Hi! I adopted an FIV+ cat this past August. From reading online, I didn’t think they would get sick too much more often than FIV- cats. I decided to adopt knowing that some might be turned off by his FIV status and knowing that I am lucky to be able to afford vet bills.

BUT this is the third upper respiratory tract infection he has had in 5 months. Each time, it doesn’t seem to clear it on his own without antibiotics. I’m concerned he’ll end up with antibiotic resistance over time if I keep doing this.

The first illness, he was given both oral antibiotics and eye drops for 2 weeks. The second time (several months later) his eyes weren’t as bad and they gave me a supply of oral antibiotics only for 1 week (wish it could have been 2…didn’t realize they only gave me enough for one). It’s been a couple of months and he’s sick again. I’m gonna take him in a few days if this doesn’t start to clear again.

Some notes:

-He is an indoor only cat. I do not have other pets.

-He was swabbed for herpes one of the times and it was negative. One of the times he had a mycoplasma infection and the other time he was not swabbed.

-He was tested as FeLV- at the shelter. But I suppose if he had a very early infection, it might not have shown up.

-He mostly acts pretty normal during his infections thankfully (eating, using the bathroom, etc)…just maybe sometimes a tad less active.

-I’m going to start giving him lysine powder daily in his food (twice a day). The vet had me give it to him for the duration of the first infection, but I may as well just continue it forever since it seems fairly benign.

Thanks, guys!

  • Bobo The Great@startrek.website
    10·
    2 hours ago

    We had two stray cats, one waa confirmed FIV+, the other not, they didn’t really get any recurring infection, but they both started having the same neurological symptoms: they lost control of their back legs and sphincters, had trouble walking straight and cleaning themselves so we had to do it.

    I don’t know if this is a regular outcome of FIV, or if it’s even related at all, but you might want to look for gradual problems with walking and balance. Not much you can do unfortunately, but what I can tell you is they don’t get any less loving, actually, they probably get more. His last days one of the strays went from barely staying close to a human unless being fed, to purr, pets and constant headbutts.

    Good luck with your little fella, glad he could find a caring home.

      • Bobo The Great@startrek.website
        1·
        16 minutes ago

        To be fair, they started developing symptoms much later then when we took care of them. But yeah, we had a lot of cats in the years, 90% of them were strays (or in this case, one of them was actually kicked of their house ans spent some years outside) that self-tamed lol.