Marilyn and her kitties left behind (long warning!)

Adrian wrote:
FIV can only be transmitted by bodily fluids, just the same as HIV.
People that say sharing a litter box or food dish can spread it are
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
by an FIV cat, then going into a grooming session, licking the traces
of someone else's busines off his paws, and contracting the virus?

Unless the cat has open sores or cuts in its mouth no problem, if it has
there is a very tiny risk.

Bransy has a history of gingivitis, and is always a little bit pink around a
couple of molars, despite daily brushing and the Mouth Rinse of Evil. Would
this be a reason for concern?

Blessed be,
Baha

--
Message posted via CatKB.com
http://www.catkb.com/Uwe/Forums.aspx...dotes/200801/1

you are truly a nice person, Lee
Baha via CatKB.com u18616@uwe wrote in message news:7eb4653ad4355@uwe...
The poor dear things, don't realize their Mama's gone into her own
retirement
and they wander about her place looking for her.

The service was at the mortuary and they got a local minister to do it. It
was a small and quiet memorial; I wish Michelle had been granted her wish
to
speak though. I don't know if anyone knew just how stubborn Marilyn could
be:
this little, skinny woman once held a pack of city police at bay because
cats
were found in an abandoned building that was going to be demolished, and
she
stood there telling the cops to collectively do somethng involving their
mothers and the breaking of certain commandments as clearly outlined in
the
Old Testament. Such was her passion for the animals who needed her. She
did
not need to go passing tracts and whacking people upside the head with her
Bible; she lived the Christian witness without all the yammering and
thumping
one might associate more negatively with a born-again person.

The house is to be sold, the proceeds to go to a joint venture benefitting
Hospice, the ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) Association, and local animal
shelters including Tenth Chance. The family are rather beside themselves
over
this unexpected bequest. Michelle of Tenth Chance has practically
threatened
the brother-in-residence to keep those remaining cats indoors, for we
learned
today that one of the ten is FIV+.

I don't know if ALS makes you a little whacked up in the head or what--not
crazy, but confused. I knew Marilyn before that evil disease came and ate
her
nervous system up; she was religious about vetting her cats and when she
did
have one FIV case a couple of years ago she was stringent about
sequestering
her. So why this adoptee of three years is running about among the other
cats,
I've no clue. Not like Marilyn, unless ALS does something to cloud the
judgement; I will cast no aspersions on her, for she was my friend, she
was
sick and it's not kosher to speak ill of our dead.

Michelle, the shelter president, has taken the cat in question to her own
place, which has a large spacious room set aside for FIV cases. If
Sebastian--
a large, fat, healthy-so-far fella--doesn't get adopted out to a nice
loving
one-cat household, he will not lack good care and love from the shelter
folks.
So William of Orange has not come home with us today. He will be tested
tomorrow, as will all the others. Louie and I decided to pay for their
testing so the negative ones can be adopted out sooner and hopefully not
have
to be quarantined; and the positive ones can be either placed with
conscientious and competent servants or live their lies in the cat-aids
sactuary. It was the least we could do for Marilyn, make sure her babies
are
okay.

If and when my book gets sold, a tithe of all proceeds will be placed in a
charitable trust which we will set up in Marilyn's memory, to benefit the
shelters. There are things beyond my scope of ability, but tis thing at
least
I can do to make the world a nicer neighborhood; and God willing, it'll
spread.

Blessed be,
Baha

--
Message posted via http://www.catkb.com

Bransy has a history of gingivitis, and is always a little bit pink
around a
couple of molars, despite daily brushing and the Mouth Rinse of Evil. Would
this be a reason for concern?

Blessed be,
Baha

To put it bluntly, NO. I think that you are stressing over things that
are not there, I really do. If it helps any, FWIW, I personally
wouldn't really think twice about offering an FIV+ kitty a home.
Providing he/she was non-agressive, I'd be more than happy to
integrate them into my clowder. All you need to do is be aware that
their immune system is compromised, so if they got a bug, you'd need
to be doubly careful to monitor and get them to TED.

I suspect that my Cleo is FIV+ because of on-going eye issues and
sniffles etc, however I can't be bothered to test her as it would make
not one iota of difference to how I treat her daily and it wouldn't
affect how I treat her in my household.

Helen M

wrote:

I suspect that my Cleo is FIV+ because of on-going eye issues and
sniffles etc, however I can't be bothered to test her as it would make
not one iota of difference to how I treat her daily and it wouldn't
affect how I treat her in my household.

That could be herpes... I speak as one with a 10-year-old herpes kitty.
Those are the symptoms. The treatments would be different than for FIV.
Myabe she should have an eye scrape? (I know, sounds gross, but it's
not that bad.)

Joyce
--
To send email to this address, remove the triple-X from my user name.

Baha via CatKB.com wrote:
The poor dear things, don't realize their Mama's gone into her own retirement
and they wander about her place looking for her.


I'm very sorry for your loss - and the cats' loss, of course. We will be
purring for you all.

--
Marina, Miranda and Caliban. In loving memory of Frank and Nikki.

On 24 Jan., 23:06, "Baha via CatKB.com" u18616@uwe wrote:
Adrian wrote:
FIV can only be transmitted by bodily fluids, just the same as HIV. People
that say sharing a litter box or food dish can spread it are quite frakly
talking nonsense.

So in this case, what is the likeloood of a cat going into a box used by an
FIV cat, then going into a grooming session, licking the traces of someone
else's busines off his paws, and contracting the virus?

--
Message posted viahttp://www.catkb.com

My vet told me that the FIV-virus can only live seconds/minutes
outside a body.
And it can only enter a body through open wounds.
So if a FIV cat is neutered and is no fighter, there is little risk of
passing that virus on.

On Jan 24, 1:00*pm, "Baha via CatKB.com" u18616@uwe wrote:
I don't know if anyone knew just how stubborn Marilyn could be:
this little, skinny woman once held a pack of city police at bay because cats
were found in an abandoned building that was going to be demolished, and she
stood there telling the cops to collectively do somethng involving their
mothers and the breaking of certain commandments as clearly outlined in the
Old Testament.

I wish I had seen that ! What a feisty lady she must have been!

The house is to be sold, the proceeds to go to a joint venture benefitting
Hospice, the ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) Association, and local animal
shelters including Tenth Chance. The family are rather beside themselves over
this unexpected bequest.

They should shrug and say "It's what she wanted, it's her house after
all". Sadly I know of cases were people think they have sort of God
given right to something! I got money out of my mum's estate but I
would give it all back if that could bring her back and my only
consolation is that that was what she wanted. She was always proud she
and dad could leave something so we wouldn't all be poor in our old
age. But unless you are tallking about someone having a financial
responsibility for someone then it's none of the families business,


I don't know if ALS makes you a little whacked up in the head or what--not
crazy, but confused.


Nope as someone else had said the tragic thing is it doesn't affect
your mind. But the mobility issues may have made it harder for her to
get the cats to a vet


So William of Orange has not come home with us today. He will be tested
tomorrow, as will all the others. Louie and I decided to pay for their
testing so the negative ones can be adopted out sooner and hopefully not have
to be quarantined; and the positive ones can be either placed with
conscientious and competent servants or live their lies in the cat-aids
sactuary. It was the least we could do for Marilyn, make sure her babies are
okay.

Testing is only useful because if a cat is FIV+ then it means you have
to be vigilant about that cats health and have them off to the vets at
the first sniffle. Vinny (RB) the FIV+ cat I sponsored was put down
for a tumour when he was 19. Although I have not had a cat with FIV I
know people who have and the cats have lived long lives and passed on
from unrelated causes (A friend of Dave's had a 20 year old cat who
had been known to be FIV for many years and sucuumbed in the end of
CRF) I would have no problems with offering a home to a healthy cat
with FIV

It'd probably best to compare FIV with HIV. A lot of HIV carriers live
perfectly normal lives some not even on treatment (Believe me I know
this it's my job) they get checked every few months and if certain
parameters suggest they need treatment (low CD4 and high viral load)
they go onto therapy, which whilst it isn't perfect (side effects-
adherence issues) means they live for years and often die of something
unrelated to HIV. Not everyone with HIV has AIDS

As some other people have said FIV can really only be spread by biting
and then even that isn't always an automatic infection. The viruses
involved are incredibly delicate and cannot survive outside the
bloodstream for more than a few seconds. OT a few years ago, Hugh
called me at work, someone had tried to rob the off licence he managed
only to be stopped by a have a go hero who wrestled the guy off but
got cut in the process. Chaz the assistant on duty at the time, helped
the guy and got blood on his clothes. The guy then admitted to being
HIV+. Hugh wanted to know how to deal with the blood, His company paid
for steam cleaning of the pavement outside the front of the shop some
8 or so hours after the blood spill by which time the virus was long
since inactive but they insisted and paid hundreds of pounds. They
also compensated Chaz for his shirt, trousers and shoes, which they
said would have to be burned, Chaz who is wiser than they are, washed
the clothes on a normal cycle, which made them safe and used the
compensation to get an MP3 player.

Its okay to let infected cats in with uninfected one's as long as
you're not talking unneutered toms who may fight. Also it's best to
keep HIV cats indoors (here in the UK where sometimes shelters insist
cats have outdoor access, FIV cats come with the instruction "To be
rehomed to indoor only") but that is as much for their protection as
anyone else's

Lesley

Slave of the Fabulous Furballs

On Thu, 24 Jan 2008 21:00:18 GMT, "Baha via CatKB.com" u18616@uwe
wrote:

The poor dear things, don't realize their Mama's gone into her own retirement
and they wander about her place looking for her.
snip

purrs on the way for all those left behind.

I just a couple thoughts on the FIV issue seeing as I'm coming on this
late and most have already beaten me. From what I've read, FIV is much
harder to transmit than HIV, so like several have already written, not
a BIG worry unless there's a aggressive are very hard playing cat.

Another thing to remember is that the cats who have received the
vaccination have false positives when tested. I went through this
recently with Little Bit. For some still unexplained reason, her rear
legs suddenly became very weak. TED did all kinds of tests, and came
back and told me she was FIV+ Only later, as I was reading up on FIV
did I remember that she and Sammy received the vaccination back when
it first came out.
--
Steve Touchstone,
faithful servant of Sammy, Little Bit, Spot,
Princess and Furby
with loving memories of Rocky (RB)

On 2008-01-24 15:29:12 -0600, "Baha via CatKB.com" u18616@uwe said:

wrote:

I'm so sorry to hear of your friend Marilyn. We'll light a candle for
her.

Thanks...

Re the FIV - it is perfectly OK to keep a non agressive FIV+ cat with
FIV negative cats and it's not likely the neg cats will catch FIV. I
know of several mixed households, my vets included, where FIV+ cats
live perfectly happily with FIV negative cats without *ANY* problems..
It may be the quality of life for the FIV+ cat was better for him by
allowing him to mix in the household.

I guess my worry is Stosh. He's not mean, biting aggressive, but he likes
very physical play. Think of Tigger in those Pooh cartoons, how he'd appear
out of nowhere and pounce on some poor unsuspecting schmuck in the Hundred
Acre Wood. He's not a biter but he does give the occasional "love nip" and he
can spend all afternoon wrestling if given the opportunity. The Duke of
Orange is not an aggressive fella and, to my knowledge, neither is Sebastian;
Sebastian seems rather a wuss from everything I hear, but the worry came up
when he cussed at another cat yesterday and gave a swat.

I'm hearing conflicting stories about FIV transmission; some say it's only
through biting and blood, others say keep the cat sequestered because even
sharing a litter box or food dish can spread it. So now I'm confused as all
hell and my vet office is in conference and I can't even get a tech on the
line.



FIV can absolutely only be spread through biting and deep wounds. FeLV
is much more contageous. I think people mix the two up. It could easily
be that they missed the one cat, and also, tests can be wrong. It
should be tested again as well. My vet does not like to PTS FIV cats as
she feels they are very treatable and as long as they stay healthy and
you aggressively treat any ailments that come up, they can live to a
ripe age, if it never gets to the full blown stage. They should be in a
less stressful environment however. I hope this all comes out well.

Baha via CatKB.com wrote:

The poor dear things, don't realize their Mama's gone into her own retirement
and they wander about her place looking for her.
snip
So William of Orange has not come home with us today. He will be tested
tomorrow, as will all the others. Louie and I decided to pay for their
testing so the negative ones can be adopted out sooner and hopefully not have
to be quarantined; and the positive ones can be either placed with
conscientious and competent servants or live their lies in the cat-aids
sactuary. It was the least we could do for Marilyn, make sure her babies are
okay.

If and when my book gets sold, a tithe of all proceeds will be placed in a
charitable trust which we will set up in Marilyn's memory, to benefit the
shelters. There are things beyond my scope of ability, but tis thing at least
I can do to make the world a nicer neighborhood; and God willing, it'll
spread.

Blessed be,
Baha


Lots and lots of purrs,
Polonca and Soncek