“Never give up on something that you can’t go a day without thinking about.” Churchill
Felv or Fiv Kitties :
Felv (Feline Leukemia)
Felv is known as the Feline Leukemia Virus and is a blood disease that impairs the infected cats’ immune system. There are many ways that a cat may get Felv. The studies say that it can be contracted through bites, intercourse, birth, saliva transfer (eating/drinking from the same dishes), and close contact with infected cats. When a kitten is diagnosed young they have a hard time making it to adulthood. They don’t have a strong immune system built up yet and this disease can make a simple cold deadly. You can’t see the signs of this disease by just looking at a cat it has to have a blood test to determine if the cat is positive or not. Once a cat has reached adulthood the chances are lessened that sudden onset of symptoms will... Read more here
FIV (Feline Immunodeficiency Virus)
FIV is Feline immune deficiency Virus. It is one of the two cat blood diseases that cats can get. FELV is the other one. The only way for a cat to become infected with FIV is to be bitten by another positive cat. FELV is different and can be contracted many ways. FIV moms can pass the antibody through to the kittens but not the actual disease. FIV positive kittens are not really infected and have been wrongly euthanized for years due to this lack of knowledge. Information online and through vets all have different information because not much study had been done in the past. If you do a PCR titer test at an age it will always come back negative unless the positive mother actually bit her kittens. (Which there is always that possibility.) FIV also does not have as many "episodes"... Read more here