I got my cat Yap around 7 months ago and got Foofoo a month after to keep him company eveything was fine until about 3 weeks ago when she lost the use of her back legs, we took her to the vets who did lots of tests but couldn't find anything wrong with her and sent us home with some anti inflammatories. She appeared to be getting better but got dramatically worse and within the day she died.

We decided to get another kitten as Yap was going loppy on his own. My OH came home with a 7 week old kitten whom we named Maynard. Within a week of having him he started fitting and died. There were no signs that there was anything wrong.

I looked up the signs on the internet and came up with FIP but the sites are either not very informative or else too medical and I'm finding them a bit difficult to understand.

Should I take my apparently healthy cat to the vets and will there be any chance I will be able to have any other cats in future?

Hello.

Sorry to hear of the losses of your cats. I have never experimented of FIP before. I have something on the net though - I am sure it may help?

As with other viruses, spread of infection to other cats is a concern. There are three stages of FIP infection, and significant risk to other cats occurs in only the first two stages.

1. The first stage is initial infection. During the two to four week period following viral infection of the cat, a large amount of virus is shed; other cats in direct contact with virus will be exposed.

2. The second stage is one of dormancy. The virus is inactive within the cat, so it causes no disease. If the cat is stressed during this stage, some virus shedding may occur. Otherwise, the cat is not contagious. Some cats shed enough virus during the stressed period to be a threat to surrounding cats. This stage may last a few weeks to several years.

3. The third stage is clinical illness. It usually lasts a few weeks and terminates in death of the cat. As a rule, the cat is not contagious during this stage.

If there is anything else, just say. xxxx

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I'm very sorry you lost your cats I do think though if it had been FIP that you would have noticed the symptoms, it makes them really obviously poorly. not the sort of thing you might have missed.

Dry FIP can affect the internal organs, and causes changes in the eyes, and neurological symptoms. Wet FIP causes the build up of masses of horrible liquid, causing swelling and vomiting/ Cats will fail to thrive, and be undersized and generally sickly looking. I lost a little cat to wet FIP a long time ago, and she was very small compared to other cats her age.

Has your vet given you any explanation at all as to why you have lost your two?

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Foofoo was about half the size of Yap and the vet thought it might have been because of Lukeamia but when they tested her she was negative. One eye was a slightly different colour to the other but vet said she wasn't blind so was fine. They did x-rays and could find no fluid build up.

Maynard had only been with us a week so it was a bit harder to tell if he had symtoms. He had a little fat belly but I thought that was what kittens were suposed to look like. Other wise typical kitten although he did drink a lot of water.

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Thanks for the advice everyine.

I think I'm just trying to find answers where there may not be any.

Why my babies, you know?

Try this link


Feline infectious peritonitis - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

It's very uncommon that kittens as young as Maynard die of FIP. Without a postmortem you can't tell if it was FIP that caused the death of one or both of your cats. The symptoms of FIP resembles many other diseases since the symptoms depends on what tissue the FIP-virus attack. Fever, distended belly, diarrhoea, vomiting, heart failure, bleedings in the eyes, loss of appetite and weight loss are all examples of FIP symptoms and of many other diseases so there aren't any specific FIP symptoms. A postmortem has to be done.

What I can tell you is that FIP isn't contagious. FIP is caused by the FIP-virus (FIPV) and the FIPV is a mutated form of the Feline Enteric Corona Virus (FECoV). FECoV is a very common virus in cats and usually completely harmless. About 80% of all purebred cats have been infected with FECoV but inly about 5% of them will go on and develop FIP. The mutation of FECoV to FIPV inside the cat and the mutation is trigger by stress and in about 50% of the cases due to a genetic predisposition. Once mutated the virus isn't contagious. FECoV is highly contagious (spreads mainly through the litter box) but like I said earlier, it's usually harmless. FIPV isn't contagious but unfortunately fatal.

You could have your current cat tested for the FECoV but that won't help you since a test positive for FECoV doesn't mean that your cat has FIP. As long as he's healthy I wouldn't worry about him, but if you really believe that your other cats died due to FIP you might wanna wait a while before you bing another cat home. Throw away the old litter tray and clean your home thoroughly and wait for at least 6 weeks until you get a new cat. The FIPV is highly sensitive to common desinfectants so there's no advanced cleaning needed and it doesn't survive for long outside its host.

Thanks for that! To be honest I am probably being paranoid. I just want answers as to why but the fact is I don't think I'll ever know exactly what killed either of them.

Viral infection:
* Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), or feline coronavirus: a serious disorder that often attacks the abdomen, kidney, or brain in Cats.

Try this link: Inflammation of the Heart Sac in Cats

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