FIV In Cats Is Not A Death Sentence | Cat Care, Breeds and Resources Blog

Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) occurs in cats worldwide. It is similar to HIV, the virus that causes AIDS in humans. FIV can NOT be transmitted from cat to humans or other animals like dogs.

FIV is spread through the sharing of blood from deep bite wounds only (whether the FIV+ cat is the biter or the bitee), not by licking each other or through feces.

Gypsy, One Of My FIV Cats

Diagnosis:
An ELISA blood test which can be performed by any vet is used to check for FIV. The problem is that the ELISA test gets a lot of false-positives. Meaning a cat that may only be carrying antibodies to the virus, but does not have the virus itself, will test positive. Because of this a cat that tests positive using ELISA should be retested with the Western Blot test.

Treatment
There is no specific treatments for FIV. Cats infected with FIV can live long and healthy lives. Here are a few things you can do for your FIV positive cat:

1. Keep them indoors — this will eliminate the possibility of them being in a fight with a feral cat.
2. Feed them a high-quality diet.
3. Keep their vaccinations up-do-date.
4. Carefully monitor the cat’s behavior.
5. Work closely with your veterinarian.

Prognosis
Like I said earlier, cats with FIV can live long, healthy lives. I just recently heard of one that lived to be 22 years old.

FIV-positive cats can be kept with FIV-negative cats because the disease is passed through deep bite wounds. My personal experience is that cats, especially in-door cats, do not want to fight. They may hiss and growl, but they usually just want to go about their business. If your household is made up of non-aggressive cats, then they should be able to live together.

I have 8 indoor cats. One of whom is FIV-positive. When we first introduced her (Snoball) to the household, she spent the first couple of weeks showing everyone how tough she was. My alpha cat, Kira, resented her and still hisses at her but they pretty much keep a distance from each other. Once in a while one cat will chase the other but usually they just stay out of each other’s way. Snoball is slowly becoming friends with some of her adopted family and I am quite pleased.

Lucky, the FIV positive cat we adopted 2 weeks ago (only hours before he was to be killed at the animal shelter) is doing okay. He turned out to be a pretty sick little guy — not from FIV, but from being abandoned or lost and unable to care for himself — it’s been extremely cold and he had to make it on his own. Then he ran into a group of cats who beat him up — probably because he was so weak that couldn’t defend himself. I’ll tell you more about him next blog.

Just to clarify, I also have Gypsy and now Lucky, who will share the double-double garage with Gypsy. They are both FIV positive and I’d have them in the house with my other 8 if my house was big enough.

Purrs, Frankie

Kira here. Yeah that Snoball is a pip. She may be bigger than me, but that don’t scare me none. I can take her. Naw, I’ll just let her be. That’ll just mess with her mind. Kira out.

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