FIP

I am newly registered to the site although I have been here browsing quite often. My one year old baby boy, Rocco, has just been diagnosed with FIP. I rescued him from a shelter about 10 months ago and just celebrated his first birthday February 20th. When I first got him he was a crazy little boy, running through the house, climbing up me to sit on my shoulder, getting into everything. He was such a unique happy kitten. He has always been a picky eater, it took me at least a month of trial and error to get him a wet food he actually would eat. He didn't like chicken and he likes his food a little warmed up. Food for him was never a big deal, he would pick and never beg because he was hungry. He had so much energy that I knew he wasn't starving. At 7 mo. he maxed out at about 9lbs. The shelter told me he was part Mainecoon so I was anticipating to have a big guy on my hands but he was just a little baby. Around this time, I also got another kitten mainly for Rocco. I work from home but sometimes travel and he would have to stay at Grandma's (which he loved). He just was insatiable when it came to play time. I could play for hours with him and he still wanted more, always waking me up mid night with a toy on my head saying "lets go Mom." I brought Gino, the new kitten home, and Rocco was beyond himself with excitement. I kept Gino in my spare bedroom, well tried for a few days. Rocco figured out how to open the door and let him out. So the transition was a happy one. I had two playing kittens, it was such a happy sight to see.

However, within the past few weeks, I noticed Rocco was eating less and less. He has always been a grazer so I thought maybe it was because of Gino. He was stressed. So I started to try and feed in different rooms, but then neither ate because they both just wanted to see where the other one was. I tried raising the bowl, giving him little meals throughout the day. Just nothing was working. Over time I realized he was only have a bite or two and I picked him up and he was significantly lighter. He had stopped playing with Gino, and was whining at him when Gino would try to play with him. I assumed he just decided he didn't like Gino anymore.

I took him to the vet last week and we found a mass and a fever. I was terrified but still hopeful at this point I had not heard of FIP. I was still in contact with his shelter foster parents and my Vet told me to ask if he was individually tested for Feline Leukemia. She said sometime shelters will only test the Mom or one or two kittens from the litter. Turns out Rocco was never tested. My heart sank, my vet tested him and he was negative. SO there was hope. Rocco was a garbage disposal, he ate anything and everything. Books, paper, toilet paper, carpet from his kitty condo. I had to consistently watch him to make sure he wasn't eating something he was not suppose to. So I was hoping it was just a blockage of something bad he ate. 

I kept him in my room with me while we waited for his follow up visit to the vet. We were doing another x ray because he was pretty constipated and they thought once he had gone to the bathroom there would be a better picture. We were sent to the ER because we needed an internal medicine ultra sound. He couldn't get in that day, and still had a light fever so we kept him there over night. They said they would call me the next day for results. In the meantime they would be taking blood and doing another x ray at a different angle.

Yesterday, the vet called me after the ultrasound and told me some bad news, he had a large swollen lymph-node in his belly along with tiny other ones throughout his body. She explain his blood work, and said there is no definitive test but she can confidently say it was FIP. She explained it was the dry form and that there was no cure. It just seemed like all the sudden he was soo sick. I went to visit him and he was so happy to see me. He explored the room, ate some food that I brought him and cuddled me. He is so stressed at the hospital but the Vet said he is a completely different cat when I am in the room, calm and happy rather than scared. She said right now his quality of life is still good, but it will worsen in days or weeks but no longer than that. She said we could do steroids and an appetite stimulant, along with fluids to keep his fever down but I could bring him home and the choice is mine about putting him down.

This will be the hardest decision I have to make. He is my first love, my first baby when I moved out on my own. My boyfriend travels frequently for work for months at a time and Rocco really filled that void for me. I love having a baby to take care of. I love Gino so much but I got him as Rocco's baby to make Rocco's life happier and I got Rocco to make my life happier. I know Gino will fulfill me but right now it is hard to think of my life without Rocco.

I asked the vet, "how will I know when it is time" and she said he would tell me. I am bringing Rocco home today, and I hope to spend a few more days with him before it is his time. I am a wreck and keep having highs and lows. I know his life will be coming to end shortly, but putting him down is going to be even worse. Just  him being at the hospital for two days has been lonely at our house. Gino is looking for him, meowing and searching for Rocco in his favorite resting places. How do I know if Gino will be grieving and how can I help him?

Sorry for such a long first post but this has really blindsided me. I appreciate any stories of other cat owners who went through FIP or advice?

In the past 2-3 years, have had more experience with FIP than anyone would want to have, so I would be glad to share what I've learned and also links to some very thorough and informative articles.  Here is an article that covers it all in a short space and has links to other articles.  This will tell you about the disease, but not a personal experience.  I will share those also.

http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=PRINT&A=681

You may want to read this first before going on with my long post here.

My very first experience with FIP was in a kitten rescued from a dirty pet store situation.  He was a picky eater, stayed skinny, and had good times when he seemed normal and bad times when he just lay around on the bed like an old cat.  We were back and forth to the vet over the course of a year and the vet just diagnosed him as a "NDW" (Not Doing Well) kitten and gave him steroids and appetite stimulants and he would do better for awhile but he was never really playful like most kittens are.  He was, however, extremely sweet and cuddly when he felt well.  When he got to be about one year old, he went into one of his bad times and didn't come out.  Nothing worked and he started having weird neurological signs.  Since I have always believed quality of life was more important than quantity, I decided the kindest thing was to put him to sleep, and my vet had a very gentle way of doing that, with a pre-op shot of ketamine and then letting him go into a deep anesthetized sleep in my arms over about a 15 minute period, and then the vet would find a vein to inject the final solution.  There was no struggle, it was completely peaceful.  I was going to take him home and bury him, but the vet wanted to do a necropsy to see if he could find out what the problem was, and that was when he discovered the poor little guy had DRY FIP.  He had no swelling in his abdomen at all, and evidently the FIP had gone to his brain instead.  Prior to that, I knew nothing about FIP in any form, but i read up about it afterwards (this was in the days before the internet was available to everyone!)  I had other cats then and none of them ever got FIP in any form.

Fast forward about 20 years when I had been working in rescue a long time.  The head of the group handed me a skinny small kitten and sid "Here, fatten her up, she keeps not making the weight limit for getting spayed."  It turned out she was over four months old and still did not weigh two pounds!  She was a fussy eater and a cranky kitten and after a couple of weeks it was obvious she was Not Doing Well.  I called the previous foster (who had turned her back over to the shelter because she was in the process of moving and the kitten was old enough to be spayed and adopted out).  After hearing the history of her cats, I discovered that YES, she had FIP in a couple of cats, one who had diarrhea all over the house, and this kitten had been exposed.  With the history now in place and the condition of this poor unhappy kitten, the vet put her to sleep and ended her unhappiness.  I had no YOUNG cats in my house and it seemed all was well, but evidently the corona virus was here, doing no harm, but lying in wait for kittens whose immune systems were not developed well enough to control it yet.  I kept rescue cats and kittens in a separate area, however, and it seems none of those cats have come down with it to date in their new homes.

Two years ago our group pulled too many kitten from animal control.  Usually I kept rescues separate from my resident cats, and I did so that year also, but overflowing with kittens, there was one litter of 4 in the very small bathroom and another litter, a mama with 3 kittens, in the storage room, plus three related mamas with 5 kittens each in the rescue suite.  That number was supposed to be temporary and the bathroom and storeroom kittens were supposed to go somewhere else within a week, but that fell through.  Therefore I started alternating letting the confined ones out into the main house when my own cats were confined to the bedroom.  The litter boxes were all dug and clean, but evidently that virus can still be there, but since none of my cats were sick, I didn't really consider that the corona virus, which is harmless in itself but can MUTATE to FIP, could be lurking to infect the kittens.  But it was.  In retrospect, I have read that stress can bring on the mutation, an after I got one litter spayed/neutered, one of the 4-month-old girls stopped eating and the weight fell off her at record speed.  It wasn't long until she grew the big belly and a belly tap brought out the yellow fluid and she was diagnosed with FIP and put to sleep too.  Another kitten who had been thrown out of a car and had a head injury was in the same room as she was (my bedroom) and he redovered from the head injury, got neutered, and then he also got FIP and was put to sleep, broke my heart.  The three littermates of the other bathroom kittens stayed fine.  Two were adopted out (as only cats) and one stayed here.  Around Christmas, one of the kittens from the storage room also got FIP, the dry kind that eventually went neurological.  The vet did not fully believe she had FIP until she showed neurological signs.  She was about 10 months old.  As far as I know, her mother and sister have not gotten it (they were adopted together to a vet) and the remaining sister is still here and has not gotten sick at all.  NONE of the kittens from the rescue room (15 of them) ever got FIP, but they were never exposed to my cats or their litter boxes. There were no more incidences of FIP from January until last July, when my 8-year-old flame point stopped eating and became withdrawn.  I didn't even suspect FIP since it rarely gets cats over 2 years of age, but lab work, x-rays and then a belly tap confirmed that he did indeed have FIP and his organs were failing.  We put him to sleep in August. 

All was well again until last November 3rd when I had a car accident and someone did not close my gate properly when they brought me home from the emergency room.  The next morning a dog was in my fenced yard chasing my cats around and the one kitten remaining from the bathroom group, now a grown cat, ra out into the road and was hit by a car, shattering her shoulder.  Hindsight is 20-20 and in retrospect I should have had her put to sleep then, but we tried to save her, which required amputating one of her front legs.  She actually recovered well and was starting to gain weight when suddenly she started withdrawing, refusing to eat, and then grew the typical big ballon of a belly while her muscles wasted away.  I think the trauma was too much, and the corona virus mutated to FIP.  She was put to sleep on December 15th.

Unfortunately, a neighbor trapped 2 young feral kittens and I had managed to send them off to another person to foster, but after the accident they came back here and were merged with my other "healthy" cats because the rescue room was occupied by a couple of unexposed kittens.  The two ferals were spayed/neutered at about 4-5 months of age, initially did very well, but by the time they were 6 months, BOTH of them started with the FIP symptoms, first the fever, then the depression.  As long as their quality of life was good, I loved on them and spoiled them rotten, giving them tuna, fresh chicken, fancy foods, whatever they liked best.  They had good lives, but short ones.  The male's disease progressed faster than his sister's and he was put to sleep January 14th.  His sister had a good quality of life several weeks longer, but when she started to fail, she was put to sleep on the 26th and buried next to her brother.  My heart is hamburger.

There is one corner of my yard that is now "FIP Corner" where they are all buried.  I hate FIP, passionately, and wish I could go back two years to when I was handed that kitten who needed to be "fattened up" and investigated her history before letting her be with my other cats.  FIP has actually ended my rescue, because I am not taking any more in, and I cannot in good conscience adopt out any who are already here, even though they will be two years old or older in April, unless they are going to be ONLY cats, because they might carry the virus. 

I guess you can see from these stories that my attitude towards FIP is that as long as they have a good quality of life, I will let them live and enjoy it but I will not go to any great lengths to prolong their lives when I know they have FIP and it is 99.99% fatal.  Once diagnosed, I can hope for a miracle (I always do) but must accept that their remaining good time is short and just make it as pleasant as possible for them -- no forced eating, no needles, no thermometers, no trips to the vet until that final trip where they go to sleep in my arms, always loved.  In my experience, when they stop eating on their own, it's time, because from there it seems to be a downhill slide.  It breaks my heart, but after seeing how unhappy the early ones became when we did try to force feed them and prolong their lives and make them feel better, only to feel worse again, I think this is the better way. 

This is MY opinion and my own experience, and of course you will have to make your own choices.  I'm really, really sorry Rocco has FIP.  I hope that Gino does not get it.  If Gino is lonely and you want to adopt another cat, I would recommend you adopting one who is over three years old, as that seems to be the magic mark IN GENERAL of when their immune systems can keep the corona virus from mutating.  The single instance I have had of a cat over 3 years old getting FIP could mean his immune system was weakened by something else.  Even my ancient cats (teenagers) have not gotten it yet, although sometimes the immune system weakens in older cats too.  We are not out of the woods yet.  There will likely be more, but they are happy NOW and I will do my best to give them great lives whether short or long.  I know you will do that with Rocco too, and be glad you adopted him so that he could know what it was to have a home and to have love in his lifetime.  Let us know how you are all doing.

Thank you for your stories. I really appreciate hearing how it has touched other peoples lives. Now that Rocco is home he is doing better then I anticipated. He is on steroids and an appetite stimulant, he is as cuddly as ever and last night he was chowing down more than he ever had. He ate two small bowls of dry food. He is still walking/jumping and going potty #1. No #2 yet, but maybe now that he has eaten. He is still jumping on the couch and chairs and walking around the house. When I first brought him home I didn't think he had long, but the vet was right that he was majorly stressed out at the hospital, being home has comforted him so much. He even is opening the spare room door and letting Gino escape (he did this when Gino first came home, so my "safe room" never happened).

He has dry FIP, and right now his liver is swollen, and his gallbladder is slightly obstructed and he has many swollen lymph nodes throughout his body, including one in his chest in front of his heart. So as far as FIP goes, I know he is only feeling good because of the steroids but he is still in pain, so once he stops eating I know it will be time. I am grateful for the time I am spending with him now, he is very comforted when snuggling so I am going to snuggle him to the end!

My vet also said she will do the sleeping solution before the overdose, and I want to be with him for that, but I am not sure I can actually see him dead. You seem like you have many experiences with being in the room with the kitties when this happens? Is is truly peaceful? I have never put an animal down before so I am very anxious when it is time.


Gino and Rocco last night. Rocco is up moving around the house, I let Gino out and he groomed and comforted his brother! Gino is the dark gray and Rocco is light.

I'm so sorry that your Rocco has FIP.  What a horrible disease

I've personally not been in the room yet when my kitties have passed (the last time one died I was a child still) I would want to be there when the kitties I have now go.

It is totally peaceful.  With presedation, they are already in a surgical kind of sleep, they do not feel a thing, our vets use ketamine and we highly recommend that, some of the other tranquilizers calm them or make them silly and happy but don't put them totally out, and they need to be totally out so they dont feel a needle going into a vein and there is zero struggle.  There is no change after the euthanasia injection, none at all.  My vet listens to the heart and when it has stopped, he says so.  I could not bear to leave them at the vet.  Their souls are still very much there and I wrap up their warm little selves and put them back in the carrier and we go home (I never stop at the desk, they know I will pay later).  Then they lie in state, so to speak, so the other cats can see them and say goodbye while we dig the grave, which is very therapeutic for me  If I am alone, I often talk to the cat all the way home.  I feel his or her spirit still with me.  It may sound crazy but my friend experiences this too, the other cats will visit the grave for days and hang out there. 

Both my friend and I are much more afraid of waiting too long and having the cat suffer.  Yes, I have been there more times than I would like to count.  I always take a tranquilizer myself when taking a cat to be put to sleep so I will be calm and he will not feel any anxiety from me.  There is no fear, just the sadness of having to send them off, yet it is far better than letting them suffer and go the slow way.  Someone we know just did this, she could not bring herself to put her FIP cat to sleep, and he had a very rough time at the end because he basically ran out of room to breathe.  I was not there but heard from a mutual friend.  So sad.  With my last two, they were pretty happy for a couple of weeks after diagnosis and then it went differen ways.  The male stopped eating and appeared t be in pain, so I took him that day.  The female seemed fine for about three weeks but her tummy kept getting bigger.  She kept on eating until the last day, and when she stopped, I took her.  All her last days were good.  My own, not so much, but that's how it goes.  I think the very hardest time is when you know time is short but you don't know exactly when, so each day you are making their day as nice as possible but also watching for changes.  I've only had one that actually died at home, and it was on the morning she would have gone for her appointment.  She moaned briefly at 6 AM and I gave her some pain med (butorphan which I had from the vet, just put it on her gums and it is absorbed from there).  She climbed into her carrier which was her "house" and was on a table beside the bed.  I petted her from my place in the bed and we both went to sleep.  I woke up a few hours later, and she did not.  She just drifted off to the rainbow bridge and never had to go to the vet.  I wish they were all that easy, but if I had not had the pain medicine, it might not have been.  I was surprised because she had only stopped eating the day before and never showed pain until that one moan at 6 AM.  They say that it's true of people and animals both, it's easier for them to slip away if there is no pain holding their attention here.

I'm gad Rocco is home, obviously the hospital was very stressful for him.  Maybe your vet will give you one dose or butorphan to have at home for him "just in case" but if he has the dry FIP. he may be around quite a long time.  My dry FIP guy kept "circling the drain" for months before he finally didn't get better.  Just love Rocco and Gino too, one day at a time.