Hi all
I had a call today from a friend of one of our volunteers. This lady has just discovered her 10yr old rescue cat has FIV and is very poorly.. The story is as follows.
The cat was rescued from another CP branch 3yrs ago.. The took her on with her young male kitten. Mum was spayed after that last litter, puss was thus spayed quite late in life. All was fine until Oct 07 where the cat was diagnosed with mammary cancer. This was dealt with very promptly by the vets and the cat recovered very well, despite have to go back once more to make sure they had got all the infected issue. Cat was fine until a few weeks ago where she was found to be unwell and had a swelling nr her throat.. Despite treatment at the vets no vet was sure of the problem and it condition got worse... Tests were carried on Monday this week and the results came back positive for FIV.. They were advised that the cat was very poorly with a condition that they havent work out what is wrong, but the FIV results have become the forfront of the treatment. The lady saw the vet today where told her what FIV was etc.. The cat is still at the vets waiting a decision to continue treatment for FIV (interferon or something) or PTS now.. The cat isnt very well but on a drip and although takes notice of the owner and is a very affectionate cat the outlook is poor. The lady rang me up for advice, although no expert on these things... I just wonder why the cat was tested for this when having the mammary cancer removed.. Not sure if the CP branch she came from routinely test of FIV or did do 3yrs ago..
The son of this cat is 3yrs old and fine, although they have suggested it might be wise to test this cat... The mum cat is very much an indoor puss but has been know to get into fights in the past with other cats..
Such a difficult case and the owner was very upset as you can imagine. The cat is insured and other then this setback in Oct has been a healthy happy, loving cat..
The son of the owner is not well and is having to go into hospital soon, the prospect of the cat being PTS would upset him a great deal, but they want to do the right thing..
There has been no mouth problems as one would expect with FIV cat and the test was done inhouse, but the owner is aware (because the vet told her) that there is a Bristol test available but he thinks that is a cut and dry case.
What the lady really wanted i suppose is reassurance that FIV is not a death sentence. The cat would need to stay on tablets for the foresable future to control FIV (not sure what this way by the way) but it may prove to be difficult to make sure the cat gets this due to the cats son being around.
She does work so not around to see to a poorly cat.
If the continue with treatment they will try and stablise her and start treatment on Monday, but they have told the lady she is not a good candidate and this may be just prolonging the decision to PTS later on..
The cat is being treated at a vet that she has used in the past and is happy with and they are a very up market practice with modern facilities.
Really difficult call.... this one..there isnt going to be a easy answer..
