Coping With Feline Immunodeficiency Virus

our “baby” oscar was just 5 months old when we had to let him go. We already have a 12 year old cat and thought is was time to have a little one again in the house so we got him from the cat rescue. At nearly 5 months old we noticed he had a lump in his tummy, so took him off to the vets.

She said he had a hernia and was easily resolved by a small operation. He was also nearly due to be neutered and the vet said she could do both operations together. when he was due to have the op, he had a temperature and so had to take a course of antibiotics and come back the next week. His op went well for both the hernia and the neutering and he seemed fine. But the next day, he didnt seem to want to eat anything, so off i went to buy him some fresh chicken and prawns etc to entice him. We took him back to the vets a couple of days later to have his stitches checked,and mentioned how he was. The nurse said he may just be a bit fed up and sore, but to bring him back mid week and see how he was.

Over the next couple of days he deteriorated.It was heartbreaking . He could not eat, would not even open his mouth. His tummy swelled up really bad and he could not even go to the loo, even though he tried. When he walked , he had to lie down as if he had just collapsed. It turned out to be FIP We were devasted. He was just a baby and there is no cure. The only humane thing to do was to let him go without any more suffering.

That was the single most hardest thing we have ever have to do and although its only a few days since he died, i cant seem stop crying. I miss the little mite so much. I think the fact that this disease almost always affects kittes only makes this one of the most distressing things i have ever seen.