Feline Aids???

Hi Everyone
I have a question on Feline Aids. My mom has what I call her own little cat shelter and I try to help out as much as possible. She feeds the strays/ferals in her neighborhood and whenever possible we trap them and wisk them off to the vet for neuter/spay and shots and whatever else they need. We have a nice vet who fits us in his busy schedule and even gives us a little discount since we bring so much business. On Tuesday we finally got the "Daddy of all Toms" and took him to the vet for "the works". He was dianosed with Feline Aids. The vet said that he could live a normal happy life with this but that there is no vaccine. So we had him neutered and everything else but I am concerned for the other cats. I would like all the information on this that anyone has. The vet said that it is normally transmitted by cat bites and now that he is neutered he won't go looking for fights.Also while I'm here if anyone knows anything about FIP I would also be interested. Last year we took in an orphaned kitten and he was dianosed with this. The vet said we had to put him to sleep because there was no hope. We were so heart broken over this because he was just a baby.
Anyway any info would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Mandy

thanks for what you do on behalf of all those cats. Here is a pretty comprehensive website that might help you. Your vet is correct in the passing of the aids virus, it has to be transmitted by a bite that is deep enough to cause the victim to bleed. There is no known cure (yet) but many cats can live a lot longer than it was expected for them before. Good luck!Tallyville

Thanks Hissy I've done alot of internet reading on this and I think everything will work out ok. Currently we have Gustav(thats what we named him... Mom is from Sweden so we have many with Swedish names)resting comfortably after his surgery in a room by himself.He tested positive but is not showing symptoms so we will watch him and in the meantime he will be healthier and happier. One thing for sure we have definitely made a sizable dent in the new kitten population now that he is neutered which is great!Thanks for the link I now have that bookmarked for quick reference!

I have a 13 year old cat with fiv. He is living a full, happy life. Fortunately he is not a biter and the others have not been infected. We do not know how long he had it before he was diagnosed. I already had Leo and I have 2 others that were in immediate danger of dying, Pearl from abuse and Georgia from being thrown from a moving car. I could not allow that to happen, so I chose to bring them home. They are tested regularly and no one has been infected. Maybe I am just lucky in that respect.

and never do get sick, then there of course is the flip side of that where the cats not only carry the infection but get ill too. I had an old feral show up a few years ago, sickly looking guy, we called him Captain Midnight as he only showed up at midnight. When I finally got him trapped and took him in for a vet check, he was diagnosed with aids. He wasn't in the best of health and so we opted to put him down. Just an old Tom that had seen better days, but I remember coming home and scrubbing everything he had even touched out with bleach, just to be safe.

I had "Luck" for 12 years with aids and he never infected anyone else. Right now I have "Simon" for 3 years. I think as long as they are not biters and they are not going around grooming and licking other cats, aids can stay pretty much contained. Watch out for ear and mouth problems. You may find the cat with the aids need more frequent dentals or needs to be put on antibiotics from time to time to help with any mouth inflamation.

Good Luck

FIV. I'd not had any exeperience until I adopted my Ferdy. He was a stray until about a month ago, but we'd been feeding him for about a year on and off. When he first turned up (about 18 months ago) his fur was missing along one side of his body - looked like it had broken off close to the roots and just wouldn't grow.

He then disappeared for about 6 months - and I thought he'd died somewhere. But then he turned up all of a sudden.

He's always been very friendly, if a little timid. No aggression at all, even though he was an entire male. It was this lack of agression, and his ability to co-exist with my 2 persians during his odd visit inside our house that led to my husband suggesting we adopt him.

We nursed him though an appalling wound on the top of his head which nearly led to him losing an ear. Prior to fully adopting and neutering him we were advised by the vet to carry out a blood test. Eventually, after sending the blood for additional analysis to Scotland, it turned out that my little Ferdy was an FIV cat.

We made the decision to take him on. Now, 3 weeks after coming back from his op., he is back at the vet with urinary problems. Another £200.00 bill coming up.

But - I don't care how much it costs (what are credit cards for anyway). As long as I know he is having a decent quality of life and his infections are not causing him too much distress, I will continue to keep him safe. He does go outside now, but only for brief excursions. He's always back within 10 minutes.

My advice is:
as long as your FIV cat is not a threat to any existing cats
as long as the cat is OK in terms of health
as long as you feel you can afford any treatment that may be needed
as long as you're prepared to invest a little time in monitoring the cat for signs of sickness . . .

. . . everything will be worthwhile when your cat shows it's gratitude by lying on your chest whilst you're in bed, resting it's chin so it's looking you in the eye, and purrs for the very first time since you adopted it.

Good luck to all FIV cat owners - and remember these little furry chaps rely on us to make sure they are safe and loved.

Y

Yola, my hat is off to you for what you are doing for Ferdy. He sounds like he is much loved now.