Hello all,
Two days ago my family adopted a lovable little boy from a foster that was less than clean to say the least. The woman "in charge" handed us our brand new kitty, two packages of eye drops, and some Lysine (which until two days ago I knew nothing about). She didn't mention what it was for. She just said it would help him transition and "reduce shedding". She failed to mention that she meant VIRAL shedding. We should have asked more questions, but until now we have never been exposed to FHV (we had two healthy cats for 14 years who just both passed away of different cancers in 2014).
This would not be a problem for us if he was the only kitty in our home, but unfortunately we have two beautiful girls (who we got from the same litter at the same time) who have never even shown signs of this illness (we've had them since they were 5/6 weeks old).
Anyway, we took the new boy to the vet today to make absolutely sure that's what he had and to see what this meant for the girls. The vet basically said that since the girls had an outside cat for a mother, that it was very likely they had already come in contact with the virus and are probably already carriers.
"Probably" and "likely" just don't cut it for me.
I'm already falling for our new boy, but I just can't shake the what ifs. What if the girls don't have it and I'm willingly infecting them and affecting their quality of life, but also, what if I take the new kitty back to that filthy shelter and he is worse for the wear?
Needless to say, I would do anything in my power to keep my cats healthy but I just can't shake the feeling that I'm going to be hurting my girls by adding him to the mix.
I guess my main question is: Is adding an FHV kitty to the home of (to my knowledge) healthy kitties a bad idea? Would I be negatively impacting their lives? Any and all advice would be so, so appreciated.
I'm well aware that FHV is highly contagious but also extremely common and that most cats come into contact with it at some point and I also know that it isn't a death sentence. It just feels pretty bad to infect potentially heathy cats, and it also feels bad to take a kitty who deserves all the love in the world back to a less than healthy environment.
Two days ago my family adopted a lovable little boy from a foster that was less than clean to say the least. The woman "in charge" handed us our brand new kitty, two packages of eye drops, and some Lysine (which until two days ago I knew nothing about). She didn't mention what it was for. She just said it would help him transition and "reduce shedding". She failed to mention that she meant VIRAL shedding. We should have asked more questions, but until now we have never been exposed to FHV (we had two healthy cats for 14 years who just both passed away of different cancers in 2014).
This would not be a problem for us if he was the only kitty in our home, but unfortunately we have two beautiful girls (who we got from the same litter at the same time) who have never even shown signs of this illness (we've had them since they were 5/6 weeks old).
Anyway, we took the new boy to the vet today to make absolutely sure that's what he had and to see what this meant for the girls. The vet basically said that since the girls had an outside cat for a mother, that it was very likely they had already come in contact with the virus and are probably already carriers.
"Probably" and "likely" just don't cut it for me.
I'm already falling for our new boy, but I just can't shake the what ifs. What if the girls don't have it and I'm willingly infecting them and affecting their quality of life, but also, what if I take the new kitty back to that filthy shelter and he is worse for the wear?
Needless to say, I would do anything in my power to keep my cats healthy but I just can't shake the feeling that I'm going to be hurting my girls by adding him to the mix.
I guess my main question is: Is adding an FHV kitty to the home of (to my knowledge) healthy kitties a bad idea? Would I be negatively impacting their lives? Any and all advice would be so, so appreciated.
I'm well aware that FHV is highly contagious but also extremely common and that most cats come into contact with it at some point and I also know that it isn't a death sentence. It just feels pretty bad to infect potentially heathy cats, and it also feels bad to take a kitty who deserves all the love in the world back to a less than healthy environment.