Previous kitten died from fip now breeder is offering a second kitten

Hello everyone, I am new to this site I bought my snow angel from a breeder who sells beautiful persian kittens. Snow was the last of the litter to be homed. I took her home february 7th, and she rapidly declined until she passed away march 16th after being humanely euthanized after wet tip diagnosis, when I contacted the breeder she said she couldnt give me a refund because it said so in the contract,so she offered another kitten that will be available in two weeks, he is a male chinchilla persian from different parents that aren't related to snow. Any experiences with getting another kitten from the same breeder whos first kitten died of fip?I don't want the same thing to happen to my new baby I don't know if i can deal with another heartbreak…. And Im scared of putting my other 3 cats at risk again, They have all been fine since her passing, I took them all to get checked by my vet and they are 100% healthy, and are up to date on all vaccinations… Any tips or suggestions for the new kitten? any of the same experiences? chances of it happening again? Im stressing out about this new kitten I want him so bad to fill the void i have had since snow died, no kitten can ever replace her but it would make things a little better for me emotionally with a new baby in the house. thank you in advance! 

Parentage doesn't matter.  FIP is caused by a common corona virus which is present in many cats from shelters or catteries but it only mutates in SOME of them.  Stress can bring it on, even the stress of going to a new home, which may have triggered it in your first kitten.  I am going to give you a link to a good thorough article about FIP that isnt too technical but explains how it works.  I have lost 7 cats to it since I had one here to foster that ended up having the dry version.  Almost all of the ones I lost were under two years of age, most under one year of age.  One was an 8-year-old.  They didn't all happen at once but over the last two years.  I stopped doing rescue because of it.  I know the virus is here living in my "healthy" cats, and it's spread through sharing litter boxes etc.  For some, it's nothing, but for others, it turns deadly.  If I were you, I would not get another kitten from the same breeder.  You don't want to put your other cats at risk, and even if the new kitten stays healthy, it may still bring the corona virus into your house if it isn't in your cats already.  If they are over two years of age, it probably isn't a danger to them, but if they carry it, they could pass it to a kitten.  There is no test for FIP but there IS a test for corona virus, and if I were you, I would get your other cats tested for it before bringing in ANY new kitten.  If they carry it, don't get a kitten.  You don't want to live in fear, and you don;t want to go through this again.  I had one litter of four, one got it at 4 months right after being spayed.  Her sisters and brothers were neutered/spayed the same day and they didn't get it.  However, I still had one of the other sisters a year later, and she got out and was hit by a car, shattering her shoulder.  To save her life, her leg had to be amputated.  She recovered from the amputation well, but then she got FIP and died.  She was 18 months old.   Also, I had brother and sister rescued ferals who seemed fine and healthy but not long after they were spayed and neutered, they both developed FIP, first the female, then the male.  They were PTS within 2 weeks of each other.  I have only one cat here now that is under two years of age, and she didn't get FIP after she was spayed.  So far, so good but I am not taking in any more kittens, nor am I adopting her out until she is two years old.

http://www.vet.cornell.edu/FHC/health_resources/brochure_ftp.cfm

Thank you for the reply, All of my current kitties are between the ages of 3-5 years of age, I understand FIP can happen at any given age, especially due to stress, I have already talked with my vet about the possibility of bringing in the new kitten, I asked her if she could test my other three for corona virus to see if they have already been exposed or are shedding the virus, she said that there is really no way of knowing, even with the test she has for corona virus, she said it is inaccurate and can lead to misleading or confusing results, so she prefers not to perform the test, I questioned myself when she died thinking that it was one of my older cats that gave it to her, But I have never had a problem with FIP before and never even knew it existed up until a few months ago, the last cat to come in my home before snow was my cat pumpkin we got him when he was a few weeks old and he never had problems or showed signs of it he is now 3 years old, all of my cats are strictly indoors, vaccinated, and spayed/neutered. I just don't even know how something so devastating could have happened. The breeder I got her from said she has never had this happen in the 9 years her cattery has been opened. I can't find anything bad about her business or anything online so I kind of believe her,  she says that Persians are more susceptible to FIP more than any other breed and it happens sometimes, she thinks things will be different this time, With snow I immediately let her interact with my other kitties the minute we were home, they shared everything together, slept together, and even groomed each other. I think I should have kept them separated and took things a little slower with introduction to my other kitties, and to her new home. 

As the article stated, the test only shows the presence of corona virus so it isnt diagnostic.  Still, if the breeder never had FIP show up in her kittens, it's possible one of your adults carries the corona virus and this particular kitten was susceptible.  While Persians do seem to have a higher incidence of it, that may be because they are mainly found in catteries.  I never had a problem with it until that one kitten was given to me to foster, and I had no place to put her because my rescue room was occupied (no resident of the rescue room has ever contracted FIP, it's only the ones that have been integrated with my own cats due to lack of space.  I had no clue that the kitten the manager handed me had FIP, but she was four months old and could not be spayed yet because she couldn't make the 2 lb minimum weight requirement.  That was suspicious right there.  It wasnt long before I suspected FIP and called the previous foster, only to find out she had one that had had FIP and had diarrhea all over the house, and this kitten had been exposed.  Since it was dry FIP she got, there were no signs other than her failing to grow and thrive as she should have, and she had a cranky personality as well, because she was sick.  After she was gone, there was no problem immediately, and I was fostering other kittens for the same group, and those were the ones who were neutered and spayed, and one of the four later developed FIP. 

I'm not sure if doing a longer period of adjustment would help, but it certainly wouldnt hurt unless she was left alone and then was lonely.  Would she be spayed before you got her?  I would suggest putting that off too.  Our spay process here is pretty low key, they go into the van (cats only) at 7:30 AM and are picked up in the afternoon and recover at home.  No scary barking dogs, no overnight stay.  But in all 3 cases, they developed the FIP abut 6 weeks after the spay.  I'm sure it started earlier but of course we don't know they have it until they are really pretty far along with it.  It's really a chance thing, of the Maine Coon kittens we rescued two got it (a year apart) and two did not.

If I were the breeder and it had never happened before, I would suspect one of your cats carries it.  Did any of them come from a shelter or a breeder?

I'm sorry to hear that happened And thank you for sharing your story and information with me.Snow was also failing to thrive also, she had diarrhea and she was vomiting before we moved, i thought it was due to changing foods, But I always saw her eating all the time and drinking so I didn't understand when the doctor said she was underweight and dehydrated, It broke my heart that she had suffered that much, she had a thick coat so I could never really tell, I just remember feeling like she was so delicate and fragile every time i held her, A lot of my family had told me there was something mentally wrong with her, saying she was slow, I would always tell them it was her personality but we later found out it was because of fluid build up in her stomach, spine, and brain, she was never spayed but I know she was around 5 or 6 months when she passed away, My first cat angelica is 5 she came from a friend of mine's cats that had kittens she is a rag doll mix, never been sick, My second cat Gordo is 4 i purchased him from a breeder but never showed signs of illness, And lastly there is pumpkin he is 3 he is a long hair mix, we got him from a woman who put an add on craigslist for free kittens, he has never had any issues until recently the vet found out he may have a heart murmur or heart disease he has an ultrasound in 2 months to confirm her diagnosis but other than that he is healthy. The New kitten would be a male, He is a chinchilla persian he will be eight weeks when he comes home with me, she is taking him to get his shots and health record then she is handing him off to me, I am then going to take him to my vet to confirm he had vaccines by calling her vet and reviewing the health certificate, and check him over to see if he is healthy and perform a few blood tests to test for various conditions that my cats can contract or cancer, I am nervous about neutering because i have heard of kittens or cats developing FIP shortly after, Im going to try and keep him as calm as possible in my large master bathroom he will have everything of his own that he will need i also bought a calming aid plug in for cats that might help calm him, I just want to keep a close eye on him and look for any signs of loose stools, lethargy, and vomiting, and swollen belly, Im really praying that he will be okay and this time will be different, I plan to keep the kitten and my current cats separated from each other until a clean bill of health can be given. 

I'm so sorry for your loss.  We went through it too in 2011.  We got 2 Ragdolls at the same time--they were "half-cousins".  The little girl, Ellie, seemed to poop out quickly after playing, so at age 18 months, I had her tested for anemia and the blood tests strongly suggested dry fip (God, I hate even typing or saying that horrible "word").  We fought it with an experimental drug that helped the dry version only in some kitties, but alas, she wasn't going to be one of the lucky ones, and we lost her.  I'd naturally let the breeder know.  Ellie was the only one of the litter to have a problem, although she'd had incidence of it in the past with a specific mama cat who got retired afterwards.  Anyway, we got a "replacement" from her (as per the contract).  I was worried just like you--and still am.  I was SO worried about our other healthy kitty and wanted to keep stress down as much as possible.  The only kitten available was the runt of a large litter and related in some way to Ellie, so I begged the breeder to let ME spay her at a later date instead of doing it so young and then promptly re-homing her to me (2 huge stressors).  I didn't bother testing for the corona virus because it is so prevalent in breeders and shelters.  It is the stress--and genetic susceptibility--that determines its fate in each individual cat.  The runt has problems (dealing with it now, in fact), but it's not fip related.  She, Maggie, is almost 4 and only has one kidney and has recurrent UTIs.  She's had 3 surgeries in her little life (spay, re-spay to get a ovarian remnant that had her in heat, and a "fix" to her torn stitches) and seemed quite hardy except till now with the resistant bacteria in her UT.  Every time we do a blood test, I get scared of seeing the albumin and globulin ratio that is a strong indicator to the dry form.  

It's horrible to go through--to lose such a young kitty you've lost your heart to.  Nothing in life is guaranteed, though.  If you can get a kitty not related to the first one, go for it.  Unless a breeder has somehow managed to totally eradicate corona from its environment, any you get will likely have it.  Do the spay/neuter and do it at a slightly older age after it's acclimated to your new home.  Feed a quality food.  Try to have a positive outlook--animals pick up our fears (says the black pot right now).  

Best wishes to you!!!

With a male, and especially a persian, you can probably put off neutering him until he's about a year old, which will give his immune system a chance to get stronger.  If you could find a way to avoid letting him share food dishes or litter boxes with the others, that might help also.  I know my cats carry it, and the last group of kittens who were in the rescue room were not integrated with my others until they were 18 months old.  They are now over 2 years and none of that group has gotten FIP (knock on wood!).  There were 3 mama cats with 5 babies each that we pulled from Animal control and they had all been in the same house so I was able to house all of them together in the rescue room (which is actually the "master suite" of my house, with a hall, 2 closets and a bathroom attached.)  They all got sick with upper respiratory virus because they had been in animal control, but nursed them through that, losing one kitten only.  I still have two of the moms and four of the original 15 kittens; the rest were adopted and were never exposed to my cats.  I'm in touch with owners of 3 of them and they are still perfectly fine, as are the 4 with me. I still have the one kitten from another litter of 2 who will be one year old on August 8th.  She was merged with min at a young age because she and her sister were in the rescue room and her sister got adopted and she was not happy in there alone.  I got her spayed then and kept her in my bedroom for awhile, but she kept escaping and getting into the rest of the house with the others, and playing with them under the door, so eventually I let her merge with them.  Because of the chance of her getting FIP once she was merged, I took her ad off Petfinder.  So far she is perfectly healthy but I keep my fingers crossed that nothing stresses her. I will list some of the others on Petfinder now that they are two years old, but they can only go to a home that appears to be better than mine for them.  I need to get my cat population down to single digits, just my "old folks" and "unadoptables" and then try to outlive them so they won't be left behind.  I do have "Godparents" for those, people who have agreed to take them if they outlive me, but I'd rather outlive them. 

CocoMom said:

 
I'm so sorry for your loss.  We went through it too in 2011.  We got 2 Ragdolls at the same time--they were "half-cousins".  The little girl, Ellie, seemed to poop out quickly after playing, so at age 18 months, I had her tested for anemia and the blood tests strongly suggested dry fip (God, I hate even typing or saying that horrible "word").  We fought it with an experimental drug that helped the dry version only in some kitties, but alas, she wasn't going to be one of the lucky ones, and we lost her.  I'd naturally let the breeder know.  Ellie was the only one of the litter to have a problem, although she'd had incidence of it in the past with a specific mama cat who got retired afterwards.  Anyway, we got a "replacement" from her (as per the contract).  I was worried just like you--and still am.  I was SO worried about our other healthy kitty and wanted to keep stress down as much as possible.  The only kitten available was the runt of a large litter and related in some way to Ellie, so I begged the breeder to let ME spay her at a later date instead of doing it so young and then promptly re-homing her to me (2 huge stressors).  I didn't bother testing for the corona virus because it is so prevalent in breeders and shelters.  It is the stress--and genetic susceptibility--that determines its fate in each individual cat.  The runt has problems (dealing with it now, in fact), but it's not fip related.  She, Maggie, is almost 4 and only has one kidney and has recurrent UTIs.  She's had 3 surgeries in her little life (spay, re-spay to get a ovarian remnant that had her in heat, and a "fix" to her torn stitches) and seemed quite hardy except till now with the resistant bacteria in her UT.  Every time we do a blood test, I get scared of seeing the albumin and globulin ratio that is a strong indicator to the dry form.  

It's horrible to go through--to lose such a young kitty you've lost your heart to.  Nothing in life is guaranteed, though.  If you can get a kitty not related to the first one, go for it.  Unless a breeder has somehow managed to totally eradicate corona from its environment, any you get will likely have it.  Do the spay/neuter and do it at a slightly older age after it's acclimated to your new home.  Feed a quality food.  Try to have a positive outlook--animals pick up our fears (says the black pot right now).  

Best wishes to you!!!

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Thank you for sharing your story! Im so very sorry for your loss, I know how hard it can be, Your story is giving me hope that this time things will go differently this time and hopefully he can live a long healthy life with minimal medical problems, It sounds like Maggie is a fighter and is a strong girl Im so glad she had a different outcome!

Red Top Rescue said:

 
With a male, and especially a persian, you can probably put off neutering him until he's about a year old, which will give his immune system a chance to get stronger.  If you could find a way to avoid letting him share food dishes or litter boxes with the others, that might help also.  I know my cats carry it, and the last group of kittens who were in the rescue room were not integrated with my others until they were 18 months old.  They are now over 2 years and none of that group has gotten FIP (knock on wood!).  There were 3 mama cats with 5 babies each that we pulled from Animal control and they had all been in the same house so I was able to house all of them together in the rescue room (which is actually the "master suite" of my house, with a hall, 2 closets and a bathroom attached.)  They all got sick with upper respiratory virus because they had been in animal control, but nursed them through that, losing one kitten only.  I still have two of the moms and four of the original 15 kittens; the rest were adopted and were never exposed to my cats.  I'm in touch with owners of 3 of them and they are still perfectly fine, as are the 4 with me. I still have the one kitten from another litter of 2 who will be one year old on August 8th.  She was merged with min at a young age because she and her sister were in the rescue room and her sister got adopted and she was not happy in there alone.  I got her spayed then and kept her in my bedroom for awhile, but she kept escaping and getting into the rest of the house with the others, and playing with them under the door, so eventually I let her merge with them.  Because of the chance of her getting FIP once she was merged, I took her ad off Petfinder.  So far she is perfectly healthy but I keep my fingers crossed that nothing stresses her. I will list some of the others on Petfinder now that they are two years old, but they can only go to a home that appears to be better than mine for them.  I need to get my cat population down to single digits, just my "old folks" and "unadoptables" and then try to outlive them so they won't be left behind.  I do have "Godparents" for those, people who have agreed to take them if they outlive me, but I'd rather outlive them. 

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You have such a great heart, and are so amazing for what you are doing! Im sorry some of the kitties passed away  Im definitely thinking of holding off on neutering, I talked to my vet about it, she told me that waiting to neuter really wouldn't make a difference if he had the FIP, she said that he would eventually succumb to it if  he did have it anyway with or without neutering. But I am going to hold off because I don't want to take any chances of stressing him out, I've decided I'm going to keep him in one of my large empty bedrooms in my house with everything he needs, however I'm worried about him and my other kitties touching paws under the door though, I am totally new to this separation thing I have never kept any of my animals confined or separated from each other so I really don't know what Im doing or how Im going to accomplish this, My vet recommends separating for a few months just to see how his appetite is, stools, energy level etc. before introducing him to my other kitties.