QUESTION

I have a young male cat who has FIV. The vet said he would only live about a week or two and he's held on since Easter. He sticks to me like glue and hate seeing him like he is, but I love him so much. How soon are we to discovering a cure to this terrible virus?
Steve

ANSWER

FIV is the equivalent to HIV in people where it interferes with the immune system and makes the cat more prone to infection. It is not the FIV that is fatal but the other infections that the cat picks up. Most cats with FIV live a fairly long life without too much problems but end up being high maintenance cats as they suffer infections far more often than usual. They are also infectious to other cats via saliva so should become indoor only cats. Testing for FIV is also unreliable in many cases and I would often recommend having tests double checked with having test samples cross checked at a specialist lab if they have been run in house. Is your cat very ill or does it seem well most of the time? There is very detailed information on this disease available on the internet and if you search under feline immunodeficiency virus you should find a lot of information.

Paul Wilson