How is FIV diagnosed?
FIV is diagnosed on a special blood test that looks for an immune response (formation of antibodies) to the virus by the cat. If this test is positive it is likely that your cat has been and still is infected by the virus. False positive and negative results do occur for a variety of reasons (e.g. antibodies to the virus present in the bloodstream of an infected queen will pass via the milk into her kittens giving a positive test result in the kittens which may not be infected with virus). Kittens under four months of age that test positive should be re-tested when they are six months old, by which time any “maternal” antibodies will have disappeared.
