And good supportive care can improve the quality of an FIV-infected cat's life. Holistic veterinarians recommend nutritional support herbs, vitamins and homeopathy and other alternative treatments such as acupuncture to help strengthen an animal's impaired immune system. Many programs have evolved since that time, including large-scale feral cat spay days like those run by the Feral Cat Coalition in San Diego, Operation Catnip in North Carolina and ACA in the Washington, DC area. Some have even chosen to discontinue testing of feral cats altogether. Since neutering reduces or eliminates the primary modes of transmission, such as fighting and mating, infected cats pose little risk to other cats.
Infected cats are often asymptomatic and can remain healthy for several years.
In addition, since testing is not always accurate, healthy cats may be euthanized unnecessarily. Moreover, removing and euthanizing a cat who tests positive will not necessarily prevent spread of the infection within the colony since it's likely that the other colony members have already been exposed to the virus. The effectiveness of these large-scale sterilization programs indicates that the goal of spaying and neutering as many ferals as possible can be met without compromising the health or well being of the cats. We need to focus our energy and resources on preventing the births of more homeless kittens, most of who don't survive their first year of life. Increasing the number of animals who are spayed and neutered is the single most effective way to help control the crisis and reduces the suffering of untold numbers of stray and feral cats.