Abandoned Cat is Diagnosed with FIV

A few months ago my husband and I rescued a cat that had been abandoned by its owners. Basically, they moved and left their unaltered young male cat behind to fend for himself.

This cat was freaked out., meowing loudly and pacing at the home where it's family used to live.  We saw him sitting on the porch of the abandoned house and tried to coax him to us with food and cat treats but he would not come to us.  We set the humane animal traps and caught a raccoon, a possum, and a fox but not the cat.  We were able to catch him only after he was in a horrific fight.  Then we picked him up at the side of the road and rushed him to the emergency veterinarian.

There was blood in his eyes, bite wounds all over his body and deep scratches to his face. He needed stitches, antibiotics and the veterinarian said that the eardrum in his right ear was not intact and that he had symptoms of a head injury.

We took care of him and his external wounds healed.  But his internal wounds never healed.  This abandoned cat has vision loss, hearing loss and was diagnosed with FIV (feline immunodeficiency virus).

I will never understand why people abandon their cats when they move.  Why they think a housecat will know where to go for food, shelter and how to protect themselves from predators.

Due to this cats disabilities, my husband and I decided that we would keep him.  I think it would be impossible to find an adopter who could give him the watchful care that is needed.

Buddy sways when he walks due to the head injury and his sight is way off.  If he gets onto the sofa he has difficulty getting down.  He will sit on his scratching post but sometimes needs help getting down.  His depth perception is not accurate.

We named him Buddy and we hope one day that we can socialize him with Sam my other FIV cat.  I am not sure if we will be able to do this due to Buddy's disabilities but think it is worth trying.

So I have been busy taking care of a rescued abandoned cat.   Sorry if you all thought I left my blog.  I am back now and will try to post on a regular basis.

Hard to Find Adopters for Cat with Disability and FIV

Buddy is an orange American short-haired cat that looks like a normal adult male cat. You would never know that he had a disability without watching him closely. Buddy is deaf and has vision loss due to a head injury and adopters like him until they find out what needs to be done to take care of him.

We rescued Buddy in April after his people had moved away and left him behind. We suspect that this unaltered cat had gotten into numerous fights and that is when the head injury occurred. When we rescued him we did not need a trap, this cat came to us with deep puncture bite wounds and deep scratches on his face. I remember telling my husband that I never saw a cat with red eyes, that is because the red that we saw was blood. 

We immediately took him to the animal hospital where we learned that His vision is distorted, as he has no depth perception, he does not hear and he is infected with FIV. (Feline Immunodeficiency Virus). We also learned that his cocked head and shaking of his head may be permanent due to head trauma. 

When we first brought him home we put Buddy in the cat-safe room. In this room, there was a futon bed, carpet and tile on the floor, a cat tree, a window seat, cat toys, a litter box, and food and water bowls. A nice cat room with everything a feline would need. However, the entire room changed in a matter of minutes because Buddy had difficulty walking and could not keep his balance. Everything high off the floor was moved, the futon mattress came down to the floor, and the bed frame was removed.

Buddy has to live in a room where everything is on the floor because the head injury and inner ear have made him clumsy. He could not get to his litter box or to his food bowls so we picked him up and put him in front of everything, we are thankful that there is nothing wrong with his sense of smell.

Buddy underwent three months of veterinarian care, including surgery on his ear, and in the end, I suspect he hears a little because he plays with the toys that are in front of him but if they go too far he will sit and stare. I do not think he can see them or hear the bell in his ball.

We hoped that we would be able to find an adopter who had no other pets, that had time to take care of Buddy so that he could not try to jump on something because he would fall. But the truth is that there are no adapters for Buddy that are willing to remove furniture from a room in order to keep Buddy safe. When they realize that they have to pick him up and put in on the sofa, then watch so he does not fall when he gets down. 

The adopters turn away from this cat with disabilities and FIV because he is too much work. That is why I say it is hard to find adopters for cats with disabilities and FIV.

Adopted Two FIV Cats

It is safe to say that I have been busy with my FIV cat's health concerns plus a few months ago I took in two FIV rescue cats.  The cats were sisters and both were a year old.  The family that asked me to take them was moving into an apartment that did not allow pets.  Had I not adopted the cats they would have been surrendered to our animal shelter and probably euthanized  

Three FIV cats are better than one

So I took the cats as a favor and in return, I was told that when their daughter got married in the spring she wanted the cats for her new home.   That sounds great but spring is a long way off and I had to socialize the new cats with Sam my FIV cat.

I had socialized Sam with a cat a few months back and that worked out well, but she was only with us a short time when my friend made arrangements for the cat to go live with her son.  Sam seemed to like the wind was taken from his sails.

My veterinarian advised me to not take in any more cats, because if Sam got into a fight that it would cause him to feel stressed and get sick.  I went against my veterinarians' recommendations and did socialize the two female cats.

Learn how I socialized these cats here  

I am not sure if Sam was lonely for a cat companion or what, but he welcomed those two girl cats like they were long-lost pals and the cats were happy to see him too.  There has never been territory marking or cat squabble.  The three of them just get along.  They sleep together, groom each other and play together. 

So how is Sam doing?  What I noticed is that Sam's overall disposition has improved.  I thought he was depressed but now he is back to his "ole self" meowing, talking to the birds in the morning from his window, and playing with the girl cats, we hear them playing with their toys and it is all good.

To tell you the truth, I think I got lucky that the cats were accepting of each other. It could have gone worse if there had been an alpha cat in the mix.

Two Out of Five Rescued Kittens Have FIV

In May when my husband and I rescued the newborn kittens from the trash bag lying on the highway medium I thought that the kittens could have been from two litters because some were significantly larger and two seemed to be newborns that needed to be bottled fed and also help to go to the bathroom.  

Small  kitten with FIV

Over the next several weeks I noticed that all five cats seemed to grow except the two smaller kittens, they were not growing and they seemed to sleep more than the other kittens.

I feared for the worst thinking they had Feline Leukemia (FELV) or Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV).  Any kitten with a feline disease is difficult to adopt because most people want healthy kittens only.  So I was worried about what the test would show.  Three of the kittens were negative and two of the kittens the smaller ones tested positive for FIV.

To my surprise, the veterinarian asked us if we wanted to put them down, and both my husband and I responded no.  The veterinarian told us of the restrictions of owning an FIV cat. Basically, they are contagious and cannot associate with other normal cats in the household and they can never go outdoors.  

The FIV cats must reside in a positive energy home that is at a comfortable temperature and must eat no soy, corn, or wheat gluten cat food.  Quality cat food like Wellness or Blue Buffalo spa selects.   Basically, a nurturing lifestyle that is harmonious at all times.

Finding an adopter that will agree to these terms may be a little hard but since I have four FIV cats living in my home now I know that life with these cats is normal. The only thing that I note as different would be that they sleep more.

Note 

All five kittens lived together and the two FIV kittens did not make the other kittens sick. This is because there was no bite wound.  They all ate out of the same food bowl and again the virus was not past to the other, plus they also slept and groomed each other.  

I am certain that if the cats do not fight and bite then an FIV cat can live with other normal cats as long as they get along and love each other.