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Pet Forum / Miscellaneous / Animal Health / August 2004FIP question
Hi, I got 2 kittens ( Toby and Louie ) from a shelter a couple of months ago. Two weeks ago, I took Toby to the vet because his stomach quite suddenly bulged out on both sides of his body, and with the skin pulled tighter, it was apparent that he was actually wasting. Toby went from being hell on wheels, to being depressed, and tired overnight. The vet took some of the fluid from Tobys belly, and it tested high in protein. Diagnosis....FIP. I put Toby down that day. He looked awful...I couldnt see prolonging things for him. Anyways, Kitty number 2.....Louie.....2 weeks later, and in the same condition. Louie has had the fluid tested in his belly, same thing....the only difference is the Louie is not depressed, and seems to still feel good, even happy. When that changes, I will do what I must, but my question is.....have any of you ever known of a cat to recover from this? Is it even possible for this fluid to go away? Probable, I know the answer to, but possible? At all? As long as he is alive, I will grasp at any straw you can offer. Tracy When I was in tech school we had an outbreak of FIP. Every cat in our catery was diagnosed with it. We only had to euthanize one, that was in the condition that Toby was in. My cat that lives with my parents is FIP positive. What causes FIP is a corona virus. Some cats live with it all their lives while others show full blow symptoms. She hasn't showed anything with the virus. If they get stressed, or get "sick" (ie infection) their immune system is already compromised so they can start showing symptoms very quickly at that time. Our cat at school (Clark) that we ended up euthanizing we tried to save. We drained fluid off of his abdomen daily but it just kept filling up and he just started to go further down hill so we made the humane decision to euthanize him. Usually when we see cats in clinic diagnosed with FIP it's usually too late to do anything about it. My vet said that because this is a virus that it can go away over time. Like she said that I could retest my cat for it in like 2 years and its possible that she'd test negative. I guess it depends on how far they've progressed with the FIP. There are TONS of websites on it and your vet should have A LOT of client handouts for you as well. Hope that helped some. I'm so sorry for your loss and what you're going though. Best Wishes > Hi, > I got 2 kittens ( Toby and Louie ) from a shelter a couple of months ago. [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > As long as he is alive, I will grasp at any straw you can offer. > Tracy >From: "Steph" >When I was in tech school we had an outbreak of FIP. Every cat in our >catery was diagnosed with it. We only had to euthanize one, that was in the [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] >LOT of client handouts for you as well. Hope that helped some. I'm so >sorry for your loss and what you're going though. Best Wishes Thanks for your input Steph. I talked to the vet yesterday about draining the fluid off of Louies tummy, but the vet said that it would fill right back in again, so we decided not to do that. I have read tons of stuff and nothing really offers me any hope. I hoped for someone to drop a miracle story on me I guess. *If* he was to recover....what would happen to this fluid in his stomach? Can fluid in their abdoman ever just go away or is that impossible? >>From: "Steph" > [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] > *If* he was to recover....what would happen to this fluid in his stomach? Can > fluid in their abdoman ever just go away or is that impossible? Tracy, FIP is caused by a MUTATION of the corona virus. Just because a cat tests positive for corona virus, even with a very high titre does not mean that the cat has FIP. May I suggest the FIP Yahoo Group for the best information on FIP and many very knowledgeable people to answer your questions. The group can be found here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FIP/ best of luck to you >From: BR broseman >Tracy, >FIP is caused by a MUTATION of the corona virus. Just because a cat >tests positive for corona virus, even with a very high titre does not >mean that the cat has FIP. >May I suggest the FIP Yahoo Group for the best information on FIP and >many very knowledgeable people to answer your questions. >The group can be found here: >http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FIP/ > >best of luck to you Thank you for the info. My little guy lost his battle, but I do still want to know all I can about this monster that stole him from me. All of them that have FIP lose the battle, I'm very sorry that yours was one of them. Your furbaby will be waiting for you at the bridge. >>From: BR broseman > [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > Thank you for the info. My little guy lost his battle, but I do still want to > know all I can about this monster that stole him from me. >Thanks for your input Steph. I talked to the vet yesterday about draining the >fluid off of Louies tummy, but the vet said that it would fill right back in [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > *If* he was to recover....what would happen to this fluid in his stomach? Can >fluid in their abdoman ever just go away or is that impossible? Hi Tracy, I'm so sorry about your kittens. What a horrible thing, to have both of them come down with this. I believe that Dr. Diane Addie in Scotland is considered the FIP maven. Her website is <http://www.dr-addie.com/>. I remember reading it last year, after I lost one of my cats to FIP and was frantic with worry that the other guys were infected. I remember that I questioned some of the things she said, but maybe it was just me reading too much into material that was meant for the layman (I'm an MD). Also look at Cornell Feline Health Center's website, <http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/>. Anyway, many cats have antibodies to coronavirus in their blood, indicating a past infection, but only a tiny fraction of those cats ever get sick with FIP. The disease FIP is caused by a mutant form of the virus which arises every so often as the virus keeps on replicating its genetic material. I can't remember whether it could be a re-infection or whether it's always the first time a cat is infected, or maybe some cats become chronic carriers of the virus. (And if I remember correctly from my reading, the experts don't agree, either.) Looking at Dr. Addie's web page, I see that she is using interferon to treat cats with FIP. Interferon is expensive and it has a lot of undesirable side effects, so it's far from an ideal treatment. To answer your question about the fluid in Louie's tummy, if the inflammation were to go away, his body would reabsorb the fluid in time. Hang in there, you will get through this and give other kitties a wonderful home.  SignatureMagda Plewinska Miami, Florida, USA email to MPlewinska at mindspring dot com (case sensitive) My cat is on interferon and I don't consider it expensive - and I get it compounded. I pay about $30 for a 2 month supply. What side effects? My cat has been on it several years and I am not seeing any side effects. My vet did mention recently that she has recently learned that people on Interferon often feel lousy. My cat seems more active at times but never lousy. Our original protocol was on 7 days and off 7 days but she would vomit more often toward the end of the 7 days on. Now she is on 5 and off 5 and seems to be doing very well. My cat doesn't have FIP. She has a chronically low white cell count that we *think* interferon is helping. I say *think* because her count still fluctuates and is sometimes very low. She is very stable and appears healthy. Becky > >Thanks for your input Steph. I talked to the vet yesterday about draining the > >fluid off of Louies tummy, but the vet said that it would fill right back in [quoted text clipped - 38 lines] > Hang in there, you will get through this and give other kitties a > wonderful home. >My cat is on interferon and I don't consider it expensive - and I get it >compounded. I pay about $30 for a 2 month supply. OK, I guess kitty size doses made by a company that doesn't have to deal with lawsuits from human patients are less expensive. Interferon therapy for humans costs between $10,000 and $20,000 a year. >What side effects? For humans, the most common are: flu-like symptoms, fatigue, fever, chills, joint and muscle pain, headache, tachycardia (rapid heart beat), depression (may be quite severe, with suicidal thoughts). See <http://www.hepnet.com/nih/dusheiko.html>, for example. > My cat has been on it several years and I am not seeing >any side effects. Maybe cats tolerate it better than humans. I'm glad your cat is doing well on it. Best Regards, SignatureMagda Plewinska Miami, Florida, USA email to MPlewinska at mindspring dot com (case sensitive) >From: Magdalena >Hi Tracy, > >I'm so sorry about your kittens. What a horrible thing, to have both >of them come down with this. Thank you.....this has been pretty awful. >I believe that Dr. Diane Addie in Scotland is considered the FIP >maven. Her website is <http://www.dr-addie.com/>. I remember reading [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] >Cornell Feline Health Center's website, ><http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/> >Anyway, many cats have antibodies to coronavirus in their blood, >indicating a past infection, but only a tiny fraction of those cats [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] >(And if I remember correctly from my reading, the experts don't agree, >either.) >Looking at Dr. Addie's web page, I see that she is using interferon to >treat cats with FIP. Interferon is expensive and it has a lot of >undesirable side effects, so it's far from an ideal treatment. Thank you for the info.......I am interested in learning more about this disease. It is very confusing. >To answer your question about the fluid in Louie's tummy, if the >inflammation were to go away, his body would reabsorb the fluid in >time. This was what I was hoping for.....but I didnt get my wish. Louie was down to baby food being the only thing he could eat, and he ate it ravenously the other evening. In the morning ( maybe 10 hours later) he threw it all up and it had not been digested at all. I knew then for sure that it was a done deal. I could not allow this little guy to starve, and I took him in that morning to put him down. >Hang in there, you will get through this and give other kitties a >wonderful home. Thank you, I sure will. >could not allow this little guy to starve, and I took him in that morning to >put him down. Oh, Tracy, I'm so sorry. That's one of the hardest decisions to make, but you did the right thing by Louie. Feel better, SignatureMagda Plewinska Miami, Florida, USA email to MPlewinska at mindspring dot com (case sensitive) |
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