maxcelcat | My Kitty is FIV postive

I took Marvin, my kitty, to the vet for his shots a month or so back. We got talking about Feline Immunodeficiency Virus, the cat equivalent of HIV. It can be transmitted between cats who are outdoors a lot and who fight with other cats...

Marvin fights all the time. He's missing part of one of his ears. At my old flat, there was a large white cat he had constant battles with. At our new place, he quickly carved out a territory, although there is a pesky grey cat who seems a bit quicker than he is. And occasionally steals his dinner.

So the vet suggested I get him tested. Long overdue, in retrospect. There is a vaccine that can be given, but it's useless if they're already positive.

Anyway, the test came up positive. I can't say I'm surprised.

FIV is less of a big deal than the human version. There's no reason he can't live out quite a long life (he's nine already). We just have to keep an eye on him and make sure any cuts or infections he gets are treated quickly. We also need to keep him indoors as much as possible, so he doesn't infect other cats. Which is going to be hard given what a determinedly outside cat he is. So in practise, we're going to keep him inside at night, when cats fight most.

Hopefully he should be OK. He has a mild cat cold at the moment, so we're having to feed him pills twice a day - which is interesting. He hates pills, hates being restrained and has big teeth and claws! So I've been sneaking it into his food, which seems to be working so far.

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Aw, Marvin! I hope everything turns out okay for him. He seems to be living a long and full life no matter what the doctors have to say about him, so that's good.

Yeah, he's actually looking incredibly healthy of late. FIV positive cats can live good long lives still.

Heya,

This entry caught my eye because cat HIV came up in convo just the other day.

While the story in the link i'm posting is a little crude and I prolly should not be amused by it as much as I am you should have a read.

http://alivicwil.livejournal.com/428536.html?thread=3171320#t3171320

Like you said Cat HIV is relatively common, in fact I think I heard a stat along the lines of 70% of all cats in the ACT have Cat HIV. Just like human HIV you can survive it so hopefully that's what your cat does!

Edited 2010-04-12 22:57 (UTC)

Poor Marvin :-( at least he's out enjoying life!

Indeed he is. He has the most personality of any cat I've ever known - even if it's often an angry personality :-)

I'm not sure they have them in your area but we usually use Pill Pockets to trick cats into having their pills. They're little squishy squares of stinky cat food with a hollowed out core. You stuff the pill inside and squeeze the pocket closed. The cats don't seem to mind the surprise crunchy centre.

Good luck with Marvin. He sounds like quite a character.

The problem with Marvin is he hates cat treats. Won't touch them. I've tried him on all different kinds, including something called "Feline Greenies" which I've seen some cats go mental for. The only treats he seems to like is Vegemite (sometimes) and honey smoked leg ham - neither of which lends itself to concealing pills.

I have had success crushing the pills up and mixing them through his food... Only two more days of them and he'll be done (hoorah!)

Only two more pills is great news! I imagine Marvin will be almost as happy as you!

Weird he doesn't like treats, but I have had other cats like that too - even cat nip she turned her nose up on.

He's a bit fussy. I got him some lovely juicy Kangaroo, and he turned his nose up at it. Odd cat!

My Kitty is FIV postive

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