Management for 12 y/o FIV+ cat

[rlmills]

A few days ago, I found out that my 12 year old cat is FIV+. He has been every healthy his whole life, until recently. He was sick with a URI last August, that improved with an antibiotic injection. In January he was at the vet again twice. This month I had to bring him back with another fever, and that’s when he tested positive.
His vet said the virus is in an advanced stage, and there isn’t anything we can do. She did give him another antibiotic injection, along with a steroid injection. She said it may help him live a couple more months if we’re lucky.
Is there anything more I can do to help him? Is there any supplements I could try? I have heard some talk about RetroMAD1, does anyone have experience with that? Is it costly?

 

[gilmargl]

So sorry to hear about your 12 year old cat. You can only try to make the next few months as painfree and pleasant for him as possible.

I have only had experience with one FIV+ foster cat, a stray, who I looked after from February till the following June, when he was euthanized. Benny had many health issues in these 4 months which meant many trips to the vet and changes to his medication. Most of the time we were treating the symptoms: problems with his ears, skin sores, and pain. The only medication offered for FIV at the time were Interferon injections. I believe these cost about €100. He had these once a month though one vet told me they need to be given more often, if they are to have any real effect. In the early days, an injection would bring some improvement but by May it was clear that there was no hope of his condition improving. I have only read about RetroMAD1 for FeLV, but never used it.

If you need to hear about the last 4 months of Benny's life, I will willingly share his sad story. Good luck.

 

[FeebysOwner]

Hi. Here are some previous threads (see links below) that discuss supplements for FIV+ cats, just so you can read through them while you wait for some more responses. There are some members in these threads that are still active on this site, hopefully, they will see your post and offer some first hand tips/advice.
Which Anti-inflammatory Supplements Have Worked Best For Your Cats? | TheCatSite
FIV investigation | TheCatSite
FiV support meds/supplements? | TheCatSite
There are additional links inside these links as well, so maybe more information in them too!