hyllberg
January 4th, 2008, 11:27 PM
On 1/2/08, my family and I adopted a 5 month old, precious, and extremely loving orange tabby cat...and he was born with FIV. He has been tested twice: right after birth (July, 07) and on 12/15/07...and both tests came back positive.
Your first thought is probably: why did they adopt a young male cat (kitten, really) who is FIV positive? Well, to be honest, we didn't know anything about FIV except humans can't get it, and they "can" live as long as "healthy" cats, especially if they are indoor cats and don't have contact with other animals (both of which apply to my house...we have no other animals and Duke is an indoor kitty.) Duke's mommy had FIV; but his brother was FIV negative. I have read that positive results in kittens might not mean he has the actual virus.
I took Duke to the vet today (1/4/08,) and he said we will test Duke again in July, 2008. The vet said Duke could live up to 15 years old, but might not...(that narrows Duke's life expectancy down, doesn't it?)
My heart aches when I think about the "what ifs" the future holds. What if Duke gets a cold, and due to his FIV, he can't beat the infection? I guess what I am requesting from all of YOU is more information on this virus. I can't find much on the web that is recent...only articles from 1995-2002 usually.
My wife, two boys (ages 10 and 8), and I decided tonight during dinner time that we were going to keep Duke regardless of his condition and regardless that he probably will not live as long as other cats. We figure if he doesn't last as long as we'd like, at least he'd have a GREAT short life with us. However, as I sit here alone typing this, my heart hurts with the thought of losing Duke sooner than later. We are already attached to the dumb thing! :) (Especially ME!) I swear on everything Holy: Duke is the most loving cat!!! He is ALWAYS in the same room as us, follows us wherever we go, and has his "motor" on 80% of the time! He is unbelievable.
So, any input, advice, thoughts, "words of wisdom," would be greatly appreciated.
Hey, Happy New Year too!
Your first thought is probably: why did they adopt a young male cat (kitten, really) who is FIV positive? Well, to be honest, we didn't know anything about FIV except humans can't get it, and they "can" live as long as "healthy" cats, especially if they are indoor cats and don't have contact with other animals (both of which apply to my house...we have no other animals and Duke is an indoor kitty.) Duke's mommy had FIV; but his brother was FIV negative. I have read that positive results in kittens might not mean he has the actual virus.
I took Duke to the vet today (1/4/08,) and he said we will test Duke again in July, 2008. The vet said Duke could live up to 15 years old, but might not...(that narrows Duke's life expectancy down, doesn't it?)
My heart aches when I think about the "what ifs" the future holds. What if Duke gets a cold, and due to his FIV, he can't beat the infection? I guess what I am requesting from all of YOU is more information on this virus. I can't find much on the web that is recent...only articles from 1995-2002 usually.
My wife, two boys (ages 10 and 8), and I decided tonight during dinner time that we were going to keep Duke regardless of his condition and regardless that he probably will not live as long as other cats. We figure if he doesn't last as long as we'd like, at least he'd have a GREAT short life with us. However, as I sit here alone typing this, my heart hurts with the thought of losing Duke sooner than later. We are already attached to the dumb thing! :) (Especially ME!) I swear on everything Holy: Duke is the most loving cat!!! He is ALWAYS in the same room as us, follows us wherever we go, and has his "motor" on 80% of the time! He is unbelievable.
So, any input, advice, thoughts, "words of wisdom," would be greatly appreciated.
Hey, Happy New Year too!