#feline aids

Hello everyone. This is Poe.

In October of 2016, we found a very skittish yet sweet cat in our backyard. Lonely and hungry, he decided to trust us and let us feed him. We learned after asking around in our neighborhood that this cat had been abandoned and left behind when his old family moved in June of that year. Fast forward to November and we have a new cat inside our house.

On a side note, Poe had both feline AIDs and feline leukemia, so he was considered unadoptable. Our vet told us that he usually puts these cats to sleep. But Poe was healthy at the time and he still is. We did not have it in our hearts to put down a cat that is capable of living happily, even if it isn’t for as long as a normal cat. In fact, after much care from us, Poe shed the feline leukemia! We could have put him down, but we gave him a chance. He still has the feline AIDs, but with lots of attention to his medical needs, he will live a good life.

Even though we could tell he was scared outside, it quickly became apparent just how traumatized Poe was once he was in our house. He jumped at every sound. His tail was always tucked between his legs. He hid behind my desk and couldn’t come out into the open of my room until my room’s door was closed. He existed in my room for a few good weeks, with only glimpses of the rest of the house.

When he’s comfortable, Poe is an angel. His love for being pet is unmatched. He slowly blinks at me or he will bunt against me to show affection. He loves to play with little mice toys. He practically sings operas for his breakfast and dinner. He sleeps on my pillow at night.

And slowly but surely, Poe crawled outside of his shell. He started with the hallway just outside my bedroom. Then the downstairs when no one was awake. This process took literal months, but now you can see that he is relaxing in our downstairs window, happy and content. He’s still a scaredy cat, but the progress is inarguable. 

I wanted to tell you all of this because many people do not consider the shy cats when adopting. They overlook them in favor of the more confident ones. While confident cats are just as good as any other cat, they do not have trouble getting adopted. It is the shy cats, the traumatized cats, that people often brush aside. Maybe it’s because they worry about a challenge (which is totally valid), or maybe it’s because they fear the cat will never be happy (also a valid worry). 

I won’t argue that having a shy or traumatized cat is not a challenge. It is, and if someone isn’t up to it, they certainly shouldn’t feel obligated to take up such a challenge. But I can say that nurturing and caring for a shy cat is a reward in and of itself. Maybe they might never be “confident,” but with love and support, they can be happy. And when they are happy, they are wonderful and amazing companions.

So please just consider the shy ones. Not just cats, but any animal that needs it. It might take some time, but you can find a great pet behind their fear and anxiety.

I wondered if you had any advice to share with people about adopting or owning FIV+ cats? I know when we adopted him we were told FIV+ cats are less adoptable and then can be a bit more susceptible to illness or more severe symptoms, but that doesn’t stop thm being wonderful animals and I would like to think more people are willing to adopt FIV+ cats and give them a happy home.

FIV+ cats post an infection risk to other cats, but can still enjoy their lives. Depending on when they were infected, some will have shortened lives, but others may not. The FIV virus can remain inactive for years within an infected cat, and during this time the cat may appear normal.

Eventually, however, the cat will become immunosuppressed. This may present as cats with recurrent skin infections or gingivitis, but will often eventually progress to immune deficiency, anaemia, leukemia or lymphoma.

Today is 7 months since my baby lost his battle with feline AIDS <3 this is just a small appreciation post in memory of my sweet baby and a reminder that you should always get your cats neutered AND vacations. If I knew this sooner I would’ve gotten him help sooner (he was born with it but that’s a different story). Even if you can’t afford to get your cat its vacations , please PLEASE get them neutered, neutering not only prevent unwanted kittens but also prevents your cat from passing on feline AIDS and Leukaemia to other unfortunate kitties (I know this is how it is for males but I’m not sure about females).

If there’s a cat you see on the street or a cat which often comes to your house and it’s showing visual signs that it’s unwell, give them food and water if you can. If the kitty won’t drink or eat, mix a small amount of the liquid that’s in a tin of tuna in with a bowl of warm water, the tuna water has a strong smell which helps if they’re nose is blocked (and it probably is), and the warm water hydrate them and give them a bit of warmth and energy.

It was, but the science has updated and continues to update.

There used to be two different ways of testing cats for FIV. The cheap in-clinic test would detect antibodies, so vaccinated cats would show up positive. The expensive lab test detected antigens, which only showed infected cats as positive. There was about a 5x cost difference, so the lab tests were fairly prohibitive.

Now there are at least two brands of cheap, in-clinic tests that will not detect vaccinated cats as positives, but I don’t know which country you’re in so your vet might have to check with their vaccine manufacturer about which ones do what.

The FIV vaccine is not a perfect vaccine, but it’s the only one we have against FIV. The most effective way to prevent cats from getting FIV is to keep them strictly indoors, away from other cats, but if they are going to go outside my recommendation is to vaccinate them. It’s like saying well if you are going to drive, you’d better wear a seat belt.

The FIV vaccine might, possibly, be associated with an increased risk of Feline Injection Site Sarcoma, which is a soft tissue cancer that develops at the site of injections. It used to be called Vaccine Site Sarcoma, but any injection can result in this complication. As a worst case scenario, ISS may occur in 1 in 10,000 cases of FIV vaccination, but it’s probably more like 1 in 100,000 cases.

That might seem like a high risk, but compared to a 1 in 20 chance of a cat with access to the outdoors getting FIV it’s not that bad.

Some pathogens (the buggers that cause disease) can and will transmit on your clothing and hands. Plain old soap and water will deactivate many of them (most causes of cat flu), but you will want to be particularly careful around known cases of panleukopenia and ringworm. The usual heavy duty veterinary disinfectants are useful here, but if you’re particularly worried you can always bring a spare change of clothes to work so you don’t wear anything home.

A vaccine is never 100% effective, that’s an impossibility, but the FIV vaccine we have is something like 98% effective, which is pretty darn good. Coupled with the fact that it has to be transmitted with a deep puncture wound with saliva, like a bite, then I consider it perfectly reasonable to have an FIV positive cat living with an FIV vaccinated cat.

Locally a lot of shelters don’t recommend of provide the FIV vaccine because they want their rehomed cats to remain indoors, and because the FIV vaccine is expensive. It’s expensive because, right this minute, there’s only one manufacturer making it, so they have a market monopoly.

Many shelters are also not quite up to date, because they are run by people and volunteers that are not vets, so they may still be stuck in the ‘can’t differentiate between vaccinated and positive’ mindset.