Nina,
As soon as you said 'big intact male' I KNEW he was going to be fiv positive. Since you asked for opinions I'm going to give you mine. I hope you don't take offense.
We had a stray cat living around our lake house that we visit on weekends only. He looked horrible. His ears were all bloody and bent down. He was grungy. He would walk around and cry when we were there, but would never let us catch him. His eyes were crusty and he drooled constantly. He was in really, really bad shape. The first weekend I saw him I found out he had been hanging around and people were trying to run him off. You can imagine how well that went over with me.
So I spent all weekend trying to catch him, but didn't have a carrier, trap, anything with me. At that time I was not into rescue. I had 3 cats at home. (My first 3 I'd ever
had.) He was HUGE, and I was afraid of him. Well I couldn't catch him and everyone was saying someone should shoot him and put him out of his misery. I told my grandfather if he did such a thing I would NEVER speak to him again, and he believed me. We had a huge argument about how I had too many cats. (3- lol)
I had to work during the week, but the next week I went back with a carrier, tuna, and sardines. I didn't even know there was such a thing as a 'cat trap'! After hours and hours I tricked him into the carrier sometime Friday night. He went beserk, foaming at the mouth, his ears all bloody, sneezing, etc.... The next morning I found a local vet and took the cat in squawling to have him put to sleep.
Well, the vet said the cat was fine and there was no reason to put him to sleep! He had scratched his ears raw due to earmites. He had buckshot in his ears that the
doctor removed. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! He had an upper resp. infection and some bad teeth.
I didn't know what to do. I couldn't take this sick cat that I was scared to death of home! The vet said "Why don't you just take him home and let him be an outdoor cat? So I thought that was a better choice than pts so I said yes. He kept him until the next weekend for me and neutered him etc....
During that week I put up a fence for a few thousand dollars so dogs wouldn't bother my 'new outdoor cat'. I brought him home the next week. The vet said he was fine, but I was still afraid of him. I decided to keep him in a cage until his antibiotics were finished. His ears were so gross I didn't even want to touch him. Everyone who saw him had a fit asking why I brought this horrible looking bloody cat home.
After a few more days I decided to just let
him out on my screened porch because I was afraid if I put him outside right away he would run away. This cat would come up to me and try to head butt me with his bloody head. He would follow me around like a dog. He weighed nearly 20 pounds, looked like a mongrel, and I was STILL afraid of him. I kept waiting for him to cry to go outside or bolt toward the door when I opened it, but that never happened. Over the days of course I petted him some, but was still afraid.
Finally I let him in the house with everyone else. The first night he snuggled right up with me on the bed. He was the biggest loverboy I've ever known. Soon his ears healed, but they were always scarred. He looked like a scottish fold with lots of scars. I had named him Brutus because he was such a big Brute. Anyone who's been on the list for years like me has heard me talk about my Brutus. He was THE most loving cat I've ever
had. EVERYONE fell in love with him. Every time I had company they wanted to take him home. He was almost like a person. When I would talk about who would take my cats if something happened to me everyone always said they'd take Brutus! He was soooooooo cool.
He is the one that I wrote about that would eat so much he would throw up most of the time. I guess he had been starved for so long. I had to feed him small amounts at a time or NEVER let the dishes go empty or he would overeat and get sick.
It's too late to make such a long story short, but after about 7 years I noticed he was losing weight. By that time I had TONS of cats (20 or more at a time) that I was fostering and was neck deep in humane society work. I blamed myself that I didn't notice his weight loss sooner. He had fatty liver disease. When I first took him in to find out what was going
on with him they ran a snap test and did other blood work. Guess what? Brutus tested fiv positive! When I had found him they didn't even have fiv tests it was so long ago. Anyway, we did a feeding tube, etc... but I lost my sweet Brutus. But it was totally unrelated to the fiv. Looking back, he always did have problems with ear infections. We always thought it was because of the scarring inside his ears, but the vet said the fiv could have had a part in that. He had to have some teeth removed. Again the vet said the fiv might have been a part in that. But except for the fatty liver (and we don't know what put him off his food. We think a tooth infection) he was a totally happy healthy cat.
FIV is really nothing. If you get Star neutered he is NOT going to give anyone fiv. Some vets will even remove or file down an FIV cat's incisor teeth so that they can't
seriously bite another cat if you're worried about that.
A vet came to visit my class last year and brought a cat and a dog. She said she brought her laid back big old boy because he didn't freak out with noise etc.... He was so cool, etc... Guess what? He was fiv+. And the vet was keeping him with her other cats at her own home.
My internal specialist who was treating my other cat's ibd and kidney disease told me that he kept 2 fiv positives at home mixed with the rest of his crew.
My opinion is get the cat neutered. Leave him at the vet's until the URI clears up. And it will. My vet will usually board cats for me for free in cases of uri because she knows I can't bring that home and let it spread around.
Then bring him home and keep him separate for a while. I bet he's all show and no fight when he actually 'meets' and
interacts with your other cats.
If, in fact, there are problems you can separate him some way. But I doubt very seriously there will be. For some reason FIV + cats are notoriously friendly. And if all else fails you can let him live outside or try to find a home for him.
Don't shortchange him. I bet if you give him a chance he will work out just fine.
take care,
tonya
