Last week was a rather sad one for us, as we had been trying to work with our vets to save the life of Jack. He was one of a few stray cats who was being kept an eye on by a local, however a couple of weeks ago he disappeared for a couple of days.
When he next arrived he very uncharacteristically wanted to lay down in the conservatory and not eat anything. He was also wobbly on his feet and appeared to have lost weight.
The lady gave us a ring to see if we could do anything for him so we took him in and got him seen by the vets. He tested positive for FIV which is very common in unneutered males and is only a problem health-wise if they pick up an infection and don’t receive antibiotics for it.
Unfortunately for Jack he had picked up an infection due to his lowered immune system from the FIV and as a stray he had no one to notice he was sick. As he had likely been trying to fight off this infection for a while, it was likely too late for antibiotics to help.
Despite this we wanted to give it a go anyway, so we put him on antibiotics and re-tested his bloods a few days later to see if his white blood cells and platelets had increased. Unfortunately there was no improvement and his symptoms were getting worse so the vets recommended that he be put to sleep.
We agreed that although it was good we tried, it was the best thing we could do for him so he would no longer be in pain.
A lot of owners still don’t arrange to get their cats neutered, but unfortunately male cats are twice as likely to contract FIV than females because it is transmitted through bite wounds. Unneutered male cats will spend a lot of time roaming and fighting other male cats, but once they’re neutered they tend not to roam or want to guard any kind of territory.
There are lots of schemes available to help you get your cats neutered if money is an issue, so please consider it if you haven’t already. See our financial assistance page for details of how we may be able to assist.
RSPCA South London - For Every Kind Of Creature 