- Joined
- Nov 25, 2015
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Hi guys! I'm a total newbie, but I'm in a bit of a minor panic and this place popped up in Google searches....so I thought a few thoughts from the well-experienced here might help. =) Sorry for the length, I'm just worried about leaving out any useful details!
My mom got a 1 year old FIV cat from a rescue in mid-September. Little guy was very shy but very active, and ate like MAD. We took him to the vet for vaccines and deworming a tummy full of roundworms. Over the next two weeks, came out of his shell quite a bit -- still skittish but wandering around, meowing a lot, hanging out with us, etc. We took him for his follow up and he got a different kind of deworming to knock out some lingering parasites.
About a week ago he started to eat a little less and stopped coming out to spend time with us. We had just switched his food, so we brushed it off as tummy distress. Over the week he stopped coming out to see us, no happy meows, hiding under the bed 24/7. He was still happy to snuggle when pulled out, but he seemed more listless and lethargic. He still eats regularly, but only bits and pieces. A HUGE difference from his snarfing down all the food he saw, and much less than even after we got rid of the roundworms.
We took him into the vet today. His fecal is negative. Heart sounds good, a bit of straining in his breathing but nothing bubbly, vet noticed nothing strange when palpating, but he had a 106 fever. Our vet did not push bloodwork on us at this stage as she had no signs of worrying about kidney/liver/so on. We're treating him with a round of antibiotics, fluids, and an NSAID. The vet said it could easily be just a bug or similar-- but, she did add that there's a chance it's FIP. She noticed ZERO signs of the 'wet' kind, for what it is worth.
Of course, I'm now a mess. All of the symptoms match what I can find, but they're just the symptoms of a fever, essentially. I noticed that a 'tipsy gait' came up in a few places. This cat has a very silly way of going when he runs, with his back legs wobbling to keep up, but he has had that since we got him and it has not changed over that time, so who knows. We opted to forego the expensive bloodwork *for right now* under the impression that tests aren't 100% reliable and if he does have FIP, there's not much we can do. We're going to wait and see if his fever responds to meds.
My question -- should I be worried right now? How likely is it that an FIV positive cat would just get a little bug that turned into a fever? Is it 'probably' FIP, or do I need to relax? I'm a nervous nellie, if you didn't notice, but I'd just love to get some grounding in what to expect. I hadn't even heard of FIP until today....ooof!
My mom got a 1 year old FIV cat from a rescue in mid-September. Little guy was very shy but very active, and ate like MAD. We took him to the vet for vaccines and deworming a tummy full of roundworms. Over the next two weeks, came out of his shell quite a bit -- still skittish but wandering around, meowing a lot, hanging out with us, etc. We took him for his follow up and he got a different kind of deworming to knock out some lingering parasites.
About a week ago he started to eat a little less and stopped coming out to spend time with us. We had just switched his food, so we brushed it off as tummy distress. Over the week he stopped coming out to see us, no happy meows, hiding under the bed 24/7. He was still happy to snuggle when pulled out, but he seemed more listless and lethargic. He still eats regularly, but only bits and pieces. A HUGE difference from his snarfing down all the food he saw, and much less than even after we got rid of the roundworms.
We took him into the vet today. His fecal is negative. Heart sounds good, a bit of straining in his breathing but nothing bubbly, vet noticed nothing strange when palpating, but he had a 106 fever. Our vet did not push bloodwork on us at this stage as she had no signs of worrying about kidney/liver/so on. We're treating him with a round of antibiotics, fluids, and an NSAID. The vet said it could easily be just a bug or similar-- but, she did add that there's a chance it's FIP. She noticed ZERO signs of the 'wet' kind, for what it is worth.
Of course, I'm now a mess. All of the symptoms match what I can find, but they're just the symptoms of a fever, essentially. I noticed that a 'tipsy gait' came up in a few places. This cat has a very silly way of going when he runs, with his back legs wobbling to keep up, but he has had that since we got him and it has not changed over that time, so who knows. We opted to forego the expensive bloodwork *for right now* under the impression that tests aren't 100% reliable and if he does have FIP, there's not much we can do. We're going to wait and see if his fever responds to meds.
My question -- should I be worried right now? How likely is it that an FIV positive cat would just get a little bug that turned into a fever? Is it 'probably' FIP, or do I need to relax? I'm a nervous nellie, if you didn't notice, but I'd just love to get some grounding in what to expect. I hadn't even heard of FIP until today....ooof!