Feline Immunodeficiency Virus/ AIDS Of Cats !

What a greater gift than love of a cat ~ Charles Dickens.



There are many of us who love cats more than a dog or any other pet. Their mewing and cuteness is absolute bliss. But like any other pet, cats too are prone to many serious diseases and require proper care and management by cat owner.

If you too are from cat lover community, you may have vague familiarity with one such deadly viral disease- Feline Immunodeficiency Virus, a lentivirus which is very closely related to Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and have very similar effect on body but it is not transmissible between one species to another. It cause T-cell deficiency in domestic cats which in turn make them immunodeficient and they get prone to illness from even normally harmless bacteria, fungi and virus which are found in environment.

Origin of FIV in domestic cats is believed to be from African lion as this virus is even found in a non domestic felidae family. Brown  et al. (1993) mentioned about one such study which revealed about the existence of antigenically similar lentivirus in a large number of non domestic felidae family like it is endemic in East and South African lion population and free range population of cheetah but it do not cause disease in African cats.
     
High incidence of FIV is directly associated with density of cat population, more the density of cat in an area more is a chance of FIV cases.

     Figure 1. Showing distribution of pet cat population in world  © Mapsofworld.com

Q. How it is transmitted?

A. Primary mode of transmission is through bite wound and intact feral male cat is more predisposed to FIV virus than that of female cat. It do not spread by sharing food and water in a same bowl, cuddling or grooming but it is better to keep two cats away to reduce the chances of fight which can give bite wound. If your cat mingle with stray or feral cats unsupervised it is better to have it tested for FIV. As the virus is highly species specific it do not transmit from cats to human or other pets of different species like dogs. 

Q. How you can know if your cat have FIV?

A. You may notice one or more of these following clinical signs and symptoms :

* Enlargement of lymph node often accompanied with fever. Sometimes this stage pass unnoticed unless lymph nodes are greatly enlarged.

* Progressive deterioration of cat's health or recurrent illness.

* Loss of appetite.

* Poor coat condition.

* Inflammation of gums (gingivitis) and mouth (stomatitis).

* Recurrent infection of skin, eyes, urinary bladder and upper respiratory track.

* Diarrhoea

* Some cats may show seizures or other neurological disorders.

Q. How FIV is diagnosed ?

A. Blood sample is examined for antibodies to FIV by Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA ) or Immune Fluorescence Assay (IFA). Positive ELISA is reconfirmed by Western blot. Kittens of infected mother cat can receive positive test result for several months after birth but rarely any kitten may actually get infected. Therefore, kittens younger than six months should be retested at 60 days for six month interval.

Q. Is there any treatment for FIV?

A. Unfortunately, there is no definite cure of FIV. Cat can carry virus for a long time before symptoms appear. Even if survival is  unpredictable FIV affected cats can lead a normal life if managed properly. Once diagnosed with FIV a Veterinarian will start symptomatic treatment like anti inflammatory, immune boosters, antifungal, antiparasitic to control the secondary illness. Some anti viral drugs have also shown good results in controlling stomatitis and gingivitis. Dental care is must for these cats.

Now, vaccines are also available like Fel-O-Vax^® FIV to protect cats from this disease but it have its own limitations as it is not a core vaccine of cats and do not protect against all the subtypes of virus hence, even vaccinated cats need other precautionary measures against disease. Vaccine induced sarcoma (kind of cancer) is another complication related to vaccine. You must discuss in detail about treatment options and their outcome with Veterinarian.

Q. How to manage or care the FIV affected cat and how good chance of survival of such cat is?

A. You can manage or care such cats very well by following ways:

* Confine infected cat indoor to prevent spread of disease to other healthy cats.

* Environment should be stress free.

* Home should have only this cat or other pets of different species like dogs.

* Spay or neuter your cat.

* Feed balanced commercial diet.

* Uncooked food, raw meat, eggs and unpasteurised milk products should be avoided to reduce the risk of food borne bacterial and parasitic infections.

* Cat should be dewormed or have active parasitic control.

* Veterinary checkup at every six month interval is advisable for overall health screening. 

Prognosis - If there is persistent fever and weight loss the chance of survival is generally poor but if managed appropriately cat can survive like any other non FIV positive cats.

Q. Can you adopt FIV positive cats?

A. Yes, you can adopt an FIV positive cats with some precautions to keep in mind like this virus is species specific and can spread from one cat to another through bite wound, so if you have more than one cat in your home and they don't get along then it is better to not allow them to interact or should not be kept in one place. If needed one cat should be re-homed.

Such cats can live normal and healthy life if managed nicely. 

FIV is completely harmless to humans or your pets of different species other than feline as it only harm cats. 

FIV positive cats are safe to adopt and by adopting such cats you can save them from euthanasia which is used as a last option by shelters for such cases.

I hope this article can help people to know about FIV thoroughly and succor in adoption of  many FIV positive cats.These cats want your love and euthanasia should not be their fate.

Reference:

1. Brown, E., Miththapala, S., & O'Brien, S. (1993). Prevalence of Exposure to Feline Immunodeficiency Virus in Exotic Felid Species. Journal of Zoo and Wildlife Medicine, 24(3), 357-364. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20095289

Adopt Indian Stray Animals

India is having 30 million of stray population, many of which die because of hunger, extreme climatic condition, some psychopaths who beat them up to a death or crush by vehicles, many others are forced to struggle for life on streets because India; our country of 1.37 billion is crazy about pedigree dogs/cats and is not interested to adopt these innocent souls as they care more about status symbol and what people will say, if i adopted stray dog. Many celebrities like Virat Kohli, John Abraham, Om Puri, Soha Ali Khan, Farah Khan, Shilpa Shetty, Rohit Bal, Rekha and many more adopted stray animals and taken initiatives to promote adoption of indian dogs and cats which is paw-sitively awesome step towards the animal welfare.

Now a days "ADOPT DON’T SHOP" phrase is trending in almost every social media network, like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter where people are appealing for adoption of our stray and shelter animals, instead of buying pets from cruel pet breeding mills where breeder just care about money and breed animals in an unethical way in a filthy condition without food, water and veterinary care. Female is bred without recovery time between litters and most of the puppies carry serious genetic disorders because of inbreeding.
To boycott all these unethical practices we need to promote more and more adoptions, which can not only reduce animal cruelty but it will also help many animals find their family and home.

What kind of animals these no kill shelters generally have?

Most of the time these shelters have stray and abandoned animals, which are purely indigenous breeds or the mixed breed. Positive thing about these breeds is, they are very resistant for diseases and are very sturdy for Indian climatic conditions.
Many good Indian breeds of animals are now heading towards the path of extinction because of our long time ignorance, negligence and extreme obsession for foreign breeds. Some people are now trying to lighten up ray of hope by conserving these gems of India through breeding, conservation and adoption programs.

How you can adopt a pet?

Well, if you have friendly stray or abandoned animal like dogs or cats near by you, it is better to bring them home.You can get a pet without spending any penny and that animal will get a home.If this is not possible then you can approach any NGO, no kill shelter or local county which cost lesser than a pet purchased from the pet mill.

In India, some NGO’s provide you pets after sterilisation and rabies vaccination but if NGO is small and they couldn’t afford surgery and vaccinations, then they just help you with adoption, rest of the thing you have to take care.

In United States, most of the shelters, provide you pets after microchip, sterilisation, deworming and all vaccinations. Some shelters also conduct behaviour analyses of each pet to ensure that they will be right fit for your family plus they provide you information to improve relationship with your fur baby. So it is a very good idea to take home pets from such shelters.

Common native breeds of dogs and cats in India-
There are many native Indian breeds and it is difficult to pen them down here (there will be seperate blog for that), so we just see few common Indian breeds of dogs and cats which can be adopted as a pet:

Indian breed of dogs:

1. Indian bully kutta/ Indian Mastiff



2. Indian Gaddi Dog



3. Banger Mastiff



4. Kombi



5. Rajapalayam



6. Himalyan Mastiff



7. Indian Pariah Dog


Picture Source: pethelpful.com
                            animalwised.com

Indian breeds of cats:

1. Bombay Cat

 

2. Himalayan Cat

4. Spotted Cat

5. Domestic Cats/ Moggies

picture source: parenting.firstcry.com, 

                            thesprucepets.com

I hope this article will help to change the perception of  society towards our native breeds of animals and promote adoption of these wonderful fur-babies.

Be PAW-SITIVE :)

Lethal blue green algae

This year, month of august started with flood of news, reporting several mortalities in dogs in various parts of United States because of the toxic blue green algae which commonly bloom in lakes and rivers every year in summers. It was the black month when heart of many dog owners mourned by painful good byes of their fur babies. Pet owners were unaware about such algae and couldn’t even reach to the veterinary hospital for supportive therapy.
It is not the first time that it happened, many pets, fishes, birds and wild animals have lost their lives in past also because of toxic algae bloom but this year it is more pronounced and mortality got more attention of media which in turn positively helped other pet owners to prevent the same mishappening with their pets.

Although the occurrence of bloom event is comparatively less in Indian water bodies but it is not rare. Padmakumar et al. (2008) reported cyanobacteria bloom of Microcystis aeruginosa which sprung up in shore waters of Kerala. D'Silva et al. (2012) published a research paper on Algae bloom: a perspective from the coast of India, in which they have mentioned details about different types of algae bloom in our coastal areas and reported mortalities due to bloom. Tamil Nadu and Karnataka witnessed hospitalisation of eighty five people and death of three in 1982 & 1984 due to paralytic fish poisoning caused by consumption of bloom affected clams. In Kerala, five hundred people hospitalised and seven people died after consuming bloom affected mussels in 1997, while another bloom in 2004 caused large scale fish mortality and hospitalisation of 200 people. Hedge et al . (2008) observed the growth of Trichodesmium erythraeum in south east coast of Bay Of Bengal from remotely sensed images. In west and east coast of India, Cyanobacteria bloom is most common cause of massive fish mortality because of which HAB (harmful algae bloom) research and monitoring programme is being initiated and funded by Ministry Of Earth Science (MOES) with Center Of  Marine Living Resources & Ecology. This programme envisage extensive monitoring of HAB's in Indian Exclusive Economic Zones.Mortality in pets due to toxic algae is not well reported in India, may be because of unawarness or such cases are really rare, whatever the reason may be, we should atleast have some information for self awareness regarding such algae and their lethal effects.

• What is the blue green algae?

I will not go in scientific details about the blue green algae. All we need to know is blue green algae is actually not an algae but bacterial cells which derive their energies through photosynthesis with the use of blue green pigments (phycobillins) and this bacteria is called cyanobacteria because of  its peculiar bluish green color. They have been on earth for at least 2.1 billion years. Cyanobacteria bloom in water around the world and are found culprit to cause toxicity and deaths in over fifty countries world wide including thirty five states of USA.
It is now a topic of concern because of warm weather and increasing nutrient pollutants particularly some nitrates and phosphate run off (which may originate from fertilizers used for the agricultural purposes) that fueled the problem of cyanobacteria in surface water used for recreation, irrigation, drinking, bathing constitute risk of public health and life of animals.

•  Recognize algae bloom and prevent its exposure:

-Take a closer look at water, if water looks murky or unappealing and there is presence of bluish green or bright green (brown when decaying) specs floating or large surface scum, it is better to avoid such water bodies.
-Many state agencies update the condition of  affected water bodies on their websites or lifts up algae bloom warnings at popular beaches, lakes and river. So be updated with cyanobacteria tracker.

• Clinical signs after exposure of cyanobacteria:

Pets especially dogs that frolic in lakes and ponds and enjoy swimming are predisposed to exposure of algae toxins as they can swallow water or lick scum off their fur.
Clinical signs and symptoms depends on the toxins (microcystins and Anatoxins are most common types) involved, like exposure of mycrocystins results in liver damage. Animal will show clinical signs like vomiting, diarrhea, blood in stools or black tarry stools, weakness, pale mucous membrane, jaundice, seizures , disorientation, coma and shock. Death generally follows within days because of liver failure.
Exposure to anatoxins results in neurotoxicity causes excessive salivation, lacrimation, muscle tremors, muscle rigidity, paralysis, blue discoloration of the skin and mucous membrane and difficult breathing. Death follows within minutes to hours of exposure because of respiratory paralysis.

• Diagnosis :

Rapid onset and short  incubation period does not leave much time for diagnosis. If animal could reach hospital veterinarian may diagnose by the history and greenish stain around mouth, nose and limbs.
Complete blood count and Serum biochemistry can show high levels of alkaline phosphatase and bile acids.

• Treatment :

Unfortunately, there is no antidote against cyanobacteria but one clinical trial on rats found Cholestyramine as an effective antidote, although more research is required to be done in case of dogs and other animals. Most of the time this blue green algae results in sudden death within few hours of exposure and owners are unable to figure out cause of illness. By the time they decide to hit veterinary hospital it gets too late.

Few fortunate pets could make it to the hospital and receive supportive treatment includes anti seizures ,oxygen therapy ,antibiotics, intravenous fluid therapy ,mucosal protectant,vitamins,drugs to remove toxins from gastrointestinal tract and sometimes activated charcoal.

I hope pet owners will find this article helpful and can prevent happening of  such tragic incidences in future.