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FIV Cat question
I am a longtime lurker with a bit of a dilemma on my hands.
There has been a cat hanging out around our house for a few weeks and on Sunday my H began to pet her and she basically adopted us. It is getting below freezing so we brought her into our basement and planned to at least keep her there until we found her a home (we have two cats and a dog and I didn't want to add to our family).
We took her to the vets and found out that she is FIV positive. My vet advised me to find another home for her as she could infect our two cats. I spent the night crying and emailing cat rescue agencies to see if there was a special niche for FIV cats. Out of the 10 that I emailed 7 have emailed me back and told me to keep the cat.
She is 3 years old and already spayed, and seems to be very loving. I am very torn. I did some cursory google searches and it appears a lot of literature online say that it can only be spread by biting and that you don't necessarily need to give away a cat because of it.
What would you do? We are in the process of finding her a home currently but if that doesn't work I don't think its fair to keep her in the basement. I just don't know what to do.
Re: FIV Cat question
Actually, my vet has 4 cats. One of his is FIV positive. We were looking at the possibility of introducing a potentially FIV positive cat into our household, and he wasn't concerned in the least (we have 10 cats). Luckily, Hunter ended up testing negative, but even if he had been positive, we would have slowly introduced him.
All of this.
We took in a feral cat this summer and chose not to have her tested for FIV because it would not change our decision and we already follow the recommended procedures for keeping FIV+ cats healthy (we raw feed, keep them indoor only, minimally vaccinate/titer, regular vet check ups, and monitor their health closely).
Awesome.
I have a CW who has expressed some interest in the cat, but if that falls through I think I am starting to become more comfortable with the idea of keeping her (as long as she gets along with the other two cats).
Thanks so much for your help!
Best Friends has some great info on this topic (another pestie once directed me there). Here are a couple:
http://www.bestfriends.org/theanimals/petcare/cats_fiv.cfm
http://www.bestfriends.org/theanimals/pdfs/cats/catfiv.pdf
I think I responded to your post last night and mentioned something about FIV.
First, is she spayed? And second, how old is she? Our foster kittens tested false positive for FIV until they were 4 months, it is common to get false positives until 6 months. Also, female cats rarely have FIV, so if she's spayed I would be curious if it was a vaccination positive rather than a true positive. I normally only assume they could be vaccinated if they're spayed though, because who does one and not the other? Your vet can send out the Western Blot test to look for antibodies if this is the case. Our shelter has had a female adult test FIV + and then re-test negative two months later for no reason at all. The tests aren't that reliable for it.
That said, DH and I foster FIV cats. I would absolutely keep her and I am a completely and totally paranoid cat Mom. As long as we properly introduce them so there is no fighting and they're getting along, I have literally no fear of transmission. It is only spread through VERY deep bite wounds that draw blood and usually puncture muscle, tissue, etc. The Best friends links are good ones. If you keep her inside and feed her a good quality food this cat should live a long time and all the other kitties should be fine. I'd do a gradual intro, read the book Cat vs. Cat to make sure she gets along with your kitties. I know I am one of several regulars on here who owns or fosters FIV kitties and happily lets them mix with our non FIV cats. Our shelter director has one FIV and three negative and my MIL has one negative and one positive. It really is no big deal, but a lot of vets are not up to date on the newer research (there is new research coming out all the time) and so give bad advice. The Cornell Vet School page is good as well for info and I think I maybe wrote something thats in the FAQ on the green bar on the Pets homepage?
I made the mistake once of putting an injured kind of feral FIV + cat to sleep and I will never live it down. I was uneducated and the vet told me that's what I should do. I had only had this cat in my possession for 24 hours but balled my eyes out when I put him to sleep. Only a few months after that wouldn't you know I find two four month old kittens and the boy tested positive for FIV and the girl negative. I believe they were likely litter mates as they were both found in front of a gas station together and were the same age. After talking to some of the girls on here about the first FIV cat I found, there was no question in my mind that I was NOT putting this kitten down.
I still have the little boy, named Miller and he is about 8 months old now. I had the in house combo test done twice on him and sent out for the Western Blot. That came back positive also. I have though gotten some feedback that even the Western Blot can be wrong if the kitten is under 6 months of age. I went round and round with our rescue president about him and she told me she does not want him with any of the other cats I foster. At first she didn't even want him in the rescue. I have had to pay for all his tests and neuter. Well, no way am I going to keep him isolated for the rest of his life. He is the most gentle, sweet little boy and does not have it in him to fight with my cats to the point he would cause a deep penetrating bit wound. I have them all together and they get along just fine. When I get some extra money I do plan on having the Western Blot done again since he is over 6 months of age. I unfortunately have not had any adoption interest in him at all : (
Here is his Petfinder bio if you want to see him.
http://www.petfinder.com/petdetail/20303729