|
This section is a place to share stories about Coping With Feline Immunodeficiency Virus.
Below are entries of those who have already shared their stories. We hope that you find their experiences helpful to your own situation.
To quickly access health information from your website's browser, download
Healthcommunities.com's healthchannels toolbar.
My FIV experience
by: Nancy
on Fri, Sep 14 2007
My first FIV+ cat, Comet, wandered into my backyard when he was about7 years old. He was beat up, had a severe upper respiratory infection, giardia, coccidia, roundworm, tapeworm and a severe case of conjunctivitis. His eyelids were swollen inside out. He was also FIV+. For those who think all of this would be hard on any cat, much less an FIV+ cat, think again. Comet got over all of this and was an indoor/outdoor cat for the next 9 years of his life. Although many FIV+ cats never go into full blown Feline Aids, Comet did when a vet missed a bad tooth during dental work. His weight went down, but it was another 8 months before the bad tooth was found and pulled. It had been too hard on his immune system at that age of 16 and he died 2 weeks later. He was a GREAT brown tabby who loved all the neighbors and slept with me on the right near my head. In fact, I’d been awakened in the night by him pawing at me because another cat was in his place. Once I moved the other cat, he curled up purring, having kept his reign as king.
I now have 4 other FIV+ cats in my home along with my FIV- cats. Everyone does great as FIV is not casually spread-only through DEEP bite wounds, transfusions or from a FIV+mama to her newborn baby (but the babies usually go neg in about 6 weeks). I foster only FIV+ cats for our local shelter and have adopted out 7 in the past 2 years.
I am always disappointed to hear that someone put there otherwise healthy cat to sleep because the vet said to because they were FIV+. It really steams me that there are so many still ignorant out there. This past spring, about 5 of my cats came down with a URI but none of my FIV cats did. Any when they do get sick, they get over it-usually. But then, we never know how long ANY of our cats will live.
Comment on this
Comments
-
Fri, Jun 27 2008
Thank you for your insight - sooo many people have ridden me for NOT euthanizing SweetyBoy who also wandered into my backyard over a month ago. He is...Read
-
Sat, Mar 29 2008
I have a few questions about FIV and it seems that you do know alot about it. About two weeks ago, someone drove past my house and litterally threw a...Read
-
Mon, Oct 29 2007
Thank you for sharing your experience with others. I hope that people like you can educate others with FIV+ cats. My cat, Abu, was diagnosed with FI...Read
-
Thu, Oct 11 2007
We just found a stray (Francesca) that tested positive for FIV and I was so worried. But your story has helped me to feel so much better!! I hope m...Read
-
Sun, Sep 16 2007
Dear Nancy,
I am the owner of 8 indoor cats and take excellent care of them. I live in a home that can accomodate them. My 8 range in ages from 2yr...Read
September 2007
- Cayenne had a good life - by Deborahde - (Fri, Sep 28 2007)
Those w. FIV+ cats, have a little hope. It is not always an immediate death sentence. I have a story to share of 8.5 years with my FIV+ cat. It ended this past Tuesday. I am at peace with this and my decision to work for a longer life for my beloved Cayenne.
[more..]
- Vets can mislead - by Yen Chin - (Wed, Sep 26 2007)
My wife and I recently adopted two kittens who are now about three months old. A week ago we took them both the the vet for a check up and to have them tested for internal parasites. The vet also did an FIV test and found a positive result for one of them.
[more..]
- Scruffy and I - by Dalene - (Thu, Sep 20 2007)
I have 2 cats, a male (Scruffy) & female (Kamakazi Kitty). Yesterday i took them in to get them fixed. I was told that they’d be tested for FIV and if they were + they would be put down. I replied, ” why, i wasnt put down when i was diagnosed with HIV.”
[more..]
- Chaos, the 5-6 week old Kitten, is FIV Positive - by Lissa - (Thu, Sep 20 2007)
A policeman found two abandoned kittens near an old house where no one lived for many years. His wife had taken these kittens in and offered them on craigslist for adoption. I was browsing through the list and saw such a cute 8 week old black and white kitten (she posted the two cats seperately).
[more..]
- My FIV experience - by Nancy - (Fri, Sep 14 2007)
My first FIV+ cat, Comet, wandered into my backyard when he was about7 years old. He was beat up, had a severe upper respiratory infection, giardia, coccidia, roundworm, tapeworm and a severe case of conjunctivitis.
[more..]
- Our one night battle - by Nikki - (Mon, Sep 10 2007)
My boyfriend & I had bought 2 fun loving kittens from the same litter, a male & a female. They were both fun & energetic & then one day our male cat stopped wanting to play & would keep to himself a lot, but we didn’t think anything of it at first because he still showed us love and would play on occasion.
[more..]
- ACE (FATBOY) - by lisa - (Sun, Sep 09 2007)
last night at 5.30 we took our cat to the local vet because what we thought was a sore on his face was actually a cat bite they did a simple blood test on him for fiv we found out that he was positive for this when we got ace he was from the wellington spca the vet thought he had contracted this from there.
[more..]
- Twain - by Lawrence - (Thu, Sep 06 2007)
I first met Twain on the back porch of my apartment. He liked to sun himself there, and would disappear every time I came out. Little by little he acclaimated to me, and feeding him some tuna/salmon helped.
[more..]
|
