Risking Health? (..or maybe just nuts?)

I was about ten when my parents and I went in a pet store to pick up dog food and came out with my first kitty. The woman there had been vacuuming inside of his cage with him cowering in the corner, so I asked for him and he wouldn't stop kissing me. Within 6 months he was PTS in his last days suffering from FIV, FeLV and, to top it off, effusive FIP.

To make a long story short, I am absolutely 100% terrified of bringing FIP home to my cats. There is a kitten that I am adopting from a well-respected local veterinarian. He was found at about a week old, all by his lonesome, with a wound on his face. They placed him with another litter & their momma. He's tested negative for FIV/FeLV, though has mild Coccidia and is being treated for it. Otherwise they are confident that he, his step momma & litter mates are healthy. When I questioned the veterinarian and staff about FIP, many of them didn't even know what I was talking about, but the doctor said she rarely ever sees cases of FIP and never has from the animals they've taken in & adopted out.

For some reason I'm going nuts, thinking that this kitty will be the one exception - out of all the cats they've treated/adopted - and I'll be bringing home FIP to my lovely girls. Personally the FIP vaccine sounds like dangerous BS, but I was mulling over asking the vet to test the momma cat for coronavirus. Would it be pointless? Or should I instead ask for a CHILL PILL?

Any thoughts/info/experiences are very appreciated.

I would not get the Fip Shot. Most Vets do not give that Shot. The Vet thinks my Yoshi had Dry Fip before he was Pts. Testing for the Cornea Virus dosent mean anything.

FIP is actually very rare, I think it only affects something like 3% of the cat population - I have had over 60 cats in 5 years and only dealt with it once, my neighbour has had cats for over 30 years and done rescue for 10 of those and only dealt with it once.

While coronavirus is contagious, FIP is rarely so. My Willow developed FIP at the age of 8 years. She was never outside and had very limited exposure to other cats. None of the cats she was exposed to (my boyfriend's cats, Spot, Odo, and a former roommate's cat) ever devloped FIP. Since her passing, Odo has shown no signs of developing FIP either. While you could have a corovirus test done, you'd probably want to do so on your current cats--they could have it already, since it rarely causes any symptoms.

I understand that your experience as a child was very painful and you are afraid of repeating it. After Willow died, I was concerned as well. I decided after doing lots of research that I wasn't going to let the fear prevent me from giving love to another cat. I adopted Zek about three after Willow passed. He has been a big bundle of energy in my life and in Odo's, and I don't regret my decision to adopt another cat--Odo needed a friend, and I needed him too. If having the cats tested for coronavirus will put your mind at ease, and you can afford to do so (I'm not sure what the cost is), then it's worth it for you. Otherwise, know that FIP is a rare anomaly that strikes at random, and we shouldn't let our fear of it keep us from finding cats to love.

You've got a good vet, who has tested the kitten and determined that he's healthy. So there's no rational reason to associate this kitten with another unrelated cat... it's just a matter of working to overcome fears. You were able to adopt your current cats (did you worry about disease with them also?), so you should be able to do it again.

Thanks everyone for being understanding, especially cloud_shade! There is a key point here that I was totally misinformed on: it's not so readily contagious as I previously thought, not to mention it is more rare than I thought. This would be called a ! Thanks for sharing your experiences with me about your angel Willow and booktigger, your angel Yoshi.

emmylou - I actually didn't worry about quite so much with my girls as they came from inside, older, vet-going Mommas. Billy & his step Momma were strays, so that's where my concern came from. Thanks for your input!

Originally Posted by mews2much

I would not get the Fip Shot. Most Vets do not give that Shot. The Vet thinks my Yoshi had Dry Fip before he was Pts. Testing for the Cornea Virus dosent mean anything.

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It's not a shot, but an intranasal vaccine. It's a clear pink fluid that's dripped into the nose, or the corners of the eyes in difficult patients. Cats hate it.

It's now mandatory in my county for any cats that are boarded, including at vets' offices or shelters. The vets around here are all really in favor of the vaccine for kittens/cats that test negative for the Corona virus, and apparently believe it has really cut down on the number of FIP cases, even though it's not 100% effective.

There's a real tendency to overvaccinate here in Germany, though, and I don't know whether the same FIP vaccine is used in North America, or how similar the Corona viruses are. We had a real FIP epidemic in this county a few years ago, and that's when the vaccination was made mandatory.