If that sounds like a raw deal, look at it from the cat's perspective. Of course, if you and your vet know that the cat is FIV-positive, you'll probably have a different approach to vet care that can minimize the extra expense by avoiding treatments that may be less effective and by knowing when the battle is lost. The downside is that the cat will probably have a shorter lifespan and you may have extra vet bills along the way. 10 to 12 years is not uncommon, but neither is 2 to 3 years. The lifespan depends somewhat on how lucky the cat is in avoiding secondary infection. Unfortunately, a cat infected with FIV is likely to die younger than an uninfected cat. An FIV-positive cat should receive routine vaccinations like any other cat.īecause an FIV-positive cat is at higher risk for other diseases, the pet owner may be at a higher risk for vet bills. because the FIV-positive cat is less able to fight off infection by these secondary diseases. Care should be taken to prevent the FIV-positive cat from being exposed to cats that are sick with upper respiratory infections, are FeLV-positive, etc. There is really no treatment for the FIV infection itself. There is a vaccine to help prevent the transmission of FIV, but the vaccination is not 100% reliable and will generate antibodies that make it very difficult to determine later whether the cat is infected or only vaccinated. A positive test in a kitten should be repeated when six months old to confirm. How it is detected?Ī blood test can detect the presence of antibodies in the cat, indicating infection.īecause a newborn kitten will have antibodies from its mother, the kitten may show a positive test (to the antibodies) without actually being infected. The result is that the cat is at a higher risk of becoming ill from other diseases. The effect of the virus is to reduce the ability of the cat's immune system to fight off other infections. What are the effects of FIV?Ī cat that is infected won't show any obvious symptoms initially. You can have an FIV-positive cat in your home for years without fear of transmitting the virus to your other cats. pets allowed outdoors who fight with other feral catsįor a pet owner with spayed or neutered cats, where the cats don't have serious fights, the risk of infection is minimal.intact (un-spayed or un-neutered) cats outdoors.For this reason, infection is mainly a risk for Occasionally, an infected female cat can pass it to her offspring during birth. What about my other cats? Are they safe from it?įIV can only be transmitted between cats by deep bite wounds. An FIV-positive cat is not a health threat to you or your family.įIV is also not contagious to your non-feline pets. What it isn'tįIV is not HIV, the virus that cause AIDS in people. The Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) is: (a) a virus that (b) infects cats (felines) and (c) causes a deficiency in the cat's immune system.Ī cat that is infected by the virus is described as an FIV-positive cat, meaning that the test used to detect the virus in the cat showed a positive result. In the interest of enabling you to make an informed decision regarding the adoption of an FIV-positive cat, we would like to present the following information. Unfortunately, even some vets who don't keep up with the latest research on this disease can be mistaken. There are frequent misconceptions and misinformation out there about FIV.
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