Rescue Cats and FIV

[Woodburnertime]

Wondered if anyone could help with this question- the local rescue has a number of cats who are listed as having contracted FIV and therefore need to be homed as indoor cats with no other cats.

I was curious as to whether testing for FIV is a standard for all cats that come in to rescue (like neutering and chipping) so that the rescue can say for sure that a cat is or is not FIV positive? I assume it is, but wanted to check as have my eye on a rescue cat- she’s 8- and has been straying for a long time they think, but is not listed as being an FIV cat. Hopefully that means for sure that she isn’t, as have a non-FIV cat at home too....

Protocols vary from rescue to rescue. IME male cats tend to be at higher risk of FIV than female cats due to fighting. Certain areas have very high incidence of FIV, other areas have virtually none.
There is lots of evidence that where you have an FIV positive and FIV negative cat living together in a stable household ( no fighting) that transmission is extremely unlikely.
I would suspect the particular rescue has had a large number of cats come in from a particular location with an FIV problem, hence the large numbers all at once.
Your vet practice will be able to run a simple test for your cat if you would like to know one way or another.

Most don't test unless there's particular reason to suspect they could be - in most cases this would be unneutered (mostly male) cats with fight wounds. In general no, because insurance companies can get funny about offering cover for FIV+ cats so it's best not to have it on the vet records before adoption, and also because it simply doesn't matter - any cat that goes outdoors could contract FIV from fighting and many owners will never know.

As lonecat says, there's now lots of research that shows FIV+ cats can live happily with cats who are not FIV+, as long as they don't fight and bite, there is no risk of catching it from living together and sharing bowls, grooming each other etc.

Thank you both, that's helpful. I wasn't sure because it seems that once a cat is diagnosed, they have such a specific homing requirement for that cat (indoor/no other FIV- cats) that I presumed they'd need to know for all cats that they rehome.

Not that it would stop me rehoming, but makes me wonder how many cats that are rehomed are unknowingly FIV+?

Exactly what viccat said (thank you for saving me the trouble). As transmission is so unlikely with neutered cats we don't even say that those that have been tested positive need to be kept indoors. There is virtually no risk to the local cat population if they go outside as long as they are neutered. And just about any mature unneutered male will be FIV positive, and there is never a shortage of those around, so a neutered FIV positive cat going outside isn't going to make any difference to the health of the local population.