Poor cats, I actually thought we had everything covered when we did the pre travel vet checks and got all the jabs sorted before moving out to Australia.

One of our Cats, Charlie had a bit of a limp some time ago so we took him to the local vets to get checked out.

It was whilst at the vets that we learnt all about the wonders of feline aids, a desease which is pretty prevalent here in Australia.

FIV or given its official name; Feline Immunodeficiency Virus is a common virus worldwide with the number of infected cats dramatically increasing over the last 10years.

In Australia approximately 7% to 29% of cats test positive to infection, many of which die from FIV related illnesses each year.

Although FIV is very similar to the AIDS virus in humans (destroying the immune system leaving the animal susceptible to infections), humans cannot contract Feline AIDS (FIV) from infected cats.

Apparently the disease is past on through saliva if one cat bites another when scrapping. As we’ve noticed a couple of rough looking cats (and appreciate both Charlie and Jeffs enjoyment of the odd rumble) we thought it would be time to get both boys sorted.

The jabs are given in a series of three injections over a period of 4 – 6 weeks. We took both boys in over two weeks ago where they had a blood test which was tested on the spot.

Thankfully, both cats are ‘clean’ although they both gave us ‘the look’ when they were having the blood taken from their front paws!

If you’re thinking about bringing your cats with you to Australia I’d suggest you ask about getting the FIV Vaccine before flying out here. This way, should your cat get into a scrap the money you spent getting your furry friends here in the first place won’t be completely wasted.

In other news, Jeff needs his teeth doing again (we had them done about 12 months ago). Another $300!

Might be cheaper to have them all taken out and feed Jeff cat soup. I wonder if they do dentures for cats