FIV - bad news on the FIV front

Status
Not open for further replies.
OLM Catnip Cottage

OLM Catnip Cottage

Very Active Member
I brought one of my cats in for a checkup. Franklin has lived with us for about 8 years now. He is not a foster, he is my cat.

We have had FIV positive cats live with our cats in the past. Tommy is FIV and currently lives with them. They do NOT fight. Tommy and Franklin have never been fighters, they are lovers. They are all altered, so no nookie. They do share food and water, but all that I've read and learned is that FIV is a weak virus. It is not commonly transmitted in the air, by casual contact. It takes repetetive deep biting wounds, or sexual contact - transmitted by body fluids, is what I've read and learned.

So - how is it that Franklin, an indoor only gentle lover of a boy, who has never had a cut or wound in 8 years, just tested positive for FIV. He was negative 2 years ago. His only contact was casual contact with Tommy.

This changes everything, and not for the better....

I am having the Western Blot test run to show if it is only exposure, or if he is infected. But, he is showing some symptoms - his lymph nodes are swollen and his mouth has infection.
 
Maureen:

I don't have a clue about FIV. I just feel bad for lover kitty Franklin. I hope someone comes by and can offer you some help. All I can do is offer prayers.

Tina
 
oh geez maureen. I haven't a clue but now ya got me afeared. Twinkie is FIV+. he has been with my guys for a few days but no one has shared anything or bit anyone. course the bOYZ only have 3 teeth each.
hope someone has an answer
 
Oh dear.

How many times has Franklin been tested? Obviously the best case scenario is for this to be a false positive, rather than false negatives occurring before. IIRC, the snap test has a 90% accuracy meaning that some degree of false positives occur. Your Western blot should tell you more (although this, too, can give false results as can any other test).

Swollen lymph nodes are not uncommon with oral infection so it's possible that he has a tooth root abscess or some such coincidental problem.

BTW if this was FeLV, I would say that Franklin was likely to have been infected all along. A lot of cats can "store" FeLV in their bone marrow and have no trace of it in their blood for years. This is why cats at my hospital that are anemic or febrile for no obvious reason, or who are diagnosed with lymphoma or leukemia, are re-tested to check for active virus. I've actually read of a few cases where they only get a positive FeLV from a bone marrow test--the virus works actively in the marrow but is cleaned up out of the blood by the cat's immune system.

Also, FIV differs from FeLV in that if he's truly positive, he'll stay that way. Cats exposed to FeLV may fight it off and have a temporary positive. Cats with FIV --- like humans with HIV --- stay infected once infected. FIV/HIV have very strong infection rates so cats/humans who are truly exposed will almost always be permanently infected.

I do some research tomorrow at work to see if anyone has ever heard of casual transmission between cats. I *think* I read of a human case where someone became infected but the only possible means was through saliva exchange (kissing) but it was a one-in-a-billion type case. Saliva does contain the virus but only in very low amounts. Could severe oral disease/damaged mucous membranes increase the risk of the uninfected cat? Or what if the infected cat drinks/eats and gets a small amount of blood into the dish, and the other cat comes along shortly after? Both good questions, I think it's theoretically possible but, as with many "theoretical" things, it may not happen in the real world. Theoretically, could fleas or ticks transmit the virus? As far as I know no one has proven it.

Actually I just did a pubmed search and found this:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1081 ... rom=pubmed
Which I'll cut and paste here:

Vet Rec. 2000 Apr 8;146(15):419-24.
Long-term impact on a closed household of pet cats of natural infection with feline coronavirus, feline leukaemia virus and feline immunodeficiency virus
Department of Veterinary Pathology, University of Glasgow Veterinary School, Bearsden.

A closed household of 26 cats in which feline coronavirus (FCoV), feline leukaemia virus (FeLV) and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) were endemic was observed for 10 years. [snip] The FeLV infection was self-limiting because all seven of the initially viraemic cats died within five years and the remainder were immune. Nine cats were initially FIV-positive and six more cats became infected during the course of the study, without evidence of having been bitten. The FIV infection did not adversely affect the cats' life expectancy.
Click to expand...

Well, yikes. But note that I can't find another study showing something similar.

I'm hoping that you just got a false + today though and Franklin will come up negative from here on out. With the amount of cats that you test, surely someone has to be in that small % that gets a false result. Fingers crossed.
 
Oh for heaven's sake, I just found this:

Parasitol Res. 2003 Dec;91(6):467-70. Epub 2003 Oct 14.
Evidence of horizontal transmission of feline leukemia virus by the cat flea ( Ctenocephalides felis).
Vobis M, D'Haese J, Mehlhorn H, Mencke N.
Institute for Zoomorphology, Cell Biology and Parasitology, Heinrich-Heine University, 40225, Düsseldorf, Germany.

The feline leukemia virus (FeLV) is a naturally occurring and widespread retrovirus among domestic cats. The virus is mainly transmitted horizontally through saliva, blood and other body fluids by close contact between cats. Vectors other than cats, e.g. blood-sucking parasites, have not been reported. This study tested the vector potential of the cat flea ( Ctenocephalides felis) for FeLV. In a first feeding, fleas were fed for 24 h with blood from a FeLV-infected cat with persistent viremia. FeLV could be detected in the fleas, as well as in their feces. Fleas were then divided in two populations and fed in a second feeding for 5 h or 24 h with non-infected non-viremic blood. FeLV was again detected in the fleas and their feces. In addition, the two resulting blood samples of the second feeding were subsequently tested for FeLV and both samples were positive for FeLV RNA. The cat flea transmitted the FeLV from one blood sample to another. In a third feeding, the same populations of fleas were fed again with non-infected blood for 5 h or 24 h. This time FeLV was not detected in the fleas, or in the feces or blood samples. Results show that cat fleas are potential vectors for FeLV RNA in vitro and probably also in vivo.
Click to expand...

Basically they let fleas feed on an FeLV cat, tested the fleas' blood and feces, and found FeLV. They then let the fleas feed on FeLV-negative blood samples and found FeLV in the blood samples after they were done. This doesn't prove "live" transmission as the FeLV-negative feeding was on blood not on a live cat (so you could argue something about the feeding process on a live animal may disrupt transmission, or the immune cells in the cat's skin may disable the virus) but it's still scary.

This study with calicivirus was unfortunately done with all live cats and transmission though flea bites and exposure to flea feces was successful:

Parasitol Res. 2009 Jul;105(1):185-9. Epub 2009 Mar 10.
Transmission of feline calicivirus via the cat flea (Ctenocephalides felis).
Mencke N, Vobis M, Mehlhorn H, D Haese J, Rehagen M, Mangold-Gehring S, Truyen U.
Bayer Animal Health GmbH, Leverkusen, Germany. norbert.mencke@bayerhealthcare.com
In this study, a possible role of the cat flea (Ctenocephalides felis) in transmitting feline calicivirus (FCV) was examined. Fleas were fed via artificial membranes with FCV-spiked bovine blood, free of anti-FCV antibodies. Flea feces were collected daily for 10 days and incubated at room temperature. Infectivity of the feces was tested in vitro using Crandell-Reese Feline Kidney (CRFK) cells. FCV remained infectious for 8 days. These flea feces were also used to oronasally inoculate four specific pathogen-free (SPF) kittens. All kittens were successfully infected as demonstrated by virus isolation from pharyngeal swabs and seroconversion. Two of the cats showed, in addition, clinical signs. Besides the infection of cats with flea feces containing FCV, four SPF kittens were exposed to fleas that were fed with FCV-spiked bovine blood. One of the kittens was successfully infected via this route as demonstrated by virus isolation from pharyngeal swabs and virus isolation. The results of this study show that fleas can spread infectious virus through their feces or by stitch and must be considered a source of infection for uninfected cats.
Click to expand...
 
OH no Maureen, this is not what you needed.. (((((((((((((((((((MAUREEN)))))))))))))))

Crossing all paws for Franklin and sending lots of false negative vibes.

OMG I so meant false positive... sheesh, and noone corrected me!!! EEEKKKK!!
 
oh, no! i'm just gonna retain hope that this was a false positive, which happens. praying that that's the situation. (((HUGS)))
 
well, if it makes you feel better, my friend had an FIV cat for 10+ years. This kitty had kittens before they found out she had FIV. They were devistated as back then they didn't know too much about FIV. Well, mama has passed on about 2 years now.

The "babies" are now reaching 14 years old and none of them have ever tested positive nor the dad either.

So, hopefully this was just a false positive. But, you know that FIV is not fatal as FeLV or FIP :thumbup
 
Jess & Earl said:
Actually I just did a pubmed search and found this:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1081 ... rom=pubmed
Which I'll cut and paste here:

Vet Rec. 2000 Apr 8;146(15):419-24.
Long-term impact on a closed household of pet cats of natural infection with feline coronavirus, feline leukaemia virus and feline immunodeficiency virus
Department of Veterinary Pathology, University of Glasgow Veterinary School, Bearsden.

A closed household of 26 cats in which feline coronavirus (FCoV), feline leukaemia virus (FeLV) and feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) were endemic was observed for 10 years. [snip] The FeLV infection was self-limiting because all seven of the initially viraemic cats died within five years and the remainder were immune. Nine cats were initially FIV-positive and six more cats became infected during the course of the study, without evidence of having been bitten. The FIV infection did not adversely affect the cats' life expectancy.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

I have myriad questions about this study, the accuracy of testing 10 years ago, and whether the results have been duplicated . . . but IF one is to believe the results to be true, my bottom line question is "so what does this really mean?" In other words, if the FIV infection did not adversely affect the cats' life expectancy, at what point does the FIV status become academic?

Don't misunderstand, I'd never want to intentionally infect a cat with anything, or greatly increase the risk of doing so, especially if it's a life threatening disease. And I, like Jess, have wondered about the possibility of mosquitoes and fleas being a vector for transmission. I mean, who hasn't ever had a mosquito venture into their home?

I'm just not sure what to make of all this.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top