FIV+ cats - a terrible mistake?

[AbbyMom]

I've been thinking about your concern about Dude being a carrier. Isn't it true that once you get a cold, you become immune to it, which would be probably why he's not sick now, right?

Anyway, once you get through this, shouldn't all your kitties be immune just like Dude? Something to ask your vet.

[Lizzie]

I'm updating this because I don't want others to be afraid to adopt FIV+ cats and keep them with their negative cats. Neither Ginger nor Thumper have cat flu. Thumper spent his time at the vet hospital struggling vigorously with the vet and myself and snorting (he snorts like a pig) as I told a pathetic tale of him not playing any more. After flying out of the carrying case once we got home, he attacked a flannel sheet draped over a chair, chased one of the other cats, and batted around one of his old toys. I guess he was just being a cat. Sigh! Ginger looks great and her lack of appetite may be age-related, she shows no signs of a virus. All the others appear fine.

This means that Nougat could have picked up the virus on her walks in the garden with me at the end of last week, and not from the new cats. Don't blame me for pointing the finger at those poor guys, it was my vet!

Poor Dude, I must give him some extra hugs and apologise for calling him Typhoid Mary.

AbbyMom - I do still need to ask the vet your question, and also how Nougat could have got a very common cat flu virus when she had her booster in March. I would have thought that shot would have covered the calici virus.

[jenluckenbach]

Wonderful news.

[critters]

"I would have thought that shot would have covered the calici virus." Some do, some don't. For clarification, you should find out which shot your baby got, then find out what it covered. There are bunches of combo shots (and even nose drops) in different combos.

[carole]

My vet told me they can still get cat flue even though vaccinated, just as with humans, they just don't get a severe life threatening dose which they can if not.

[Lizzie]

My vet told me they can still get cat flue even though vaccinated, just as with humans, they just don't get a severe life threatening dose which they can if not.

Yes, that's pretty much what my vet told me today when I asked about it. He said that it depended on how virulent a strain the virus was, and if the cat was stressed in any way, and also that no vaccine has a 100% success rate. He still thinks that the virus came from one of the new cats rather than outside. I will just have to watch and wait. I still need to let the shelter know what happened.