Hi Gillian,
Thanks for caring for these kitties, and for joining FELVtalk - this
is a wonderful group of people. I wasn't clear about what you meant
about FIV, but thought I'd say something about that. I have had FELV
cats for several years, and also FIV cats. Although I do have 2 FELV
cats that are over 10, most seem to die when they're 2-4 years of
age. However, my FIV cats go on forever and have no problems. I just
lost one FIV cat, Hambone, that I've had for 5 years, but he was
approaching 18 years of age. Many vets are cautious about FIV, but we
follow the Best Friends approach - much of the hoopla is just a rumor,
and I think vets don't keep up with the times. Like HIV, FIV is
contagious thru blood transfusion (or deep bite wound) and possibly
breeding (we neuter all our cats). We mix FIV cats with non-FIV cats.
Some mix FELV cats with non-FELV cats (I would if I didn't regularly
adopt out and I don't want to have to test again). I've read and been
told that neither virus is transmitted thru the air.
I rescue cats so cant afford expensive cat food. I feed Science Diet,
from our rescue, and ordinary cat food from the grocery store. If I
had 1 or 2 cats, I'd probably try for high dollar cat food, but this
works for my situation. I do feed wet food every morning, and free-
feed dry food the rest of the time. Everybody has their own approach -
There are some FIV groups out on groups.yahoo.com, btw.
Hope this helps and you have wonderful good fortune with your kitties.
Gloria
On Mar 7, 2009, at 11:00 AM, gillian knebel wrote:
Hello Everyone,
I'm new to this list and am finding it a little difficult to navigate.
I have several cats, most of them were living semi-wild before they
became my house cats. Its probably that some of the have FIV as my
neighbour, the vets assistant, put down one of their relatives
recently. I''ve nursed mine through several bouts of infections (7
cats in all) and would like to know from your experience what is the
best food to keep them as healthy as possible. They are much loved
which helps I think. Thankyou
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