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I had two cats die from this several years back. The first was a kitten whom we acquired from the vet's office. He already had the condition but he needed a home so we took him in. The adult female cat we already had eventually got the disease as well, but back then we weren't as aware as we are now about how dangerous this disease really is. We were told that the kitten might get the full-blown disease by the age of 1 and then he would die. Or... he would survive and if he didn't show symptoms by the age of 4, he would be a carrier of the condition but wouldn't actually die from it himself. This is why he wasn't immediately put to sleep by the vet, because he had a chance. He should have been given to a family that had no other cats at home.
Anyway, he turned 1 and immediately began falling ill from this disease, going blind in one eye, losing control over his limbs, and many other problems. It wasn't long before he had to be put down, and by then, our other cat also had it. She was older, so she survived much longer, but she went completely blind and stayed that way for years. Oddly enough, you couldn't even tell that she couldn't see, except that her eyes were grayed over and the blindness was apparent. She used her ears as if they were eyes and never missed a trick. She would even track a hand movement with her face as if watching. She died younger than usual for cats, but managed to live a full life regardless.
Feline HIV is a painful disease, and a horrible way to die. It's probably kinder to just put the animal to sleep before he begins to suffer from it, but when he has a 50/50 chance of living normally, albeit as a singleton, you kind of want to give him that option. Actually, what my cats had was called Feline Leukemia or at least that's what the vet called it. She told us that name and then told us it was the feline equivalent of AIDS. Not sure if she called it that just to make it sound a little less horrible, or what, but that's what we were told our kitten had.
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