. :cross:

First, find out if he tested positive for Feline Leukemia or FIV. . .I have found that some vets will call FeLV "feline AIDS", too :/. Management for FeLV is different. Second, have him tested again. Sometimes you get a false positive. If he tests negative this time, no worries!

Since he isn't very good at being feral :lol3:, I'd recommend keeping him inside if at all possible. I have several indoor ferals. If that won't work, maybe an outdoor enclosure?

I know a girl who has ten cats with two of them FIV positive. She's had the FIV cat for 5-6 years now and the other 8 are still negative. The risk of FIV spreading among fixed cats is very slim. It can theoretically spread through fighting but there are a lot of things that have to be "right" for that to happen. If I were you I would introduce him to your other cats slowly and always supervise them together in the beginning. To be on the safe side you can separate Hobo when you're not home. With a proper introduction the risk of a fight severe enough for blood to be mixed with blood is very small. I know you're afraid that your other cats won't accept a new cat but I think you'd be surprised.

There is a lot of unnecessary hysteria surrounding FIV. It really isn't very contagious at all. Vets have a tendency to overstate the danger of some things and I believe that has to do with the fact that a lot of pet owners are fairly ignorant about pet care so rather than educating them, which may not be practical or possible, vets put a bit of fear into people instead to make sure they don't do anything foolish. One good example, I think, is the warning vets give to never, ever put dog flea products on a cat because it can have devastating consequences. It's true that some dog flea products are extremely dangerous to cats but it's also true that some dog products contain the exact same thing as the cat products, just in larger quantities or higher concentration. It's perfectly safe to use dog Frontline and dog Revolution on cats as long as you use the right dose. But vets aren't going to tell you that. The risk is too big that pet owners won't give the right dose or just assume that because Frontline is safe other topical flea meds are too. So to stay on the safe side vets just tell you that you should never use dog products on cats and keep it simple.

I think vets have a similar motivation when they tell you never to mix FIV positive cats with negative cats. The risk is too big that owners won't do it right if the vet lets them know that it is possible and safe under the right circumstances. But if you do learn the right way to do it Hobo and your other cats can live together just fine.

Everyone, thanks so much for your responses...Also your files are awesome...I have been reading all the material.  Mr. HoBo is doing fine.  He is

still in my basement and now follows me all around the basement when I go down.  He rubs up against my legs and is starting to let me pet him. 

He has a small startle when I actually touch him to pet his back but he is improving.  I am working with him.  He still likes to "hide" under something..

whatever he has determined is his "den".  There are no outward signs of his FIV and probably at some point down the road, I will take him back to the

vet and have him tested again to make sure.  I gave him a raw thawed out chick to see if he would be interested...I tried a mouse but he wasn't

interested and he is not interested in the chick either.  He definitely loves canned cat food..any flavor.  

Obviously, the choice to has been made...he is being socialized and domesticated and I will have a buddy for life.  I am not sure where this will lead

us...there are a couple of choices...find him a great home (which will be extremely difficult), keep him the basement but I do feel he is kind of like

a prisoner in my basement, ...he is not trying to get out but he follows me to the stairs and I can tell he doesn't want me to leave the basement...

I think he likes the company..or maybe integrate into my family of cats and one dog.    Thanks. Bridget