FIV investigation

[NadiaRey]

Hi, good to see you all again. I got the diagnosis for my Gremlin (yeah, a few months after Sueño...) and I came back to investigate here too. Just wanted to comment to say thank you to the people in this forum, again I found a lot here. This is so much good information, and such a big help. I feel a lot better about my own situation, a lot less scared. To LemmonLove and Ana and the owners of all the threads about the subject, best of luck.

I thought about making a summary of recommendations for FIV+ cats - from threads here and other sources too - that others like me can find useful. This is what I got so far.

-Use of Interferon ("omega" type preferable for felines)
-Use of essential fatty acids (vegetable oils, soybeans oil, pumpkin/flax seeds, and plant extracts, ie Evening Primrose oil)
-Take care of teeth (apple vinegar suggested)
-If in need of antibiotics, in FIV+ cats it takes longer than usual to take effect. (Note: antibiotics found naturally in spices such as oregano)
-Avoid stress (chamomile and catnip spray suggested)
-Use of acidophilus probiotics (supplements, but plain yogurt useful too)
-Use of lysine (suplements only with infection present; and naturally found in meat, fish, soy and dairy -last not recommended for cats-)
-Use of Lactoferrin (glycoprotein, found naturally in breast milk)
-Use CoQ10 (coenzyme, found naturally in organ meat - ie heart, kidneys)
-Use of DMG (n n-dimethylglycine (VetriScience), naturally found in beans and liver. Recommended for stress, organ function)
-Use of T-Cyte (T-cells immune modulator)
-Use of jellyfish in diet (succesful experiment using it along rhesus monkey's genes eliminated FIV from kittens infected by their mother)
-Use of cephalopods mollusca and decapods crustacea in diet* (various evidence of species eliminating virus in general from continuous exposure, the working hypothesis is the presence of copper (virus-killer) in their blood -look up hemocyanin-.)
-Use of remdesivir* (recently discovered to be able to successfully cure cats with peritonitis virus, which is covid for cats. And is also being used as treatment againt covid for humans today, same as Interferon.)

(And yes, I have been investigating this paralelly to the covid-19 pandemic, thus the commentary. I was researching about seafood looking for anti-virus effects, just when I got the diagnosis in my cat. I guess I'll have the opportunity to test this theory...)

I leave this with you in case people here can find it useful too.
Good luck to you all.

 

[kittenmittens84]

I would use caution when you’re looking at plants like oregano or plant extracts, a lot of them can be stomach irritants for cats and some are toxic to cats. A lot of essential oils are also toxic to cats!

While remdesivir is also an antiviral, FIV is from a different family of viruses than FCoV. FIV is much more similar to HIV. Anecdotally I have heard of AZT being used for FIV+ cats, but lots of those HAART human antivirals have some hefty side effects in people so possibly that’s why they’re not more widely used against FIV.

 

[NadiaRey]

Hey, KittenMittens. I thank you for your input. You are right. I didn't know about oregano, and it's a lot of help. Honestly, I remember using it on Sueño back when she had her condition since I was looking for natural antiinflamatory things. So I seem to have forgotten all about this effect if I ever read about it. (I wish I could buy fish oil, this wouldn't have happened...)

Gremlin seems to be down since yesterday. And I suspected I might have "overdosed" him phosphore via an excess of calamari and shrimp. Now I see oregano is another suspect. And here I was giving it to him *because* I thought he looked in pain and antiinflamatories seemed like a good idea... I feel like such a moron. I should know better by now than to ginea pig my cat like this. Idiot.

While we are on the subject, does anyone knows if there's a similar risk, as in giving a act too much, with apple vinegar? I sensed his teeth started hurting and that, along his throat making sounds like he has a congestion, lead me to this idea of making him lick the vinegar from his mane so it will get in his mouth and hopefully deal with both problems with one stone... Can I poison him doing this? Nothing I read from the internet seems to indicate this. Maybe you know better right now.