Could my favorite cat be sick?

Reccently my indoor 8 year old cat of great health during a routine Rabies vaccine needed a teeth scrapping. The clinic vet told me that he needed it and there could be an infection in his gums. I took him to a vet and she cleaned his teeth and exstacted two of them. It was caught early before any real damage or serious infection started. When she called me after his surgery I asked why? He eats nothing but dry cat food (IAMS), eats tartar control treats and gets his teeth brushed on occassion. She asked if he had ever been tested for feline AIDS. I told her yes when he was four months old. I have three cats all three have been tested for lukemia and AIDS. She told me that bad teeth early on in a cat is a symptom of AIDS. I can't understand why he would have it now? He has never been sick in the past. She says that the first test could come back with a false negitive if he was a sick kitten which he was. Could he survive 8 yrs. without symptoms?

Some cats have dental problems like some people do.

I have a kitty that was adopted as an adult, so I don't have any kitten health information for her. When Lily was approximately 4-5 years old I had to have all but three teeth removed because of gum disease. She does not have FIV.

Dental problems are an indicator but not unique to FIV. If your kitty tested negative at 4 months, and has lived inside where he could not come in contact with infected kitties, he should be safe. The vet can do a test in-house in about 10 minutes to check for FIV to ease your concerns.

FIV kitties that have had proper nutrition and veterinary care can live long symptom free lives. I have rescued two FIV+ kitties. When I was researching this illness, I found an article about a kitty that had been diagnosed before her first birthday and lived to over 13 years old.

Purrs to you and your kitties.

When we have kittens they have to wait till they are six weeks old to test them for AIDS/ Leukemia. Until they are that age the vet said there could be false pos. I have never been told about the possibility of my kittens having false neg. I foster kittens for a rescue in my area. Go ahead and get the test. If it was me I would worry my self sick until I knew for sure. I find it unlikely if he is indoor only, already had one neg test, and your other cats are neg that he would have the virus.

Yes, lukemia and AIDS have a habbit of coming and going.
They could go away for many years at a time and come back full fledge and kill you, it happened to my uncle.

Hey, my cat has bad teeth too! I just had him to the vet for another cleaning.

My vet said (1) that some cats just have bad teeth, like people and (2) once they have a dental, they need them more frequently.

My cat has had 5 dentals and 3 extractions and he only eats dry crunchy food too.

(My vet is one of the best at the university here!)

I seriously doubt that your cat has FIV. It was tested and it is an indoor cat. Yes, teeth problems might be an indication of FIV, but I would not worry about it!

Cats with FIV can live for along time.
And there is NO proven effective treatment for FIV.
So, you could not do much anyway.....