Tell me it's not FIP

So let me start off with a short history, I adopted my boy (Wraith) in late October from a shelter after doing a ton of searching. He had been a stray and they picked him up when he was about 1. I was told he was about 2 at this point, and had been treated for giardia (sp?) a couple times during his time in the shelter. The shelter had also had a recent battle with fleas but he was receiving his last treatment when I came to pick him up. Within a couple weeks of having him I noticed he had worms (probably from the fleas) and treated him with some over the counter stuff that cleared it right up. He had on and off diarrhea that I assumed was the intestinal upset of the fleas or change to new food in my home. I changed his food again and it seemed to clear up. The one thing that persisted though was his horrible bad breath. His teeth looked clean, slightly yellow but nothing bad. I was encouraged to believe it was a halitosis and he ha just always been that way. I figured I'd have the vet take a look at his first visit.

Fast forward to December; every now and then I noticed he would get a bit sneezy. Nothing major, just once in awhile. No discharge or anything concerning. In January he started to display symptoms of a sick cat. Sneezing a lot, lots of fluid, though clear and the lovely sneeze bath you'd get if he was in your lap snuggling when a sneeze hit. I scheduled him for a vet visit right away (Jan 22) since it seemed like a classic URI.

The vet looked at his teeth and was very concerned, because his gum line was irritated and red looking. She said he could be allergic to the plaque on his teeth and we may need to remove all his teeth. I was shocked, and this seemed kind of weird to me. She then told me his hair coat looked rough. My boy has this sort of old velveteen teddy bear look, but I assumed it was due to the fleas and it was steadily improving since October when I got him. Still she said she wanted to do some blood work to establish a baseline. At my behest for antibiotics in case it was a URI she offered a 2 week lasting vaccine of antibiotics. With that we went home.

After the vaccine I noticed his breath was completely cleared up and within 48 hours the sneezing cleared up for the most part. However I noticed he was so tired, all the time. He slept all day and seemed kind of mopey. I did some reading on the shot he got and was concerned, it seemed to be a common symptom and lots of people were in a tizzy over it. (Corvena sp?) I felt bad for choosing the shot over pills. The vet called back with his blood work, expressing there was protein in his blood and signs that his body was fighting an infection off. I figured this was due to the infection in his mouth, after all it had been lingering since at LEAST October and probably much longer. Thats when she said FIP seemed most likely.

My heart sank and she offered me a blood test that could be done with the leftover blood from the previous blood work. $90 lighter I awaited the results. During this time I separated him from my other cat to monitor him. I noticed he was barely eating, only a few bites here and there and his poops were small only a couple inches at best which told me he had been eating very little for some time now. He was still heartily drinking though. 3 days later along with some aggravated calling back and fourth with the office I FINALLY get the results. Negative. The other vet who worked in the office expressed that while a negative wasn't a sure bet that the lab she had spoken with expressed it was highly unlikely to be FIP based on the results in the absence of fluid accumulation.

While I tried not to get overly comfortable it was still a huge relief. I mentioned his food aversion, and asked the vet for pain killers (to rule out tooth pain making him avoid food) and appetite stimulants. As the shot wore off he started to perk back up again, walk around the house come over for pets and even play with toys. The painkillers seemed to make no difference and the appetite stimulants only made him SUPER talkative. He's always been a very vocal cat but the pills were making him unbearably needy. Within a few days of the antibiotic wearing off he began to sneeze again. In a couple days he was BAD, yellow booger and whistling nose I was afraid he was going to suffocate!

I called the vet that morning and asked for antibiotics right away. That evening he took his first dose (2x daily every 12 hours) and by his 3rd dose was completely clear. His appetite was still finicky but he was eating enough to at least poop here and there. Still not enough. It got to the point where all day I'd randomly bring him his dish, he would eat for a couple mins, then be done. Half hour later I'd bring it again and that would be me all day.

Then came the worst part. The antibiotics made him feel better again, but now he was starting to collect fluid. Each day he seemed a little bigger. within the last couple days he's leveled off and I haven't noticed more water weight. We have an appointment this evening. I would have liked to get him in sooner but a huge snow storm kicked that idea in the pants.

I've done some reading, and I'd LIKE to believe the fluid accumulation is the result of his liver due to his inappetite, which I would like to believe was caused by a URI that gave him a food aversion. Today at the vet I'm going to ask them to relieve him of some of the fluid and start an assist feed diet to help his liver recover. Beyond that though, I just don't know what else to do. He's started to get tired again, but that's easy to blame on starvation. He's not near as bad as he was when he got the shot, he still wanders around, is friendly and snuggly just a little lethargic. If he weren't so scrawny from not eating well and plump around the middle with fluid he would seem like a totally healthy cat!

I don't want to give up and call it FIP and put him down, especially now when he's out and about the house and not seemingly in any distress. I'm praying it's not FIP and hoping the timeframe makes FIP even less likely. From my understanding FIP especially wet is very fast moving. This has been ongoing since December and he's yet to hit a point of being debilitatingly sick. Every FIP story I read the cat gets sick and within a couple days to a couple weeks the cat is so sick it's horrifying. My boy seems so apt to recover, but the fluid just has me really frightened. I'm just unsure what to do next.

Any advice for his appointment today?

I think it may NOT be FIP.

First, there is no true TEST for FIP.  If your vet tested for exposure to corona virus (the precursor to FIP, a virus that mutates to become FIP) and that test was negative, then it is not FIP.  Corona virus is common in cats and can show p like an upper respiratory infection or as an intestinal infection with diarrhea, and a cat testing positive for corona virus does not mean he has FIP, but just that he has had corona virus and therefore it COULD be FIP.

Fluid in the belly is always scary, and a lot can be learned from drawing out just a little of it.  FIP fluid is thick and yellowish, while other types of fluid are more likely to be clear or blood tinged.  If it is thick, there are tests that can be done on it that again can be suggestive of FIP.  The diagnosis of FIP is usually a combination of history, physical symptoms and how the disease progresses. 

FIP can manifest anywhere in the body.  It can be in the chest and lungs, the intestine, the brain and central nervous system.  It does not have to manifest in the abdomen.  Diagnosis is often a combination of history (exposure to the corona virus, i.e. a multicat or rescue situation), age (most FIP cases occur in cats under two years of age), history of recent stress (boarding, spaying, neutering, change of home etc.) and certain blood test results, but the most important and most common signs to the owner are the total lack of appetite, profound weight loss, lack of energy, depression, withdrawal, hiding, often choosing to lie on cool hard surfaces. 

Your cat has the added problem of having received Convenia.  While its antibiotic action is said to last for 10 days to 2 weeks, it actually stays in the body for 65 days so if your cat is having side effects from it, they can persist a long time.  It sounds like you have done some reading on it and you know it can cause lethargy, depression, loss of appetite, and then if you don't force feed him, liver complications from not eating.  When cats get Convenia, they should ALWAYS be given a probiotic for the 65 days to keep their intestinal bacteria healthy.  Each day, you are replacing what the Convenia is killing off.  I have one rescue here who had Convenia twice in two months because of a urinary problem and she was skinny and picky but they thought it was due to the urinary problem.  I put her on probiotics immediately and it didnt take long for her to get a big belly on her, but it wasn't fluid.  It was the intestines getting healthy again and filling up.  Her appetite is fine and it improved quickly on the probiotics, as did her poop, which wasn't moving well before

The fact that antibiotics are making your cat feel better again are encouraging because antibiotics don't help much with FIP.   If he's just starting to recover from a reaction to Convenia (and you have him on a different antibiotic now for his stomatitis) then things may improve.  That "death breath" is quite typical of acute stomatitis, often secondary to having a calici infection (which is usually but not always manifested as a cold or upper respiratory infection) including the red gums and ulcers in the mouth and throat which cause pain and make them not want to eat anything.

For some reason, Clindamycin seems to be the best antibiotic to use in that condition because it targets the type of bacteria usually found in the mouth.  I'm not sure what you are giving him now, but perhaps that's what you have.  If he does have mouth pain and that is why he isn't eating well, then a single injection of depo-medrol, a long-acting steroid, should be very helpful.  It always helped my stomatitis cats within 12 hours, and it greatly improved their appetite also.  Some vets are hesitant to use it but they are mainly dog vets or new graduates without a lot of feline experience.  People and dogs do not do well on steroids, but cats do very well.

What I would suggest is that you get him on probiotics right away and get him a shot of depo-medrol and see where it goes from there.  It will make him feel better, and time will tell.

In the meantime, I will give you my favorite link to learn more about Convenia. 

http://www.catinfo.org/?link=convenia

Let us know how the vet visit goes.

Thank you for the hope. I just got back from the vet where the tapped the fluid in his belly and it came out think and yellow.

The vet has given a final diagnosis of FIP and recommends I euthanize him before waiting too long. I didn't have the heart to do it today but will be paying someone to come to the house and do it,

Oh my goodness I'm so sorry
This has to be so hard, I'm sorry.

I'm so sorry

I am really sorry, I was so hoping he wouldn't have it.  It went on so long, I think it started as the "dry" form and only changed to the wet form recently.  I know you will keep him as comfortable as you can and will not let him suffer.  He was lucky to have such a caring and observant human to call his own.