Health concerns with large cat family?

[catsallaround]

33 cats/kittens at the moment. Get a good vet! Know how to keep cost down-flea meds to litter/food. Cheap litter goes to waste faster, get best food you can afford within reason. Know your cats weights/what spots and friends they have. Keep eye on little changes as could be sign a vet visits in order

 

[frankthetank]

Originally Posted by MaxMommy

LDG and Frank, I have been following your stories and am deeply touched by them! LDG my girl kitty I rescued last year first tested positive for fiv but at six months tested negative. I had never heard of fiv before and was shocked by all the misinformation even by vets there is out there. I was lucky that my vet has fiv+ and fiv- cats of his own, and was great about calming our fears. We had decided even before the negative test we were going to keep her no matter what the results! Your Charlie looks like such a sweet boy! I am hoping he tests negative, but if he doesn't he can live a long heathly life without risk to your other kitties! He is very lucky to have found you!

Frank, I look foward to all your updates on your blind little baby, it always puts a smile on my face! I especially love the pics of him! He looks just like the two kittens we are thinking of keeping. He is also lucky to have found you, but it sounds like he will pay you back with lots of love and joy!

We have lost two kitties this year....before we got our two youngest. So having enough money to pay vet bills if a cat gets sick or passes is definitely a concern...but these cats are basically our kids and we sure treat them as if they were! We have them close in age as well...we had the mama cat and 4 of her grown kitties. The mama cat passed, one of her younger kitties passed from kidney failure, so we have been doing early checkups on the rest just because it was odd to us to have two pass so close together. So it can get expensive but it is worth it.

And, we have been called crazy cat people so often. It makes me sad. We get so much joy from our cats, and people seem to think if you have 8 cats you are either crazy or your house is smelly/nasty...neither of which is true!!! I don't pay it any attention anymore. Our lives are enriched by our kitties, and we enrich their lives.
I mentioned space mainly due to our kitties who seem to need the extra space. We went from a small condo to a medium sized house and the difference in the kitties behavior is astounding. We have a couple content with lazy days and some that love to run through the rooms, so it really is just preferences I think.
Thank you for your words about Billy, our blind baby.

He is just a wonderful cat, and I was also worried about adding an 8th cat to our family but so far it is going so well. A couple of the older ones are still leery of him but it has definitely gone better than I thought. Good luck with your kitties!