Another cat I just put down/that's 3 in 2 years. Bummer~~~~~

This was a black and white somewhat square faced cute neighborhood stray(called him FELIX because he had that type coloration and look, especially in the face), he was probably close to 10 years old so they say based on dental view, that found its way to my doorstep about 2 years ago and pretty much hung out ever since, and befriended another stray that had been around a few years longer. He was very skiddish at 1st and it took months of coaxing and befriending to get him to trust me enough to pet him and brush him, clean his ears out, etc. I was pleased that I pretty much tamed him and he never ever hissed or scowled at anyone. They both seem healthy, rarely if ever seen them cough or sneeze. They were both fixed by previous owners thankfully so I saw no problem with population control, and so I let them be. With a ton of my own indoor guys I couldnt afford to take anymore in as you can imagine. This past summer I offered the garage as a place to sleep, shelter, eat, when they felt like it, leaving the door just open enough for them to come and go. When it was cold they came in and hung out in boxes or inside the dryer LOL..or inside my car if the window was rolled down. During the day they often slept outside in the sun or under a tree, not always side by side but sometimes in close proximity. I think my yard is the only yard where you would see this image repeatedly and we have over 200 houses in the neighborhood. Almost embarassing to a degree, but I didn't dwell on that. So Friday evening I noticed he didnt come back to eat like usual nor come in when it got chilly. I looked around and called for him but no luck. I figured maybe he just wandered off to scout around a bit as cats sometimes do and didn't think he would be injured because I am not that close to a major road and these cats often just hung out aroound my yard or in a few yards either side of me. Finally around 1130 Fri night I found him over on the side of the house laying there on his stomach but he wouldn't come over to me, even with food in hand. I figured something was wrong because you know after a while what kind of behavior is normal in your cat and what type is abnormal. I managed to bring him inside the garage and wrapped him up in a towel and had a small space heater in there when it gets chilly It was in the 50s last night but for me thats chilly..LOL! He basically was lethargic all night and very unresponsive, and my 1st instinct was urinary prob or fecal obstruction as these were the downfalls of my previous 2 cats 2 yrs ago. Ended up taking him without appointment to the local shelter med clinic where they ran a leuk/aids test on him and found him to be POSITIVE for AIDS, neg for Leuk. By this time he had difficulty breathing and was hardly moving at all, very lethargic. Whats amazing is how FAST this downfall hit him as I never noticed any probs up until 2 days ago, because he ate and drank and hung around and disappeared like he usually did. So of course the only option was to put him down and of course I stayed as usual for the whole thing, the people at the clinic were wonderfully compassionate, every last one of them. Didn't even charge me for the leuk test and I was only charged 25 for the Euth. I stopped at Walmart, and bought as I did the other 2 Euths. a medium sized plastic storage bim with lid to bury him in, and got home, dug the hole, took a couple of pics and a clip of fur as a memoir, and that was it. I'm hoping his other cat friend of the last 2 years doesn't have a weird reaction and go off and disappear or freak out, however more importantly I need to take her in and have her tested just in case because they shared food and water bowls. But according to the vet, AIDS is transmitted primarily through a bite wound and I don't think these 2 ever fought, but you never know. I may have to repeat this scenario again, altho this other cat seems healthy as a horse. But as I just saw, looks can be deceiving.

Has anyone else had a similar experience with a feline AIDS cat where it just suddenly hit them like a rock? Perhaps he was sick all along and just hid it well I dunno, the vet thought maybe he even got hit by a car or had a building tumor that finally took its toll.

Anyways after a few tears and some consoling words from the vet, I feel I did the humane thing to put him out of his misery. Luckily he didnt seem to suffer too long and I asked him (as only a cat owner would understand) to say HI to the other 2 guys that I had lost before him.

 

you did a very humane thing for this cat.

 

Thanks, I kinda missed him not being around last night, hanging in the garage nearby his other little companion. She is staying in the garage, probably hoping he shows up, even tho' it's a nice mild day outside and she'd normally be outside. Tomorrow is her D-day as I have to check her out for any diseases, and altho she seems healthy right now for an outdoor cat, not sure what I should do if they tell me she has AIDS or LEUK.

Here's a pic of Felix I took before I buried him(*sorry its a pic of a dead cat but I propped him up to look like he was sleeping..good GOD where do I get the strength?). I had to borrow my neighbors digital real quick because I don't own one and they emailed me the pic. Wasn't that nice??

 

I'm very sorry.

We just lost a 6 month old kitty to feline leukemia, found out one of our other cats got it (but thankfully she's not symptomatic), and we just adopted another non-symptomatic feleuk kitty (we knew she was positive when we adopted her).

My mom has managed to read just about everything on the internet about feleuk (not so much on FIV since we aren't dealing with that). Basically they're both viruses that cause immune deficiency (like human AIDS). A positive test result isn't an immediate death sentence, though. It is possible for positive cats (both feleuk & FIV) to live long, fairly normal lives. The biggest thing is to limit their exposure to illness and you also don't really want them exposed to unvaccinated negative cats that they can spread it to (which basically means they should be strickly indoor cats).

What I would do, is get the other cat tested. If she's negative, I'd go ahead and get her vaccinated and keep her vaccinated and maybe test periodically just to be sure since the vaccines aren't always 100% effective (with feleuk, though, it's very rare for an adult cat to get it, they're generally more susceptible as kittens - not sure about FIV, though). If she's positive and not showing any signs, I would either take her in and keep her separated from your other cats (you could maybe get your other cats vaccinated and let them interact, but there is some risk there so it's up to you to decide if you want to chance it), or you could look around and try to find a rescue group that will take her in. But if you go that route, really look into the group and make sure they actually know what they're dealing with. We visited a rescue group a couple weeks ago that had a lot of feleuk & FIV cats but they weren't separating the sick ones so every single one of them had respiratory problems & such (not a good thing for kitties with weakened immune systems).

-Chelle

 

I'm sorry for your loss. :cry: Most of us here have lost one or more fur animals and it's never easy. Hang in there.

 

Thanks for the comments and advice. The odd thing is I never really considered him MY cat per se, even tho he hung out primarily in my yard and garage for the last couple of years. I never took him in for shots or anything, I basically just tried to give him a decent place to hang out and feel comfortable, and he took advantage of that at his own whim. At first he was rather skiddish and didn't like me or anyone to come near him. Then he slowly worked his way up to allowing me to pet him, brush his fur, clean his ears, check for ticks, things like that. And almost every time I'd drive home and pull into the garage, he and the other cat would be waiting near the garage door as if I had something special waiting for them inside. So I was so proud that I was able to tame/domesticate this beast (and the other one too), that comes from a species of many hard to tame creatures. He had a very cute and unique face and great colorings, a bit hard to tell from the pic. I will still miss him tho.

 

That is so sad. You did the right thing however difficult. I'm still aching for Ginger, the stray cat that I had to PTS. It never gets any easier. *HUGS* Felix was a cutie and will be properly missed.

 

Good news on the other cat, She appears to be HIV/Leuk free per test taken today, so went ahead and gave her a full round of shots/deworming. THE SPCA med clinics and the people there are great and so much less expensive than my regular vet. 96 bux for everything. Would have cost me close to 150 at reg vet. Amazing that she has lived outdoors this long(at least 5 years is best guess) and was not infected. So now the dilemna I have is whether to keep her outside as she is used to being, even tho she no longer has FELIX around, or to take her inside and add her to the brood-a-plenty and go thru the extra hassle of an extra litter box and the weeks if not months of hissing and fussing with everyone getting used to her. Bad enough one of my other cats is so stressed from UNKNOWN CAUSES(perhaps the added ones adopted over the past year or so) that he has chewed a ton of his fur off everywhere on his body, mainly underneath and his hind legs. Bringing this one inside would probably really freak him out even moreso.
She behaved very well at the vet and I am surprised she didn't take off like a bandit when I let her out of the crate and into the garage when we got home. She has yet to go outside of the garage on her own today that I am aware of and I swear she must need to "use the lavatory" by now.LOL!
I'll have to think long and hard on this one. I still have my leukemia cat that I posted about last JANUARY separated completely from the others in another room and he is doing great and is a cool cat all around. Decisions decisions!