Discovered my adopted cat is FIV+ with my other FIV- cats

5 months ago I went to the Humane Society in search of a companion for my one cat, Pusscakes. Found a shy, finicky buff tabby who had been at the shelter too long and needed a home with a playmate. I named him Esteban and the two have bonded better than I could ever have hoped. Within the last 2 weeks I have adopted a third, Scatman Crothers, ( occupational hazard of a shelter volunteer ) who I am still working on slowly integrating with the other two. Due to Pusscakes recently sustaining an injury to his back, I have been researching pet insurance. As I was looking more closely at Esteban's medical records (the adopted cat I have had for 5 months now) I saw he tested positive for FIV when he first was brought in as a kitten, and again tested positive when he was about 4-5 months old. I blame myself for not thoroughly going over his records other than when he was due for vaccines, but the shelter never disclosed he was FIV+. I told them I was there specifically to find a companion for my other cat, and what is worse is he was not in a kennel/condo by himself, when I adopted him he was in a cattery room with at least 15 other cats running around.

My cats do play rough sometimes, but I've never observed them aggresively fight or out for blood. I don't think I have the heart to give Esteban up. Am I being an irresponsible pet owner to my other two cats?  I guess I'm looking for some advice and guidance, maybe a little support too. I would like my FIV+ cat to remain with our little cat family.

It's very odd that shelter did not emphasis his FIV status. That's normally very carefully monitored, and most shelters don't encourage FIV + and - cats living together, officially. But the good news is that the fear that fixed, indoor FIV + cats pose a threat to their FIV - housemates is outdated, from back when less was known about how FIV was spread. It takes a very intense fight or mating to cause wounds deep enough for the saliva to be transferred to the bloodstream and infect a cat, and it's practically unheard of for fixed house cats living together to infect each other. Those kind of fights happen with hormonal males fighting over territory, which is something neutered cats just don't do. (Kittens can also get it from their FIV + mother, which seems like what happened to Esteban.) It sounds like your cats are all doing well together, and keeping Esteban is definitely not irresponsible--quite the opposite.

It ended up being a very good thing that you and the shelter didn't know about this until now, otherwise you probably would have been dissuaded from adopting him. But you did and Esteban now has a wonderful home! FIV kitties usually have much lower adoption rates because of stigma, fear, and a lot of misinformation. They can live practically normal cat lives. Symptoms will not show up until towards the end of their life, and you can help keep the symptomatic phase at bay by keeping the cat on a healthy diet. I make sure I get my FIV + cat's bloodwork done when she goes to the vet just to make sure everything's okay, and to have a baseline comparison for the future.

I don't currently have any other cats, but there are many users on this site who have taken FIV positive cats into their multicat homes and are very glad they did. I'm sure some of them will have some words of support for you as well.

I hope Pusscakes feels better soon. Thank you for providing such a loving home for these cats!

Thank you for your response, it was very reassuring. Already having the stress of one cat who is injured and not eating regularly, then to discover this today was very overwhelming. But the more I am reading on FIV households the more I am starting to feel like this can be manageable.

I just did research on adopting an FIV+ cat for my 9 yo FIV- cat.

I was going to adopt this cat from a rescue in Austin, TX.  The woman who runs the rescue has been a vet tech for 17 years and taught me there were no issues having an FIV+ cat unless the FIV+ cat was aggressive and prone to biting.  That its okay for them to eat, drink from the same bowls and use the same litter box. Pretty much a non-issue with fixed, non-aggressive cats.

When I visited Best Friends Animal Sanctuary last month I toured several of their cat houses looking for a second cat.  BFAS has 500 cats and 11 buildings and some of the best vets around.  After learning about the FeLV positive cat house, I asked where they kept the FIV+ cats and was shocked that they were in the general population and I've visited with them already !   Seems like Austin, TX and BFAS are much more progressive on FIV+ cats.  My vet thought I was crazy to consider adopting one, so folks in this area are not up to date yet.  Also the rescue I foster for would not let me foster anymore if I in fact adopted an FIV+ cat.  Its a shame.  We're kinda back in the Magic Johnson days where most are scared of the FIV+ virus.

Even though I didn't adopt the FIV+ cat from Austin (yet) I believe from my research its aokay.  If/when I would adopt an FIV+ cat I would commit to building his/her immune system with food and supplements.  I even read a story where a persons FIV+ cat was the only one who didn't get sick in a multi-cat household!