009. FIV
Description
This article is from the Medical Information FAQ, posted to rec.pets.cats newsgroup. Maintained by Cindy Tittle Moore with numerous contributions by others.
009. FIV
There is no vaccine for this. FIV is passed through open wounds, such as cat bites.
This disease impairs the cat's immune system and it will often fall prey to some other opportunistic disease. While the virus is related to HIV, it is NOT possible to contract AIDS from a cat with FIV.
FIV-positive cats should be kept inside and away from other cats. With this and other precautions, they may live a fairly long time. Because of their subsceptibility to secondary infections and complications, these cats are rather vet-intensive.
They do not often die directly from FIV, but rather one of the diseases that they can get when their immune system is impaired. FIV appears to involve three stages: acute (swollen lymph glands, fever, depression, bacterial infections); latent (apparent wel being, can last months to years); and chronic (cat is susceptible to all kinds of other viruses, fungii, and bacteria). Survival over two years is rare.
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