Any Advice Appreciated: Blood Tests, Fiv, Felv And More:)

[Kathrin17]

Hello all, my name is Kathrin and I would really appreciate some advice from anyone. I will try to be as brief as possible, while still including as much relevant info as I can, so bear with me, please

Short intro: about 2 years ago I rescued a kitten from the streets and now Watson is a healthy, beautiful 2+ year-old kitty. Then, a little over three months ago I adopted a second kitty. I was warned in advance by his temporary "curator" who also rescued him from the street that according to his blood test he might have FIV (feline immunodeficiency virus) and at first I had second thoughts, especially taking into account that I have a FIV negative cat at home, but then did some research (including reading posts on this site) and realised it wasn't that big of a deal and that it's nothing I can't handle. Other than that he had some minor issues with his digestion that had been dealt with by his foster family, so he was all nice and healthy. I was advised to get him re-tested for FIV in a couple of months.

When I picked Jacob up and brought him home, I kept a close eye on both his state and how he would interact with Watson. It turned out they became friends very fast and we had no problems whatsoever, including *miraculously* not a single missing-the-toilet kind of incident!)) Slowly Jacob relaxed, blossomed and became a beautiful, active mischievous young kitty.

Fast forward to three months later. I decided that now that Jacob was roughly settled in and happy, it was time to take him to get re-tested. Perhaps the first test gave a false positive, maybe he doesn't even have FIV. Either way, I was ready for any kind of result. When I came to the vet, she said that he looked wonderful and perfectly happy and healthy, there were no reasons for concern, but given that his blood work flagged up for FIV it might be worth giving him a second test. Out of my own paranoia that came out spontaneously and completely of the blue, I also asked her to test him for FeLV (feline leukemia). She told me there's no need and not a single reason to do it, especially since his first blood work tested negative for it, but I insisted.

The test came back positive for both.

After a little of running-around-like-a-headless-chicken routine, I calmed down and am currently thinking about what my next step should be.

I am guessing that some, if not most, will tell me to give Jacob away ASAP, and I don't know if that makes me an incredibly irresponsible cat owner, but that is not going to happen. For better or for worse, they will both stay.

Watson's yearly booster vaccine deadline is coming up and I've read that FIV+ cats should get vaccinated too, so I was thinking of deworming both of them and taking them to get vaccinated. But. BUT. I would also like to get another blood test done on Jacob. I also purchased Now Pets Immune Support when I learned about Jacob's status and was preparing everything for his new home and gave it to both of them for the first 3 weeks or so of their "cohabitation". This is where it gets messy- I don't know what the best sequence of events would be. Should I give the immune support tablets for a while to Jacob, as a treatment (I know it won't cure anything, but maybe it could somehow help with the FeLV if he does have it??), for say 2 weeks or a month and then get him tested and depending on the results get them vaccinated? Or should I give it to both of them? Or just get him tested and go from there? Should I maybe get Watson tested for FeLV too now?

They are indoor cats that eat high-quality food, they both look absolutely healthy, they eat well, have no digestion-related issues, have clean eyes, noses (well, Jacob might have the occasional snotty nose, but nothing of concern, I think), silky fur coat and are incredibly playful and active. Just by looking at them, they look like your regular 2+ year-old cats.

I'm including a photo of the immune support tabs (maybe someone has any experience with them?) and another one of my beauties)

Thank you for reading my long post and in advance for any advice!!!

 

[Kefa]

Well, not to give you medical advice, but here is my personal experience and what I would do.

I had one cat with FIV and FelV (Buster) and three other cats that never got sick at all with either although they all tested positive for FIV antibodies. (Bogart, Kallie and Pooh) Buster was diagnosed when he was about six years old, and he was very very ill. (all my cats were about the same age but were not related). I force fed him baby food when he refused to eat, and the vet gave him vitamin B12 shots weekly. I made him his own cat food with sweet potato and added vitamins for his diarrhea, although knowing what I know now, I would have used pumpkin instead. Buster recovered, although he did relapse a few times with infections. He finally died at 17 years old, he relapsed and was just too sick and he was suffering so I let him go. Kallie died to a cancer in her throat that was very hard to diagnose and by the time they figured it out, it was too late; Bogart lost both his ears to skin cancer and one eye to injury, he had finally had a stroke and I had to have him put to sleep. Pooh lived to 21 before she just died one night in her sleep.

I would get them both tested. And vaccinated. I am not sure about the value of those immune support tabs, they are a herbal concoction. Cats don't have all the enzymes necessary to digest plant materials, so whether those DO anything good for cats I don't know. What I gave mine was a vitamin and mineral supplement that I got from a feed store the brand of which I no longer remember but it was for dogs and cats and they all loved it. I did NOT give it daily.

I looked up the evidence on milk thistle, the primary ingredient of those tabs, and found this site. As I suspected the evidence for dog and cat benefits really hasn't been studied enough to suit me. I would check out all the other ingredients if I were you.

Milk Thistle in Dogs and Cats | The SkeptVet

 

[Kathrin17]

Wow, that's quite some experience you have, thank you so much for sharing it and for your advice!

I've read a lot about cat immune support supplements, such as Echinacea root, Thymus extract, Vitamins A, E, C and B, Omega 3 Fatty Acids, Lysine... sooo many and no 100% concrete evidence that any of them work and none of them have been studied enough... also, no concrete instructions on how to use them, all of the information I've found was more of a "it seems it might help" kind, from both personal reviews and vet articles... I figured this one might be the optimal option (I don't remember why I chose that one in particular, I dove into hardcore research over three months ago and don't remember at this point), but I hold no illusion that it is a cure of any sorts. Just a booster, perhaps, and, perhaps, rather a psychological booster for me, that I'm helping in some way In any case, I thought it wouldn't hurt and it might, just might, help in some way.

How about that vitamin and mineral supplement-did that give any visible result, did it help in any way? Was it a multi-vitamin kind of thing? And why didn't you give it daily? Did you give it in courses of like a week or just a one-time thing when your cats seemed to need it?

Thank you!

 

[Kefa]

I can say that the vet giving him a vitamin B12 shot helped immensely. It would make him feel much better, and give him back his appetite. I didn't give the multivitamin daily because some vitamins like A and minerals like iron can cause liver problems, heck I don't even take daily vitamins. For the vitamin I put in Buster's food I used a kitten supplement that had B vitamins, vitamin K, calcium and taurine and that was it, because with his diarrhea I was worried he wasn't absorbing enough from his food. I think they helped.

I googled "scientific evidence for milk thistle for cats" to find that article I found.

Since my current cat is a dietary nightmare, I have been doing a lot of research myself.

You might want to google salicylates and cats and oxalate and cats. I was doing this because I was trying to find out if his grass addiction was harmful. Generally, I found that most plants are just not good for cats because they don't have the enzymes to digest or deal with them so that makes me doubt that "herbal" supplements can do any good. If the cat can't process the beneficial chemicals out of the supplement, they can't help. I did find out that Johnson grass when under stress can make a chemical that converts to cyanide. Silly cat. He gets no more Johnson Grass.