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The Deadly Feline Infectious Peritonitis and Its Symptoms
By Kurt Schmitt
The dangerous cat illness known as FIP is as insidious as it is deadly. FIP stands for feline infectious peritonitis, also referred to as feline FIP. It is the most feared disease in catteries, as it is the leading infectious cause of cat death.
This is a tricky disease to diagnose. If your cat has been exposed, you might not know it until years later when your cat starts showing symptoms. It has been said that the most reliable confirmation is done during autopsy. The symptom list for this disease ranges from sneezing, to fever, to personality changes, to entire body system breakdown. There is weight loss, anemia, depression, and the list goes on.
FIP is caused by exposure to a coronavirus infection (FCoV). Infected cats, symptomatic or not, will shed coronavirus in their feces and saliva, so crowded conditions allow the virus to easily spread from cat to cat. This creates a huge problem for catteries. Not all cats who come in contact with the virus will experience symptoms, however, and only a percentage will develop Feline FIP.
Typically, a healthy cat will shed FCoV for up to two months, and fight off the virus. Some exposed cats will become carriers. Others, however, will develop FIP, sometimes weeks, months, or years later. The feline FIP symptom list includes symptoms common to many other conditions. In addition, symptoms can be very individualized which may not raise a red flag right away. To make things a bit more complicated, there are two types of the disease. Also, different areas of the body may be affected, depending upon the cat. It is therefore difficult to speculate about or diagnose this disease on symptoms alone.
A cat may produce antibodies when exposed to the virus, but this does not mean the cat will develop FIP. Testing for the presence of antibodies, therefore, is not conclusive for diagnosis. A positive antibody test simply means only that the cat was exposed to the virus at some point. Since control of the spread of a disease like this is dependent upon diagnosis, this makes FIP that much more dangerous.
Some cats will exhibit symptoms indicating a mild respiratory infection, but overall symptoms are all over the map. In younger cats, the most common symptoms are failure to grow, lethargy, and a recurring fever that is non-responsive to antibiotics. Other symptoms may including nasal discharge, sneezing, watery eyes, and intestinal disease.
Additional symptoms will depend upon what form of the disease is present, wet or dry. Some cats may have combinations of both forms. For example, the wet type of FIP, also known as effusive, is characterized by the presence of a yellow fluid in the abdomen or chest. This can cause swelling in the abdomen and difficulty breathing.
Symptoms for the dry, or non-effusive type include the growth of masses in the eyes and brain, the kidneys, and lymph nodes. In addition, there may be signs of neurological disorders such as loss of balance, and eye problems with a change in color or cloudiness in the iris of the eye.
The only real prevention method against this difficult to diagnose disease is limiting your cat's exposure to infected animals. While a coronavirus infection (FCoV) does not ensure that your cat will develop FIP, it's best not to take the chance.
Feline infectious peritonitis has no cure, and is considered to be fatal once a diagnosis has been confirmed. Since this disease can show up many years after exposure to the virus, a diagnosis may come as a surprise. Perhaps of some comfort to cat owners is that feline FIP is relatively uncommon, as it affects less than one percent of the general cat population. In catteries, however, the rate of infection can reach 20 percent as the disease spreads from cat to cat.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kurt_Schmitt
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