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Coco, the neighborhood stray that we took in/let herself in, finally went to the vet for a checkup in anticipation of her eventually being transitioned to live with my 2 male cats. She's currently kept seperate in her own room. It turns out she is positive for FIV, although she is otherwise looking good and healthy (well, she has a heart murmur, missing a chunk of her nose & had her tail ripped out by dogs years ago...). She's also about 10-12 years old.
Is having her live life with my boys out of the question now? Too risky? Anyone successfully done it? The vet suggested we could put those "soft paws" on her nails to reduce the risk from a scratch, though a bite is still possible. But if we transition them well and monitor them... maybe?
Or will the stress of it all just trigger some failure in her health?
Are we just waiting for her to get sick now?
I'm reading about it online too, just curious to hear from anyone more familiar!
FIV is not spread through scratches, only deep bite wounds. Yes, there are people who have integrated FIV+ cats into households with cats who are not. I haven't, but I have a friend who has. They live in an RV with 8 or 9 cats, one is FIV+.
Very slow introductions and watching closely until you are sure they are all friendly with one another, or at least, ignoring one another, is the way to go.
I am sorry about your cat, what you mean by boys ? your children or the other cats? FIV cannot transmitted to a human from a cat , it transmit cat to cats due to fighting. Bite wounds spread the disease.
Keep your cat indoors. This will protect him from contact with disease-causing agents to which he may be susceptible. By bringing your cat indoors, you’re also protecting the uninfected cats in your community.Watch for changes—even seemingly minor—in your cat’s health and behavior. Immediately report any health concerns to your vet.Bring your cat to your vet at least twice per year for a wellness checkup, blood count and urine analysis.Feed your cat a nutritionally balanced food—no raw food diets, please, as bacteria and parasites in uncooked meat and eggs can be dangerous to immunocompromised pets.Be sure your cat is spayed or neutered.
Like you I was concerned about bringing Charlie into my household, but after a very long conversation with a vet who also has an FIV+ cat in his household along with his healthy cats, I decided to go for it.
At first I watched Charlie very closely to make sure he wasn't a biter, after I realized he wasn't, I was no longer concerned.
It has been years now and there have been no problems and I am so very glad I gave Charlie a chance, he is such a sweetheart.
She seems pretty calm and I think the reason she's had enough of the outdoors is because she is not a fighter anymore. I just worry that the boys (my 2 resident boy cats!) ARE biters... they get along pretty well, but they're still little rascals who get into their scuffles and will chase and bite each other. They're not fighting "for real", my concern is if they try to "play" this way with her she will bite them back. But maybe a very slow, very supervised introduction would alleviate that. I'd be happy if they just ignored her, so long as she could mingle in the house with all of us.
I mean, either way, she's not going back outside and she's not going to a shelter, if we have to, she'll just stay seperated.
She seems pretty calm and I think the reason she's had enough of the outdoors is because she is not a fighter anymore. I just worry that the boys (my 2 resident boy cats!) ARE biters... they get along pretty well, but they're still little rascals who get into their scuffles and will chase and bite each other. They're not fighting "for real", my concern is if they try to "play" this way with her she will bite them back. But maybe a very slow, very supervised introduction would alleviate that. I'd be happy if they just ignored her, so long as she could mingle in the house with all of us.
I mean, either way, she's not going back outside and she's not going to a shelter, if we have to, she'll just stay seperated.
Glad to hear you're going to do whatever it takes to make it work. Good for you. All fingers & paws crossed here that all goes well & they all get along ok.
FWIW- out of my 5 current cats, 4 are females and they do not like each other at all.... and never have (they all grew up here together and are a year apart in age). There have been many, many hissing/growling matches & Personal Space Violations over the years, as well as a few actual fur flying wrestling matches. But none have ever resulted in any wounds, and there have been zero bites inflicted. My girls are generally grumpy/pushy with each other, but tolerate each other fairly well. There's a good chance yours will do the same.
I agree with catxdad... we had two female cats and they fought at times, but they tolerated one another. The one died of old age, we still have the other one. You'll be okay!
A cat was dumped on my semi-rural property that is FIV+. My vet was very much against letting her near by 4 Negative cats.
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Coco, the neighborhood stray that we took in/let herself in, finally went to the vet for a checkup in anticipation of her eventually being transitioned to live with my 2 male cats. She's currently kept seperate in her own room. It turns out she is positive for FIV, although she is otherwise looking good and healthy (well, she has a heart murmur, missing a chunk of her nose & had her tail ripped out by dogs years ago...). She's also about 10-12 years old.
Poor kitty. The one dumped here has 2 breaks in her tail. She's about 20 months old now the vet thought and still likes to play like a kitten.
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Is having her live life with my boys out of the question now? Too risky? Anyone successfully done it? The vet suggested we could put those "soft paws" on her nails to reduce the risk from a scratch, though a bite is still possible. But if we transition them well and monitor them... maybe?
Or will the stress of it all just trigger some failure in her health?
Because of the extreme aggression of Sheba, the dumped cat, and the aggression of one of our 4 cats, we failed to integrate them. She is back outside with free access to an unheated double garage.
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Are we just waiting for her to get sick now?
I'm reading about it online too, just curious to hear from anyone more familiar!
Sheba was dumped off some time last winter. If I remember right it was in early Dec before we went to FL for the winter. When we got back in April we took her to the vet and was going to keep her forever. She's a real people cat and devoted to my husband. She has never been sick that we know of and is active most of the day. An excellent hunter, she feasts on moles and field mice.
They don't all get sick, apparently many of them living almost as long as Negative cats. But any serious aggression that includes biting can spread this disease.
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). She's also about 10-12 years old.
. All fingers & paws crossed here that all goes well & they all get along ok.
The one dumped here has 2 breaks in her tail. She's about 20 months old now the vet thought and still likes to play like a kitten. 
