Fiv Cats...

[pastafreak]

Does anyone have experience of FIV cats?
Especially the cons...

[calmck]

Not personally. There is a rescue here that has a room with only FIV cats and they all seem happy. They will only adopt to cat free homes and with controlled outdoor acccess. Not sure if these cats have a shorter life span than others and what vet expenses would be. As far as I am aware cannot be transmitted to humans.

[Buenchico]

I've had to have a cat euthanised due to being diagnosed with complications arising from FIV. However the vet said that my feline pal had probably been FIV positive for years without me even knowing it, so he'd had a good (and quite long) life despite being infected.

If I didn't already have other cats, I'd be happy to adopt an FIV-positive cat.

Some relevant info here:
http://strayhavenrescue.org/adopt-a-cat/adopt-an-fiv-cat/

[pastafreak]

You've both confirmed some of what I've read.
I've heard that they may never show symptoms. I assume they an be homed with other FIV cats?
If I get another cat...or 2...it would need to be indoor. Or I'd prefer it to be. I live on an upper floor...and I like my furries in for the night. There's an FIV positive boy at one of the local rescues.

[LadyCG]

Our cat who was FIV+ve was euthanised 21 years ago. He had abscesses all over his teeth and would have needed every single one extracting. We decided it would be kinder to put him to sleep.

[wolf63]

It might cause an issue if you want to use a cattery. I dont know if the law prevents the catteries from taking them in or it may be down to cautious cattery owners.

I thought that your thread title was "Five Cats" I thought you'd completely lost the plot.

:-)

[237SJ]

I had a Blue Burmese years ago. He had a few problems over the years and he died at 11 years old. The vet reckoned he had feline AIDS (FIV) Not much was known about the condition then. Personally, I wouldn't adopt a cat with FIV.

[237SJ]

Just read the thread again and like Lady CDs post, my cat was plagued with gingivitis due to feline aids.

[Helewel]

https://www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/pets/cats/health/fiv
Info from the RSPCA.

[pastafreak]

Oh dear. Caspar had about 80% of his teeth out when he was about 7. Don't know if he was ever tested for it.

[pastafreak]

That's one of the articles I looked at earlier today, Helewel. Thanks anyway.

[TheChair]

One of my cats was diagnosed with FIV 2 years ago. All my other cats (11) were tested and found to be fine. The FIV one (who is 18 years old) had 1500 quid's worth of treatment and now seems to be as fit as a fiddle.

[calmck]

If you have no problems keeping him in I would go for it. Do you have a balcony as there are some great ideas for enclosing a balcony for cats.