FIP outbreak? Any input?

Since November I've lost three kittens (two littermates, one unrelated) to FIP at a rate of one every 5-6 weeks. The first two were effusive, the third non-effusive FIP. Coronavirus (along with a host of other diseases, like URI, giardia, probably coccidia, and various worms) came with a group of kittens brought to Washington State from Texas by a rescue group that has in effect refused to give me the cats' medical records (which they say exist but are lost). They've admitted that things like this are a recurring problem for them.

There are four more kittens in my household and it is a living hell wondering if another will die. I've ordered a necropsy of the last kitten. I expect the issue is indeed FIP, but her symptoms were ambiguous, if well in keeping with the dry form as I've seen it described. She was severely anemic. Her Snap test came back clear.

Has anyone dealt with an outbreak like this before? This has killed three of an original seven kittens in my home. Two were from the Texas litter, one was local. A bout of diarrhea that struck just after the Texas cats arrived also killed my oldest cat, so there's a total of four dead. I've tried replacing boxes, bowls, and scratching posts, keeping bedding clean, scrubbing vigorously around litterboxes, etc. I've treated health issues as they've arisen. I've had tests run. I've followed my vet's advice, up to ordering the necropsy. The vets at my clinic are stumped and have referred me to a specialist nearby. I'm out of money, constantly on edge, and don't know what to do.

Sorry to say that both @catwoman707 and I have seen more than our fair share of this because we have been in rescue a long time and corona virus comes in invisibly.  Many cats carry it with zero symptoms, no diarrhea, no upper respiratory infection, no fever  Corona virus is spread easily when large groups of cats are housed together.  Once it gets in, the only way to get it technically "out" is for the kittens to outlive it.  As you know, FIP is caused by a common corona virus that mutates into a deadly form and then eaves its natural intestinal home and goes roaming in the body and attacks various organs.  Personally I lost a total of NINE over the course of two years, including the foster original kitten that brought it in.  Most of those were under one year old, one was about 19 months and got it after an accident followed by an amputation and stressful hospital stay.  The amputation was healing nicely, but then she came down with wet FIP.  Her litter sister had died of FIP which she developed shortly after being spayed at the age of four months, but the brother and other two sisters weren't affected at the time. The only one that was over two years of age and developed FIP was an 8-year-old who had also been through some stress (having been abandoned in the park and starving before rescue).

By the time I knew the foster kitten had it (she had the dry variety), all the other kittens I had then had been exposed (2012).  There was nothing to do except wait and see, but after that any incoming cats or kittens under two years of age were kept in a separate suite n the house, away from any contact with my own cats, and have had no NEW cases since December 2014.  I am not actively in rescue or fostering anymore but things happen, and I have four now half-grown feral born kittens in my rescue area.  They will have to stay there until they are adopted or are over two years old for their own protection.  They are about 7 months old now and I've had them about four months.  So far, they all seem healthy.  Because of the occasional paw under door exchange when I forget to put a baby gate up against the door, it is possible they have gotten the corona virus anyhow, but they have not shared litter, food or water or ANYTHING unwashed with the resident cats.  All my resident cats who were babies when the FIP first appeared are about to be four years old in April so they are past the dangerous age for coming down with it UNLESS they have some severe stress.  The reason they say age matters is that their immune systems are not mature until between two and three years of age, and of course cats with FIV have weakened immune systems so they are susceptible at any age.

It sounds like it came into your house with the Texas kittens (the explosive diarrhea was in the house of the previous foster of my Patient Zero FIP kitten, only nobody told me.  I was fostering for another group, they had taken a litter of my fosters to the vet for spay and neuter, and when they came back the Director handed me an additional kitten and said "Here, this one didn't make weight to be spayed, and her original foster family is moving and can't take her back."  If I had only known, but I didn't.  It wasn't but a few days that I realized this kitten was sick -- she was four months old and could not make the spay weight of 2 lbs.  She was cranky, didn't like to eat much of anything, and was generally a sad and unhappy little thing.  I called the original foster family, got the history, and oh yes, they had a male that had diarrhea all over the house and was diagnosed with FIP and put to sleep while this little one was in their house.  Anyhow, I took her back to their vet and she was put to sleep and post mortem showed dry FIP.  Without going into sad detail, after that, I started losing kittens every few months, the 8-week olds (2 out of 4), some 3 month old siblings (both came down with the wet form) and one of my litter of 3 that were with their mother eventually got the dry form.  The other two and mom never got it.  I suspect your oldest cat got it along with the diarrhea, and old cats frequently have weakened immune systems too.  None of my older cats got it.

Your percentage of loss sounds about like mine, as does the timing of the losses (every 4-5 weeks at first).  The encouraging thing is that you may be reaching the end of the losses, just as I did, in that first year.  The only loss after the first year was the one who was injured and hospitalized and stressed.  Had that not happened, I doubt she would have developed the FIP.  Her sister died from it shortly after the litter was spayed and neutered, but there were four kittens in total in that litter and three were fine.  Two were adopted out to separate homes (both are still fine today) and I kept the one that was the most feral and high strung.  She's the one that got out and got hit by a car and had a leg amputated, healing well, and thenFIP struck.  She was still under two years of age when that happened.

I have one huge corner of my garden called FIP corner where all of these are buried.  Soon spring will bring the azalea bushes planted over them into bloom.  I have not lost one to FIP since 2004, and I continue to pray no one gets it, but I assume the corona virus is here and would not adopt out any of these cats without warning the adopter not to add a kitten to the household.

I would suggest you keep those you have and do NOT take in any more kittens this year, and in future years have a separate space where your personal cats are not allowed to go and make that the safe space for foster cats and kittens.  Your healthy ones are likely carriers of the corona virus that CAN mutate, even if it doesn't, and kittens are the most susceptible.  Keep the ones at home as happy and calm as you can because it's believed that stress contributes to FIP developing.  My personal decision was to keep ALL of the exposed ones until they were at least two years old, and I did that.  It's much harder to adopt out adult cats than kittens, so I have too many cats now, but I've had a few adult adoptions this year and all those cats are fine. 

I hope your population stabilizes now and am sorry you have gone through what I've gone through.  I love my survivors and can visit other rescuers for my kitten fix from time to time because there will be no more little kittens growing up here.  These ferals in my study ere not part of the plan, but they came with a huge donation for their care, and they were too wild to go to anyone but an experienced feral lover so the alternative would have been animal control and a scary death.  The girls are tame enough to adopt out as a pair to a quiet and experienced home.  The boys are still too wild and are not neutered yet, but I think that will be done towards the end of the month.  It's taken me this long to allow themselves to be touched, whereas the girls are tame already and were spayed a couple of months ago.  They did not get FIP so far, and hopefully they didnt get the corona virus under the door either.

Here is a really informative link about the disease: http://www.2ndchance.info/fip.htm

I have many other good links about FIP if you want some other points of view.  I studied this exhaustively.

Red Top, so you are saying the only thing that  was spread among your kitties was cornavirus? I have read that if one sib develops FIP, the propensity for there to be more from that litter is higher as there is a genetic component. I can understand keeping coronavirus positive kittens away from negative kittens  but if you have a group  of unrelated coronavirus posative kittens/cats and one develops FIP, are the others, who already are infected but not FIP, at higher risk for developing FIP?  I know coronavirus is contagious but not the mutation, correct? 

CindyCRNA said:

 
Red Top, so you are saying the only thing that  was spread among your kitties was cornavirus? I have read that if one sib develops FIP, the propensity for there to be more from that litter is higher as there is a genetic component. I can understand keeping coronavirus positive kittens away from negative kittens  but if you have a group  of unrelated coronavirus posative kittens/cats and one develops FIP, are the others, who already are infected but not FIP, at higher risk for developing FIP?  I know coronavirus is contagious but not the mutation, correct? 

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That IS the only thing that is spread, the coronavirus, and it is near impossible to keep others in the home from getting it.

Correct, the virus is highly contagious, most vets say that just about all cats will have at some point come in contact with the virus. The fip mutation however is not contagious, and agreed that there can be a genetic component in the development of fip, but also not necessarily.

Genetics, immune strength, stress levels and overall health, including a URI in kittens, and flea infestation which causes anemia, as well as the age when corona contact was made seem to affect the shedding of the coronavirus or it's mutation in to fip.