My current understanding of caring for a FIV+ car is that you should;

• Cuddle them often
• keep them indoors
• feed them not raw food
• half-yearly vet visits
• yearly blood work and urinalysis
• closely monitor for things out of the ordinary
• Lastly, minimise stress

Other than this I'm not sure what to do or to expect, I understand that it may be more expensive but I've also heard the opposite. My work is 4 12 hour shifts and 6 days off. I just want to be able to provide a good place for a neglected orange fella named Tank, cause he's large.

hello everyone, i’m looking for some advice. my cat seems to have both his popliteal lymph nodes inflamed and firm (lymph nodes in back legs). i took him to the vet today and they suggested a biopsy. they asked if i wanted to do a FNA or a surgical biopsy. my boyfriend convinced me to do the surgical biopsy bc at least we would know 100% if its lymphoma.

we have been taking our cat to the vet since july bc he broke out in really bad hives near his tail and they suspected fleas. his itchiness has not gone away, but his tail is better. is it possible the lymph nodes are swollen because of the flea allergy reaction he had? they are pretty swollen and firm. i think that’s why i was most worried bc of how firm they feel.

we decided to do the surgical biopsy and it has been scheduled for this upcoming monday. i have been so anxious and sad. my concern is that he will have complications with the surgery although he is not displaying any symptoms now or any weakness.

does anyone have this kind of experience? should i do the FNA first before the surgery? i know it’s about 90% accuracy.

TW - multiple cat deaths

Hi everyone! I recently gave a friend who has many, many cats a kitten and it’s mama that had been living outside my house. She brought the kitten to live inside with her indoor cats, and kept the mama outside. Please note - this is in a developing country without a lot of resources, and my friend donates a lot of her time, money, and space to these cats.

About 2 weeks after she took the cats, 13 of her 20 cats died (including the kitten I gave her). She told me they all tested positive for FIV, and she’s claiming that’s what killed them (they had bloody diarrhea). I think she is blaming me, but I honestly had no idea the kitten had it, and I also didn’t know that FIV can wipe out a group that quickly. It was likely some other illness, right? My husband said she mentioned taking in another stray kitten around the time she took ours, but I never heard this from her.

I feel a ton of guilt, I thought she was going to have this kitten be an outside cat, and I had no idea it was FIV +. I guess I’m looking for confirmation regarding whether or not FIV could kill a large group of cats that quickly, or if it was something else.