CASTAWAY CRITTERS
The James A. Hueholt Memorial Foundation for Animals

PLACING POSITIVE CATS

The following is an excerpt from Best Friends No More Homeless Pets Forum,  7/8/2003: Placing positive cats

Question from a member:
One of the biggest questions we get is placing FIV and FelV positive cats.
We have heard of a few sanctuaries, but they are out of state and we don't
know if they are reputable or not so we are hesitant to recommend them.
what kinds of ideas can you give for people trying to place these types of
cats?

Best Friends Network Coordinator Beata's response:

Generally, the first thing we recommend is to have the cat's test result
confirmed by a Western Blot test. Most veterinary hospitals run an in-house
test called an ELISA. If this test is positive, a confirming IFA test should
be sent off to a laboratory. The ELISA test can give false positive
results, so it should never be used on its own to make a diagnosis of FIV
and/or FeLV.

If you would like more information about testing for FIV/FeLV, the American
Association of Feline Practitioners Academy of Feline Medicine has the most
complete and up-to-date document on testing and retesting for both FIV and
FeLV. The document is called "Recommendations for Feline Retrovirus Testing"
and it is available at:
http://www.aafponline.org/about/guidelines_retrovirus.pdf

Regrettably, there is still some ignorance and misconception about FIV, even
among people who consider themselves animal lovers. And many vets are still
not educated about FIV since the virus was only discovered 15 years ago.
FIV is not easily spread. It is transmitted almost exclusively through
serious, penetrating bite wounds. When introduced properly into a household
with cat-friendly cats, FIV-positive kitties can live safely with
FIV-negative kitties.  In many cases this opens up many other placement
options for an FIV+ kitty.

It has been estimated that the majority of FIV+ cats never become ill and
they don't generally die from the virus. From what we have seen, FIV+ cats
are more likely to lose their lives because they have tested positive, have
been relinquished to a shelter, and no one is willing to take them.
You might enjoy reading this article about FIV from a recent issue of Best
Friends magazine:  http://www.bestfriends.org/sanctuary/creature/FIV.htm

We always encourage our callers to find homes for the kitties themselves by
offering them support and resources. FeLV+ kitties can be more challenging
to place. The most likely options for placement are to try to find a home
with another FeLV-positive kitty or a home with no other cats. Encourage
your callers to try contacting local vets to see if they have clients with
FeLV+ cats, or with experience with FeLV, who might be interested in
adopting another cat. There are quite a few websites available where you can
post FIV/FeLV+ kitties for adoption. The priority is to find a good home for
the cat - no matter where. If a possible placement is found out of state,
there are transportation resources available. And sometimes we can help by
sending out a network message to our Best Friends Network members to help
with transportation or foster homes.

We do offer our callers resources of other shelters/sanctuaries that work
with FIV/FeLV+ kitties. However, we have not checked them out. Even if we
attempted to do so, management and policies can change suddenly. We strongly
suggest that you have your callers check out organizations themselves before
surrendering an animal to any facility.

Please feel free to contact bfnetwork@bestfriends.org for adoption website
resources.