Question about FIV/FELV

[catmandu]

Thats What I Did With Tubster I Took Him In Right Away To My Vets And Had The Tests Done, Thank God They Were Negative. If There Were Positive That Would Be A Tough Thing To Deal With As He Would Live In The Cellar/outside.

[Anikaca77]

I wish I could but none of the vets are opened late enough on Saturday to get him to a vets.

I may end up caging him just because I don't want him to spray either in my house since he's not neuter.

Melissa

[jennielynn1970]

One thing you should do... pass on the names of these people to other shelters and rescues in their area so that they DO NOT adopt again!!!

Also, with the FIV... I only had one cat that was very sick, and got everything that came into the shelter. That was the reason I took him in to my home. I couldn't bear to see him so snotty and stuffy and just miserable. It's also hit or miss with the people who medicate the cats at the shelter. Too many times we heard "oh, they were in the loft and we couldn't get to them." You can't guarantee that the ones who needed it got the meds.

My other FIV boys haven't been sick. I've been very lucky. I also make sure that if they've gotten sick, they get treatment right away. It can take them longer to recover, so you want to make sure you get to them ASAP.

I've never personally dealt with FeLV... I just know that we have a room at the shelter with an FeLV litter in it (now over a year old) and their mom and "aunts" and there is plexiglass covering the screens so they can't pass it to the other cats. My friend Gina had a cat that was FeLV+ as well, and Grayzie never seemed sick, and we wouldn't have known she was positive except that when she first got her she was pregnant and the vet tested her immediately. The kittens were aborted, and Gina had Grayzie for about 3 years. That's when she started dating this jerk who decided he hated cats and tormented Grayzie so I found a home for her with a woman who took in only FeLV+ cats. This was about 7-8 years ago though, and when I asked the shelter I found her through if they still kept in touch with her, they didn't remember who she was. I feel bad, because I would love to know if she's still going strong or if something happened to her. She was such a pretty cat. Gina and I had friendship issues after that, and we had some strong words (mine being "You shouldn't even own a fish" and other things like that). She just said that she never had pets growing up, so she just didn't think that she bonded with Grayzie (for 3 years?!) so it was different for her than it would have been for someone like me. Whatever... excuses!! She ended up dumping the guy anyway after about a year.