My cat has FIV (Kitty AIDS!)

In My Humble Opinion
1

So, my gigantic kitty has an icky eye. We took him to the vet and he gave him some drops for pink eye. He also noticed that there has been a steady decline in his weight (24 lbs to 18 lbs in 3.5 years). He wanted to run a battery of tests to see if he could figure out what was going on.

Hence, the Kitty AIDS diagnosis. It’s not as bad as, say, Kitty Leukemia, but he has the virus.

  1. Mr. K doesn’t believe the diagnosis. The vet told us to re-test in about 3 months, which we will do with our other vet.

  2. My girlfriend doesn’t believe FIV exists. :rolleyes:

  3. I googled around and found that many cats can live a long, symptom-free (or nearly symptom-free) life. I guess it frequently hits hard when a cat gets older. One google site said that her cat was diagnosed at 5 years and lived to be over 14 years old.

It’s transmitted almost entirely by bites. Not sexually, not in the litter box. The majority of cases are male, un-neutered cats roaming the 'hood looking for fights (this was our kitty until we captured him and had him neutered, at which time he turned into a 24 lb marshmallow). He’s so docile that we are not concerned for the other cats (should we be??).

Do any of you have experience with this disease? How did it turn out? I assume it’s a real thing, due to all the information I found when I googled it. My vet did not offer a vaccine for the other cats, though one site said that they have developed an inexpensive one. I really don’t see a threat of a fight. I know it could happen, but the odds are extremely low. However, my SIL said that maybe his personality will change as the disease progresses. Have any of you noticed anything like that with your infected kitty?

So…we’re over the initial shock and I think the odds are we can still enjoy lots of time with him. I’m just curious about anyone else’s experience. Please share. Thanks!

2

One of Squiggy’s litter-mates was FIV+. They vet said she should have died in the first couple of months she was alive. But other than being perpetually stuff up (and really clumsy) there were no signs of illness.

The vet put her on some kind of steroid plan and as far as I know she has continued to thrive and act like a normal healthy kitty. She lives wiht another of their littermates who was negative, but that may have changed since as kittens the two of them regularly beat the crap out of each other.

I’ve had Squiggy tested a few times to be sure he was okay, and so far everything looks good and he’s been virus-free all these years.

3

My cat Harley is FIV+ and has been since we’ve rescued him from a life of crime on the streets. He’s been with me for 10 years, which is a decent amount of time, but he hasn’t been healthy the whole time: he’s had silt in the bladder, he’s had megacolon, both of which required lengthy hospitalizations, teeth and gum problems, and food allergies. He’s on a special diet which has brought most of his symptoms under control, but will always sorta look like a greasy old man.

I had another FIV+ cat who died about 5 years ago. He was fine for most of the time I had him, but then went into sudden decline. His weight went from 28 lbs. to 12 before he died, and he went blind. It sucked, but at least I had him for 7 years. He was the best cat ever.

I would NOT let your FIV+ cat outside anymore. He is immune compromised and could transmit it to other cats if he gets into a fight.

4

Thanks for your responses. All the Kids are full time indoor cats. He has been 100% in for nearly 3 of his nearly 4 years with us (though it was traffic, not disease that made us decide to close the door permanently).

It seems this disease presents itself in the eye frequently. I’m sorry to hear about the blind kitty. How did the cat get along being blind? And the wasting thing…that was mentioned too. I think if I notice a fast drop in his weight, we might have to take him in for the Long Nap. :frowning:

The vet didn’t mention anything about steroids. Maybe that would come after a persistent illness. I’m glad to hear there are some things they can do to make their lives better.

5

We lost our most favorite cat, Rocky, the Best Cat In The World, to FIV. It was heartbreaking, and I feel for you.

We nursed him along for several years, most of which he was fine. Periodic episodes of illnesses required many trips to the vet for antibiotics and other stuff. At the end nothing helped, and he started having seizures. Probably a brain tumor, the vet said. In any case, we had to finally bid him goodbye, which makes me teary even now. FWIW, he had no eye problems.

We adopted a kitten from a rescue agency a few years ago, and she initially tested positive for FIV, but after 3 months tested negative. Vet said this sometimes happens, that they initially have antibodies or whatever from their mother but never really get the disease.

Why is it that Best Cats get this heartbreaking disease?

Amusing thing was when he was first diagnosed, I came home and told the children that Rocky had a blood disease that made him get sick easily. After a while, they came to me and said, um, er, are you telling us Rocky has AIDS? Well, a cat version, I told them. Hmmm. Well, um, uh, don’t want to be gross or anything, but HOW did Rocky get AIDS? I told them he definitely had not been shooting up with dirty needles in the driveway, and that as a neutered cat he had not been having sex of any kind. He really got it from being bitten by one of the feral cats on the corner, which is why no cat from this house will go outside to roam again, ever.

6

I dated a guy whose cat had FIV. He (the cat) lived to a normal cat age (well into his teens), but complications from FIV were what got him in the end. He had to live indoors so as not to infect other cats, and the family was advised not to get any new cats while they had him. I’m not sure if the vaccine was available at the time.

7

Your research seems to have covered a lot. He could live a long time with the FIV virus. I don’t have much experience with the vaccine since I work in emergency and haven’t read up on it. As your research has shown it isn’t that easily spread so unless your cats are fighting and breaking the skin when they bite it’s not likely that the other cats would be infected. Not likely, but still possible so keep that in mind. Also, as posted above do not get any other cats while you have an FIV positive cat in the household. Even though it’s not easily spread it really isn’t fair to potentially expose new cats to the disease.

8

[QUOTE=MLS]
We lost our most favorite cat, Rocky, the Best Cat In The World, to FIV. It was heartbreaking, and I feel for you.

We nursed him along for several years, most of which he was fine. Periodic episodes of illnesses required many trips to the vet for antibiotics and other stuff. At the end nothing helped, and he started having seizures. Probably a brain tumor, the vet said. In any case, we had to finally bid him goodbye, which makes me teary even now. FWIW, he had no eye problems.

We adopted a kitten from a rescue agency a few years ago, and she initially tested positive for FIV, but after 3 months tested negative. Vet said this sometimes happens, that they initially have antibodies or whatever from their mother but never really get the disease.

Why is it that Best Cats get this heartbreaking disease?

Amusing thing was when he was first diagnosed, I came home and told the children that Rocky had a blood disease that made him get sick easily. After a while, they came to me and said, um, er, are you telling us Rocky has AIDS? Well, a cat version, I told them. Hmmm. Well, um, uh, don’t want to be gross or anything, but HOW did Rocky get AIDS? I told them he definitely had not been shooting up with dirty needles in the driveway, and that as a neutered cat he had not been having sex of any kind. He really got it from being bitten by one of the feral cats on the corner, which is why no cat from this house will go outside to roam again, ever.
[/QUOTE]

The false positive story gives me a little hope, even though he’s not a kitten. Man, I’m sorry for you guys. The whole thing sucks. This cat is just so damn lovable; not a bad bone in his body. It will kill us to lose him. :frowning: His nickname is The Good Boy with the Nice Face.

9

My last kitty had FIV. It never really caused much of a problem. He also had the thing where the spayed cats urethra blocks up if he eats foods with too much ash. It blocked up several different times (all requiring expensive vet treatments) and eventually led to kidney failure but I’m not sure if that was related to the FIV or not.