My cat was diagnosed with feline aids....?

Question

I took my 3yr old cat to the vet today because she had a skin infection. She tested positive for roundworm and the vet suggested we do a test to see if she had FIV. The test came back positive and I decided to get medication for her skin to see if she responds well in the next two weeks. I have two other cats and the vet said the FIV can be easily transmitted if they share food/water bowls. All my cats live outside. My parents will not allow for me to bring in any of the cats inside the house.

This cat has a good appetite, likes to play. I don't want to put her down, but should I? Serious answers only!!

Answer 1

FIV, fortunately, is a disease that is not necessarily a death sentence: they can live relatively healthily as carriers and transmitters of the disease for many years.

To the best of my knowledge, sharing food/water bowls does not increase the risk of transmission very much, but if that's what the vet recommended, I'd do it.

The best thing to do is to make sure your cats don't fight; FIV is most easily transmitted from cat to cat through open wounds.

Answer 2

FIV can be transmitted by another cat bite not by sharing food or water. If your cat that has tested positive with FIV is around your other cats he/she may transmit to the others. Since your cats live outside mainly thats how your cat probably got FIV. You don't have to put your cat down , but he/she can not be around other cats. At the pound I volunteer at MANY cats have FIV. There is nothing wrong with your cat having it, but she should be an only pet. Im sorry and I hope you work something out for your cat. Best of luck!

Answer 3

GEEZ!!!! ANOTHER uninformed vet not up on the current research!

FIV is NOT Aids, that's a human disease. FIV is a very lowered immune system in a cat. It is NOT able to be transmitted easily---cats are either born with it from their mothers who have it (3 out of 4 will test negative once their own immune systems kick in by 6 months of age) OR a cat gets it from being bitten by a cat who has it.

I'll be completely honest with you--The lifespan of a cat with FIV is roughly 16 - 18 years.  Yes, it does not significantly reduce their lifespan unless you get a vet who recommends automatic euthenasia!

A FIV cat can NOT spread it by using food bowls, water bowls, litter boxes, mutual grooming, horsing around in play or by doing anything else with a non-infected cat outside of biting them deep enough it gets the saliva into a moving blood supply.  ALL transmissions studied require this, or being born with it from the mother.  The virus lives about 10 seconds outside the body so is not able to infect any cat in any significant way by casual touch or living.

Now if your vet was talking about feline LEUKEMIA that's another story, because that is spread casually through water bowls, etc. in some cases (but not always).  However if your vet was taling about FIV then the vet has some catching up to do -- there have been a huge number of studies on FIV in the past 15 years which he/she has not kept abreast of.

A non aggressive cat will not spread the disease.  There are two very good FIV lists on Yahoogroups.  We mix our FIV guys with our non-FIV cats and have had no transmissions of it to the uninfected cats.

I've had a FIV former feral tomcat living here with our three non-infected indoor cats for 13 years and none of them have gotten FIV from him. They didn't get it from the FIV stray we took in 7 years ago either.  I know this because our FIV guys are fine, and the non-FIV cats all had recent blood tests done before they had teeth cleanings.  They were negative.  All five of our cats live together 24/7 and do rough play, eat together, basically live normal lives.  I do have to watch for runny eyes in the FIV ones, but that's easily cleared up. I don't expose them to sick cats either, as they're immune system is weak.

What test was done on your cat?  If it was the quicky test done in the office, that's the Elisha test which has a known failure rate of 20% on FIV results. It'll tell you 25 cats out of 100 will have FIV when they do not.  If the test given was the Western Blot (that goes to a lab and comes back with results, they look at the factors inthe blood) then the test would be 98% accurate.  

However, IF your cat was vaccinated against FIV, the vaccine will make the blood tests look like the cat has the FIV virus even though it doesn't have it.  Did you ever get your cat vaccinated with that vaccine?  It's been out for over 3 years now, and causes fake readings in all blood tests.

With FIV cats you treat the symptoms--dry coat, runny eyes, mouth problems.  The cats usually are asymptomatic and are normal, healthy looking cats most of their lives.  If yours truly IS FIV+, come join up with one of the FIV groups and talk to us, we've been owning FIV cats for years and have been paying attention to the current research.  It's not a death sentence for the cat.

Answer 4

Why would you have her put down?

Are you sure it was FIV she tested positive for ? FIV is transmitted through bite wounds, not sharing food bowls.

You should consider having your other cats tested for FIV and Felv.