Feline AIDS :(

[LuckyNumber7]

I just took my older kitten, Maximus, to the vet and they did a blood test, and told me that he has Feline AIDS.

Our vet told me that he cannot pass it to our younger kitten from sharing a bowl or grooming each other, only through deep bites, but there seems to be conflicting info on that on the web.

Maximus is 4 months old, and from what I'm reading, kittens can show false positives until they are 6 months old, from antibodies in the mother's milk. Hopefully this is a false positive. We're having him retested in a couple of months to make sure.

Anyone have any info or tips about FIV?? I don't want my baby to get sick. We keep him indoors, and we're going to make sure that the cats don't play too rough together.

Right now he's perfectly healthy, which is good. If anyone has any advice on how I can help him stay that way, please let me know.

[Pawla]

No advice. I'm just so sorry. ((HUGS)) I sure hope he's a false positive.

[kittycats_delight]

We are all hoping and praying Maximus tests negative at his retest. My Vixen is FeLv+ and I know the devastion you feel. She is now 3 and still very healthy and happy. She contracted it through her mother and then passed it to our other cat who passed on from complication from the disease at 18 months old.

Here is a link about FIV - Feline AIDS I like this site I linked for you as it seems very complete and correct. When you retest Maximus be sure to test for FeLv too. FeLv can be passed on through inter-grooming and sharing food and water dishes.

I hope all turns out well and he is a false positive. But remember even if he isn't he can still live and happy, healthy and normal life.

(((HUGS)))
Michelle

[LuckyNumber7]

Did your cat give it to your other cat through a bite wound, or from routine contact? I'm so sorry that happened

Thank you for the link - I feel like I'm reading every link on the internet about it right now!

He was tested for FeLv too, and it was negative, thankfully.

[kittycats_delight]

I don't know if you would call it routine contact. They were very close. When Vixen (feLv+) was little (5 -8 weeks) she was just learning the litter box and never covered her things or cleaned back there so Lilith (RIP) would do that. She took on the role of mother even though she was just 8 weeks older. Lilith was always grooming Vixen. They would eat together and drink together. I had even seen Vixen pick up pieces of food from the dish and bring to Lilith and vice versa. The contact was rather intimate more like a mother and baby cat. It was from this contact the virus spread. This can happen with FeLv but I have not heard the same for FIV.

Even though this happened with Lilith at such a young age I would not trade it away. She was the most incredible girl. She turned my husband who was a dog person into a true blue cat lover. She was very unique. So gentle and loving even as a baby. I also would not give up having got Vixen. She was a terror as a kitten but the relationship between her a Lilith was astounding. And she has turned into the most loving baby you could ask for. She still has her 'ways' about her but since Lilith's passing she has taken on so many of Lilith's behaviors. It is like I have both my girls in one special kitty.

Maximus chose you because he knew you were the one to give him every good chance in life. FIV+ or FIV- you are the one for him...for life. I know he will bring more to your life than you can even imagine. The *special* ones can change your life.

((((HUGS)))) to you and rubs & kisses for Maximus.

Michelle

[LuckyNumber7]

((HUGS)) Thank you Michelle. We're going to do everything we can to keep our baby boy healthy and happy for as long as possible, that's for sure. I'm praying that it's just a false positive, but the vet really stressed that that was unlikely - so we'll see. I made an appointment to have him neutered on 7/11, so we're going to have him retested then. I'll definitely keep everyone posted.

Your cat Lilith sounds like she was such a sweetie. She was lucky to have you, and vise versa.

[Lizzie]

I have 5 FIV+ cats and they are extremely healthy and active, and they live alongside both very young and very old non-FIV cats. You would only have to worry if your cat was extremely aggresive, which I very much doubt. Calling FIV "Feline AIDS" really puts the wind up people unnecessarily. Cats with FIV do not get cancer any more easily than any other cat, nor do they get other disorders such as renal failure any more easily. They need to go to the vet for quick treatment if they come down with any kind of infection or get a wound so they can be started on antibiotics right away, and the course of treatment is usually longer. They can get sore gums and fragile teeth more easily. That's it.

Here's a very useful website:

http://www.bestfriends.org/theanimal...e/cats_fiv.cfm

Maximus is very beautiful and looks a lot like my Cattulus - hmm! two tabbies with Latin names.

[LuckyNumber7]

Thank you for your post Lizzie, it made me feel so much better.

I keep reading that it is very rare for a mother cat to infect her babies - I can't think of any other way Maximus could have contracted it. He was never in a fight, and we got him as a 10 week old kitten, and he's been kept 100% indoors. Maybe it's a false positive, I'm hoping it is.

That's awesome to hear about your cats there - it helps a lot to know that this isn't come kind of immediate death sentence for him, and I don't need to separate my other kitten from him. They do sometimes wrestle, but never THAT rough, and they definitely don't bite each other hard enough to puncture skin.

We adopted Maximus from a woman whose cat had gotten pregnant, and had an unwanted litter. I don't know if the mother was FeLv negative or positive, I should have asked. I don't know if she would have known - but I still should have asked.

I'm going to wait until he's after 6 months old and retest him, to be sure. If he is positive for it, whatever - we'll love him just as much as we have all along, and care for him well, to give him the best chance at a long, normal life - just like the rest of our animals.

Do you have any tips for a high quality cat food that we could feed him? A lot of these sites encourage feeding a very high quality food to help them stay healthy.

Right now we feed them science diet dry kitten food, mixed in with some wet Wellness food.

PS - Our other cat is Commodus, my 2 latin boys \

- Liz

[Freedom]

Liz, I know exactly how you are feeling!

Bobby went in for his blood test this afternoon. The good news: he does NOT have feline leukemia. The bad news: he MAY have feline aids. Bobby is the 8 month old with the tilted head that I kept from the TNR project.

For a postive on the test, there should be a bright spot. His test has a faint spot. So he has to go back in one month for a recheck. A negative would be no spot at all on the test strip. Sigh.

Sometimes kittens will test positive if the mom has aids; but as they grow, they fight it off and test negative. But he is 8 months old, and that usually clears up by 6 months old. I asked the vet the chances that he will test negative in a month. She replied, "it does happen sometimes." That doesn't sound good to me.

My vet said that if he does have aids, that would explain his head tilt, as kittens with the disease often have neurological damage.

The vet wanted me to keep him segregated from the rest of the cats for the month. Not sure if I will do that or not. The only way it can be spread is fighting - a bite, with salive to blood contact. So far, none of the other cats has any interest in bothering with him.

I'm going to post the info I received from our sponsor at PawsWatch in a moment.

[LuckyNumber7]

Ratchet, that is very encouraging, thank you so much for the info. I'm trying not to get my hopes up TOO much that it's a false positive, but it sound slike it really might be. He's only 4 months old, and from what I've read, and from what Freedom said, after 6 months is supposed to be fairly accurate, so we'll retest then and hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.

We just went and got some Wellness cat food at the store that had immune system building ingredients, and also got some Wellness "Welltabs" that have all kinds of great vitamins and acids in them. Hopefully they will help!

Freedom, how awful that you're going through the same thing too. I don't see the point in segregating my 2 cats from each other - they do wrestle, but they are not vicious and do not bite each other, so I don't see the issue. I so hope that your test in a month comes back negative as well

It was REALLY expensive to have the test done at my vet as well - $60 I think. Crazy! Maybe I can find a place to have him tested that I don't have to pay an arm and a leg for!

It seems there is a lot of misinformation out there about FIV, how it is spread, and what to do if you find out your cat is FIV positive. It's crazy how many places will just put a cat down, or advise that you do so if the diagnosis is made. I would never do that. If he has it, he has it, and we'll deal with it the best that we can, and hope that he lives a long, happy life with us.

Freedom ((HUGS)) - I'm so sorry you're dealing with this as well. Please keep us posted as to Bobby's next test.

[cassiesmom]

MORE prayers that little Max will be negative at the time of his retest! Do FIV tests use a Western blot to verify a positive ELISA, like human immunodeficiency virus tests do?

[LuckyNumber7]

Yes, they can do a blot test, and I'm going to request that they do one if the next test that they do also comes back positive. From what I've read, it's entirely possible to get a false positive OR a false negative with these tests, as they are not 100% reliable.

[krazyaboutkatz]

I just wanted to say that I hope that Maximus's results were just a false positive and that he'll eventually test negative. Lots of prayers and positive thoughts are being sent his way. He sure has a wonderful home and I know that you'll love him no matter what.

[jennielynn1970]

Yes, they can do a blot test, and I'm going to request that they do one if the next test that they do also comes back positive. From what I've read, it's entirely possible to get a false positive OR a false negative with these tests, as they are not 100% reliable.

See if you can get into one of the shelter clinics and say you want him tested for FIV/FeLV. MUCH cheaper!!!!

[Freedom]

Here is the info I received back from our sponsor at PawsWatch when I notified her of Bobby's test results.


YES, it's good to know if your cats tests positive, which would mean that the cat had been EXPOSED to FIV (different from symptomatic, "has" FIV). You want to know this information, because you would want to provide the cat with enhanced supportive care if cat ever has a problem such as a secondary infection, because cat's immune system may need more assistance.

About contagiousness: OK -- I'm going to go on record with some equally important research results, from extensive work done in the last several years. Both Tufts Veterinary and Angel Memorial have endorsed this. Extensive testing was done to determine the likelihood of lateral transmission of FIV among adult cats - that means from one adult to another. Cats were put in constant contact of all types with each other, and did not transmit the disease. Then, to test the likelihood of contagion via bodily fluids, healthy cats were actually INJECTED WITH contaminated fluids -- and they still did not contract FIV. Both Angel and Tufts recommend that FIV positive cats can live with the rest of a household.

However, just as the nation is always in a total panic about the chances (about 1 in 7 million) of contracting rabies from a cat, vets and shelters largely jumped to taking the quick way out, which has become something of a witch hunt, in which anything that tests positive for FIV is isolated or killed.

So it would be worth your while to look into this further before deciding to isolate or kill your cats. Perhaps you should speak to one of our volunteers, xxxxx. When xxxxx adopted an FIV positive cat, she herself did extensive research on the subject. I have cc'd her here, in case anyone would like to talk to her.

Sandie, about Bobby specifically:
Since the caretaker said that Bobby was FINE until, at age 8 weeks or so, all of the kittens got a semi-diagnosed URI, and all were blanket treated together -- AFTER WHICH Bobby developed his equilibrium problem, this contraindicates the head tilt coming from neurological damage. It also points instead to a different diagnosis of inner ear infection damage. Did the vet know that when he gave his diagnosis?

Yes, I did. the vet only said this could be another expalnation, not that this would be conclusive.

Finally, about the test.
$50. for the test? That's very high. We buy them for about $8. EIGHT DOLLARS! Please can Bobby have his recheck through your group?