Trying to treat the untreatable
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Yok Dam, the friendly soi cat, is diagnosed with feline Aids
Readers might remember Yok Dam (Black Jade), the soi cat I wrote about last week.
Wandering the soi, Yok Dam (or YD) has been fighting with my two former soi cats, Thep and Thong. YD is an unsuccessful fighter, with scars
all over his body. A few weeks ago, when some new wounds became so infected that he lost all the hair on his throat, I took him to my vet for treatment.
They treated YD’s terrible injuries and also vaccinated and tested him for two untreatable contagious feline diseases, feline leukemia and feline Aids.
The tests brought the poor boy some bad news. Just like my white lady Mekhala, he’s infected with feline Aids. I’m disappointed but not surprised, since Fiv is generally transmitted through bites.
Some Fiv cats live normal lives without any symptoms. Mekhala is not one of them. She’s only five years old, but the terrible virus has started its ferocious attack. The white blood cells in her body are insufficient for her to fight infection, and now her red blood cell count has fallen dangerously low. Without energy or an appetite, her weight is dropping.
A hormone therapy used for cats and dogs with kidney failure seems to be helping, but we can only hope. The disease is, after all, untreatable. As hard as we try, Fiv will win.
Now that YD also carries the virus, I start thinking that I’ll make him an inside cat, so he can’t transmit the virus to other cats. My own uninfected cats, vaccinated against this disease, are safe.
I, of course, am completely safe. The feline virus cannot be transmitted to humans.
Then, my vet and some rescuer-friends advise me simply to put him back on the soi. “So many cats here are infected with Fiv in Thailand that one more won’t make any difference,” one rescuer says.
She’s probably right. According to an article by the College of Veterinary Medicine of Cornell University in the US, (http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/brochures/fiv.html), overall prevalence of Fiv of American cats is estimated at between 1.5 and 3 per cent in a sample of apparently healthy cats. In a sample of cats that appear sick, the prevalence rises to 15 per cent.
Fiv becomes even more widespread if the cats are allowed outside.
No similar studies have been done in Thailand (to my knowledge), but a researcher-friend tells me that since most cats here are allowed outside and cat populations in temples and other places are usually unhealthy, the incidence of Fiv here should be close to 15 per cent.
I’d also guess that another reason for the lower number in the States is that in Western countries, cats found to be infected with Fiv are simply put down. Anyone wishing to raise an infected cat agrees to keep it inside and also to have it neutered. By eliminating the sex drive and reducing the need for the cat to fight other cats, other cats are safe.
In Thailand, few owners neuter their animals. On the soi, poor YD, fighting for territory and for any available females, not only received the virus through bites from infected cats, he also gave the virus to any cat he could get his teeth into.
As I release YD into the soi, I send good wishes after his retreating tail. Most likely, his life won’t be long, but at least, I hope, it will be as comfortable as possible.
