FIP, or Feline Infectious Peritonitis, while not common, is sometimes seen in certain cat populations, such as shelters or catteries. If this virus befalls your newly adopted feline family member, you need quick answers and immediate support from both friends and family and your local vet clinic.
What Wet FIP Is
Feline Infectious Peritonitis occurs when a cat's immune system reacts to the presence of the coronavirus. Although most felines are able to handle this virus, some, thought perhaps to have a genetic predisposition or weakened immune system, develop the dreaded FIP. If you adopted your cat from a shelter, he was most likely exposed to the virus shed by other cats who could, for whatever reason, fight off the disease.
Wet FIP is distinguished from the dry counterpart version by effusion, a build-up of fluids, usually in the abdominal cavity. Both versions are equally as difficult to predict in the cat's environment and both are equally as threatening.
How Your Adopted Feline May Have Come Down With This Virus
Cats in close quarters, such as those in multi-feline houses, shelters and catteries, exchange viruses and bacteria through feces, eye and nose drainage and respiratory exposure. FIP usually strikes kittens and younger cats, although any age may be susceptible, under the right (or in this case, wrong) circumstances. Your new little buddy probably did not show symptoms at the shelter; hence, staff there might have had no idea something was so wrong.
There is no definitive test for FIP, meaning shelters can't screen incoming felines. The stress of shelter life is thought to evoke the virus in some pets, but others may simply have immune systems that can't battle the otherwise manageable coronavirus. The pet may begin to show some symptoms, such as minor upper-respiratory issues, finickiness, alternating diarrhea and constipation and excessive sleeping (hard to notice in some felines), which then transform into the more serious infection, or some pets show no signs before this dreadful disease takes hold.
The Prognosis For Nearly All Cats Diagnosed With FIP
Unfortunately, there is no cure for Feline Infectious Peritonitis. Also most unfortunate, by the time your vet is able to diagnose the virus, your cat's time is limited and he may be suffering. Since Wet FIP is accompanied by effusion, you and your vet will notice a distinct expansion of your cat's belly, indicating it's filling up with fluid. A sample of this fluid can be extracted, and it is then that the definitive diagnosis is made.
Especially if you've had time to get to know and fall in feline love with your adopted friend, this news will be devastating. The vet clinic can estimate, roughly, how much more, if any, quality time your pet has left. While it is excruciating to say goodbye, extending life, even with good palliative care, may not be in the best interest of the animal. Cats are fantastic at hiding illness, so your little guy may actually have been hurting and uncomfortable, as symptoms developed, for some time now.
What You Should Do After You Have To Say Goodbye
Ask your vet very specific questions about infected objects in your home and especially, other animals. Although the coronavirus is often manageable in both cats and dogs, it can actually combine when exposed to both species, in some cases, increasing the potential damage. If you have only other cats, keep an eye on them and report any symptoms to your veterinary clinic right away. Also, it's a good idea to sterilize the environment with diluted bleach, whether you have other animals or intend to adopt again. FIP is not a threat to humans.
Wet FIP is one of the saddest diseases in cats because it usually hits so hard and so fast. Talk to people you're close to about your loss, to alleviate some of the grief and try to remember the good times with your feline friend.
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