FIV+ Feral

Well,



This guy was showing signs of lethargy and an eye infection in the week after he was neutered. The rescue contact that houses him has said he "hasn't looked well"...so we had him tested today and he came back positive for FIV.

I realize there are occasional false positives, but we're going to have to make a decision.

Unfortunately, he lives outside of our colony, so we aren't going to have a way to really take care of him or even monitor his health going forward.

We're going to try to hold on to him a little while, but it's not looking good.

Oh No.I am so sorry to hear this.I remember you posting about this guy when you first caught him.
Just know that whatever you decision you make about this guy,that you at least tried.A lot more than anyone else had done for him.

Oh Scott, what a bummer. He's such a handsome cat too.

oh Scott, so sorry to read this - he looks like such a gorgeous boy. What a hard decision to go through

Is there any possibility that he was previously vacc'd?

An FIV vacc'd cat can give false positives for FIV.

Spotz

Scott...how horrible....he's such a gorgeous boy too. You know what I would do if it was me...I'd contact Tompkins SPCA and see what they suggest.

Katie

I doubt he's vaccinated - he wasn't neutered, and he's quite wild/feral.

Katie, I read through Nathan Winogrand's piece at Alley Cat Allies:

http://www.alleycat.org/pdf/shouldwerelease.pdf

The basic stance seems to be that you may be able to release asymptomatic cats due to false positives and the low incidence of disease.

Some cats might fight the infection...

But for sick cats that can't be actively monitored...that seems to be the worst scenario. Hopefully we can do the "wait and see" approach, but I'm going to have to put this on the woman that's housing him at the moment...since I'd be making the decision on what she can handle and can't handle.

I know she has a steady stream of rescue animals already.

Understood Scott....it is probably best to leave the decision to her then.

Katie

This is so sad He is so handsome.