My cat has wet version of FIP but.......

[Bazsmum]

Will be thinking of Oreo and yourself! 

[Pinkbear (Julie)]

What an awful set of circumstances to deal with but I am gald you found us here as you are never far away from someone's whose got the same t-shirt. 

I too can confirm - in case you are having any doubts - that FIP is a tragic and fatal condition and no case ever ends well or pleasantly. There is only one decent way to end it.  Remember the maxim, rather a day early than a day late. 

[Gail Bengal Slave]

I am so so sorry to hear about to prettly girl Oreo 

I lost my Beau to wet FIP 5 years ago, it is a horrid virus and unfortunatley there is no cure and no prevention.

I so hope that it is not FIP - give Oreo a snuggle from me and my babes here xxx

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

FIP is such a terrible killer and I send you lots of good wishes for having a few wonderful days with Oreo before she flies to Rainbow Bridge to be fit and healthy again 

[Desley (booktigger)]

Purring is also done by cats to comfort themselves and to help with pain, so not an indicator of them being unhappy or not in pain. Your friend has got it spot on, have a couple of days, spoil her rotten, take lots of pics, and then let her go with dignity. It is never an easy decision, and trust me, it doesnt get any easier - I have just had to do it for the third time this year, but one we have to do for our babes, otherwise they will have to suffer a lingering, painful death, and we love them too much for that. You will be in my htoughts, and we are all here, sadly most of us know what you are going through.

[missmoosey]

Thank you all for the replies.

I'm glad I came on here, there aren't any fellow pet-owners over here who have had cats with FIP, so they don't really understand the need for all the soul-searching    As to seperating her from my other cats, since the first incidents in November they've all been together so any damage has already been done. Don't want her to spend her last few days all alone when I'm out at work.

The past couple days she's been slowing down again; she plays for five mins then sits down very slowly looking uncomfortable. I almost wish she'd stop purring though when she's on my lap as that just makes me want to keep her there the whole day long. She sitting here right now wondering what I'm typing.

I don't want to see her become any worse, she's not eating so much and the medication hasn't stopped the fluid from starting to build up again. I can already see she's a bit bigger than after the last drain.

I'm babbling a little I know but I never had to make a decision like this before. Actually crying all over the keyboard.

Another friend over here who's a bit more empathetic said I should just spend a couple days more hanging out with Oreo and taking a bunch of pictures, then let her go.

Going to schedule for Saturday so I can stay with her through it.

Hate FIP.

[Ela]

Angie, please dont feel guilty - you let her go while she still had some quality of life,

I would agree, I think far to many people keep the little ones too long. It takes a brave and loving owner to make the decision for the final act of kindness before the little one really starts to suffer.

[Desley (booktigger)]

Angie, please dont feel guilty - you let her go while she still had some quality of life, if you had waited she would have only continued to go downhill, and if she was already showing signs of discomfort and it being an issue with her food, it wasn't the wrong thing to do.
Trigger - her other cats have already come into contact with her, FCoV doesn't mutate in all cats though, so there is a good chance the others will be fine.

[Kay and Penny]

there is also the consideration that has to be given to other cats who might become infected

these decisions are never easy, but who knows what horrors might have happened if you had decided the other way

[Angiew]

I went through something similar in Jan with one of my girls. The vet were going to send a sample of the fluid to glasgow (?) but as she was in I took the decision to let her go. It was prob. too early as she was still content in herself and I do regret it every day. In her case , her stomach had swollen over 4 months to the size of a well overdue pregnant cat and it was rock hard.  She was eating little and often 'cos her stomach could not take any volume of food. She was showing signs of being uncomfortable when laying down. She was an ex-feral who did not take kindly to interference which is why I made an early judgement (and of course being my little lapgirl I could not stand the idea of her suffering - having had endometriosis myself and knowing just how uncomfortable it can be).

Its a hard decision to have to make and you must do what you think is right for her.

[Desley (booktigger)]

I am sorry you haven't found us in good circumstances - if the vet is fairly certain it is FIP, I personally wouldnt put her through keep having the fluid drained, as it isn't a cure, and there is a good chance it will start affecting other organs. Good luck.

[Liz]

Seperation from the others is the best thing to do we lost a Mum and 3 kittens to FIP - in 4 months and have the surviving kitten who is now nearly a year old and is a Corona virus carrier

Its the Corona virus which mutates to FIP

Some cats can survive a year but the end result is death and its very horrible nodules grow on the nervous system and they get all sorts of mixed signals and then they go downhill rapidly.  If she were mine I would take the kindest decision as we did with our darling Gem and we had her put to sleep - think of your baby not your feeling at this time

[Kay and Penny]

I lost a 5 month old kitten to wet FIP - he started off with terrible diarrhea, but developed enlarged kidneys, fast heart rate, jaincice, anaemia, and cloudiness in his eyes - not surprisingly he had to be euthanized - but although he had fluid in his stomach, it was not very noticeable and he did not have any on his lungs

the virus which mutates into FIP is highly contagious though, so your cats should be separated, although your other cat may not go on to get FIP

[missmoosey]

The first time was awful because she was having real trouble breathing, fluid was coming out of her nose and she was hiding from me and the other cats. After the second drain though she was even more energetic than she had ever been, a purr factory! It's not so bad this time, even though there was way more fluid to come out. She wasn't moving so much and I could see she looked bigger over just a couple weeks. As soon as she saw the cat carrier she was under the couch, took me a while to get her out. She spent a day at the vet and when I got her home yesterday I was very worried because her back legs weren't working right, but by this morning and now tonight she is again a puddle of goo purr-bomb pestering my other cats. She's eating/drinking/going to the loo normally.  If you saw her right now you'd just wonder why she's had her tummy shaved, nothing else apparently amiss.....

[Millys Mum]

Sorry to hear about Oreo 

Theres no definitive test for diagnosing a cat whilst alive, theres just certain tests that generally point towards it. FIP is a strange disease and not all cats who get it will have the same symptoms. I lost one to the dry version, he never had a high temp and his bloods were all unremarkable. He suffered damage to his CNS 

How is Oreo in herself? Although as you say you can have the fluid drained is she benefiting from this being done? Unfortunately FIP isnt treatable, it will at some point cause an organ/s to fail. Your right that her symptoms should have happened much quicker, maybe shes one of the lucky non textbook types who can beat it longer 

[missmoosey]

Thank you!

I forgot to mention, I have two other cats, both also rescued from the street. Skittle (female tabby, 2ish years old) and Guinness (male, black and white, 1 yearish old). I've also read (pardon my web-overdosing!) that they can't catch FIP from her. I seperated her the first time for a week, but this time just for 2 days as the spot from where she was drained sealed up very quickly and she seemed pretty miserable by herself She has that adorable squish-faced meaow, not a real meaow but more of a squeak. She doesn't normally make any noise but being alone had her squeaking away like no-one's business! It's just so aggravating knowing that she has a terminal disease and then seeing her act totally fine..... I know that doesn't really make sense but I hope you know what I mean!

[Christine (Blip)]

I am sorry to welcome you to Purrs under such circumstances, missmoosey, and hope that someone more knowledgeable than I can advise you 

[missmoosey]

Hello all, I just joined your forum and searched around, congrats on a very informative and useful site! I've been trying to find some answers relevant to my cat's situation, and nothing is really helping. I hope you don't mind if I give you a history:

My cat's name is Oreo, she's female and approaching 2 years old. I've had her since she was a kitten, I rescued her off the street myself. Here come's the out-of-the-ordinary stuff - I'm an expat living in Taiwan, and Oreo looks to me like a scottish fold/american short hair mix. Over here seeing that in a street cat is pretty mundane as there is a huge problem with abandoned animals, dogs, cats, birds, snakes....

Anyway, last November Oreo was having breathing difficulties so I took her to one of the few vets that speak English. She drained fluid from Oreo's chest, it was pale translucent yellow and sticky. She drained 2 large syringes worth. Then we did 2 weeks of medication (I'm not 100 percent sure what it was though because with the language barrier I just blurted out 'do whatever it takes!'). After 2 weeks she had to be drained again, this time 3 big syringes worth. Then...... nothing. The vet tested the fluid and was as sure as anyone can be that it was FIP causing it (again, don't have the details, but she had a textbook in English and showed me the various results on protein and such and the information matched).

So now here I am in April, and Oreo started looking....overweight over the last 2 weeks. The vet drained almost 1kg of the same sticky pale yellow goo, this time from her abdomen (she still left some as she said it was dangerous to drain it all?). We're trying medication again for a week then I'll take Oreo back and see if there's anymore build up.

I'm confused though, because Oreo has never had a sustained fever, and in all the research I've done on FIP online, she should have a fever and the fluid should build up a lot faster than from November to April. I'm positive she does have FIP, but if I need to get the fluid drained away every 5 months, a procedure she seems to get over in only a couple days, is it not possible to keep going like that for years? Why do I keep reading about euthanised cats? Is she in more pain than my vet wants to tell me?

Bascially, am I doing the right thing getting the fluid drained off and soldiering on, or am I causing pain to my cat?

It's been a rough 5 months on me, though (until this week), Oreo seems totally fine.........