Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) is a lentivirus that is in the same retrovirus family as Feline Leukemia (FeLV) and human HIV. Although FIV and FeLV cause similar syptoms and are tested with the same in house test, the way they manifest disease and their make up are very different.
How it’s spread:
- Primarily spread by bite wounds.
- Occasionally spread from infected mother to kittens on their way through the birth canal or through drinking the mother’s milk.
Who’s most at risk?
- Outdoor cats
- Unneutered male cats (more agressive/more likely to be bitten)
Symptoms:
- Many cats can live years without symptoms
- Enlarged lymph nodes
- Persistent fever
- Persistent diarrhea
- Gingivitis
- Stomatitis (see picture)
- Recurrent Infections (bladder, skin, eye, respiratory)
- Slow and progressive weight loss
Testing:
- FIV can be tested on our in house FeLV/FIV blood test.
- False positives on in house tests can happen! If a cat tests positive, occasionally we recommend sending blood to a laboratory for further testing.
- Kittens with mother’s that are positive can test positive without having the disease. Young kittens (less than 6 months) that test positive are re-tested at 60 day intervals until it is 6 months old.
- A negative test means that the antibodies directed against FIV have not been detected; however, it can take up to 12 weeks after exposure for FIV to be detectable.
Treatment:
- Prevention is the most effective treatment!
- Keep cats indoors
- If keeping cats in is not an option, create a safe confined environment where you can supervise your feline friends.
- Test all new feline family members before exposing them to the rest of the housemates.
- If housemates are positive, monitor their play habits, as long as they refrain from rough play (i.e. biting) there is low risk of a non-infected cat contracting the disease.
Some cats with FIV can live the majority of their lives without showing any symptoms; for those that do show symptoms, supportive care is the only real option.
- There is no treatment for FIV.
- Antiviral drugs have helped some FIV cats with seizures or stomatitis.
- Most infected cats are given medications that treat the infections cause by FIV (i.e. respiratory, eye, bladder, skin infections) not the actual Feline Immunodeficiency Virus.
- Monitoring weight and frequent health checks (recommended every 6 months) help maintain a FIV positive cat.
