My next foster cat was supposed to be Phoenix, who some horrible
person had
rubber bands put on one of his front legs and he had to spend a lot of
time in the vet
hospital as a result.  It turns out that Phoenix needed more care than
I could give
him (working full time during the day) and one of the vet techs at the
vet's office was
able and willing to foster him and take him to work with her several
times a week to
clean and bandage his leg.  So far so good with keeping his leg.  If
things continue
to heal well, he is able to use that leg with minimal difficultly and
pain, he will not have
to have it amputated.  Good news!

So, on to the Subject.  SPCA of Northern VA has taken in an older cat
with FIV
whose owner had to attend to family emergencies in CA and asked us to
care for
him for a while. We helped him when Sammy was initially rescued 3 or 4
years
ago and he decided  to give Sammy a home despite his FIV.  This is why
he
contacted us again a few months ago. Unfortunately, now this person
won't be coming
back and can't take Sammy there.  To make things difficult, this
person let Sammy
get very obese and he also seems to have developed kidney problems.

Since I didn't have a foster cat now and the foster person caring for
Sammy short term
was moving out of the area and didn't want to adopt Sammy, I offered
to care for him
for a while.  He is a very sweet cat, quite calm (as long as you don't
try to clip his nails),
and very sedentary.  They estimate that he is 8-9 years old.  Like I
mentioned before,
he is very obese.  He moves around with some difficulty, even lying
down and getting up.

I have 5 cats of my own and am concerned with the contagiousness of
FIV.  I have spoken
to one of the vets that we work with, who said that the virus isn't
contagious with casual
contact (same as HIV), but can be passed through blood or biting.  I
usually keep my
foster cats in a bedroom separate from my own cats since my cats are
pretty tired of fosters
coming it and out, so I am not concerned with the FIV passing to my
cats this way.  I try to spend
time with the fosters so they don't get lonely and isolated, although
it is not perfect.
Fortunately they don't usually stay more than a month or two.  Since
Sammy is a very
social cat, I have also been sleeping in the foster room.  My cats
aren't too happy with
this of course, but I feel that Sammy needs more attention and it
seemed comforting for him.

I just wondered if others have had experience with cats with FIV and
the difficulties
of mixing them with non-FIV cats.  Since Sammy is obese AND seems to
have
some kidney problems, I am trying to get him to be more active and to
eat the
kidney food he has been prescribed, as well as monitor the amount he
eats so he can
lose weight, but not too much at one time.  All moot right now because
he definitely will not
eat the kidney food and barely even eats regular food.  So now I'm
concerned about him
getting fatty liver disease.  He has been with me only a week so I'm
sure he is still
settling in and I am probably worrying prematurely.

This is kind of rambling, but it has been on my mind all week.  He is
older, he has
FIV, he is obese, he has kidney problems, he has no home, but he is
just as sweet
as he can be.  Who will adopt him?  I already have 2 cats with health
problems and
I don't want to take on another for financial reasons (although the
SPCA NoVA might
let me take him on as a "forever" foster and cover his medical
bills).   Could he even
mix with my cats without endangering their health?  That has to be my
first concern.

It is a quandary and weighing heavy on my mind.  If you have any
experience, advice
about any of these issues (especially with FIV and/or obesity)  I
would appreciate
you taking a few minutes to pass it on.

Thank you for your ideas and please purr for Sammy and a good
resolution to his
problems.

Debbie