Wet FIP

Shadowsmomma36

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Hi all. I am new here and am extremely worried about our girl. This could get long, so I'm sorry now. A little back story. We had a community stray take up with us 2 years ago this coming August. She would come to get pets and loves, then come in the house for snuggles for a bit then go back out til the next morning. We brought her in one day and she never wanted out again. So, he had her vaccinated and spayed this past September. She's been a happy house cat ever since, sun bathing in the window, being loved by myself and my husband and our 3 kids, and chasing her balls and laster pointer everywhere. A couple of weeks ago we noticed she started acting a little withdrawn, depressed. Then a week and a half ago, her appetite dropped to almost nothing and she was barely drinking. The day before yesterday, she quit eating and drinking completely. Vet was able to work her in and did blood work and x-rays. Blood work came back fine, but x-rays showed fluid in chest and in lungs, along with a lesion in her chest like a mass that's pushing up on her lungs, heart and wind pipe. She has not been vomiting. No diahhrea and no blood in her stool or urine. Aver said he is pretty sure she was wet FIP. He gave her an injection of Lasix, steroid and antibiotic and sent her home with antibiotic and steroid pills to give her daily. I hope and pray these meds can get her over this but I have read all the bad stuff. She finally starting eating through the night and has ate a little canned food a couple of times and also ate a little ham and gravy baby food as well and drank a lot of water. Hoping she can beat this. Just looking for others who have went through this to see what to look for as far as if she isn't gonna get better. She groans/moans when she tries to take a deep breath too, and only her stomach rises when she breaths, instead of her stomach and chest both. The x-rays showed her lungs were both filled half way with fluid. Is she a lost cause? I'm beside myself. She is only 2 and a half.
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FeebysOwner

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Hi. With a mass, it would seem more likely to be some sort of a tumor rather than FIP. But, you need to ask your vet about running a RT-PCR test on the fluid. This test is the only one I am aware of that is available to help confirm a FIP diagnosis. A negative result doesn't always confirm it is NOT FIP. But, this is a start and should be done as soon as you can. Too many vets tend to default to FIP when they see fluid in a cat's chest/abdomen.

You might want to do some reading about FIP and consider contacting the FIP Warriors group (FIP Warriors) as well. Here is the web site you would want to check out. Diagnosing FIP | Tests for Feline Infectious Peritonitis | FIP Treatment

I am also giving you a link for previous threads on this site - some of these folks are the members who I hope will see your post and respond to you with their personal experiences. I lost my Tawny way too many years ago to FIP to be of any help. Search Results for Query: FIP | TheCatSite

I wish you the best. There are some treatments available, but they are not necessarily always successful with FIP. Please keep us posted.
 
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Shadowsmomma36

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Hi. With a mass, it would seem more likely to be some sort of a tumor rather than FIP. But, you need to ask your vet about running a RT-PCR test on the fluid. This test is the only one I am aware of that is available to help confirm a FIP diagnosis. A negative result doesn't always confirm it is NOT FIP. But, this is a start and should be done as soon as you can. Too many vets tend to default to FIP when they see fluid in a cat's chest/abdomen.

You might want to do some reading about FIP and consider contacting the FIP Warriors group (FIP Warriors) as well. Here is the web site you would want to check out. Diagnosing FIP | Tests for Feline Infectious Peritonitis | FIP Treatment

I am also giving you a link for previous threads on this site - some of these folks are the members who I hope will see your post and respond to you with their personal experiences. I lost my Tawny way too many years ago to FIP to be of any help. Search Results for Query: FIP | TheCatSite

I wish you the best. There are some treatments available, but they are not necessarily always successful with FIP. Please keep us posted.
Thank you so much for your words and I'm sorry this awful disease took your furbaby. The vet wasn't comfortable taking a sample of the fluid because he said she is too weak to give any medication to her to relax her for the procedure because he was afraid she wouldn't be able to handle it.
 

FeebysOwner

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Thank you so much for your words and I'm sorry this awful disease took your furbaby. The vet wasn't comfortable taking a sample of the fluid because he said she is too weak to give any medication to her to relax her for the procedure because he was afraid she wouldn't be able to handle it.
Only you and your vet know whether she could handle the stress related to a needle aspiration of the fluid, but it is truly no more difficult than when a vet does a needle aspiration on a cat's bladder to extract urine. No sedation is typically required. It is a matter of getting your baby to lay still for about 30 seconds or so. Perhaps, if she is good for you, you could be the one to hold her in place while the vet draws the fluid? Maybe there is another vet in your vet's practice that might feel more comfortable with trying? Again, that is something only you can determine if it is an option.
 
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Shadowsmomma36

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Only you and your vet know whether she could handle the stress related to a needle aspiration of the fluid, but it is truly no more difficult than when a vet does a needle aspiration on a cat's bladder to extract urine. No sedation is typically required. It is a matter of getting your baby to lay still for about 30 seconds or so. Perhaps, if she is good for you, you could be the one to hold her in place while the vet draw the fluid? Maybe there is another vet in your vet's practice that might feel more comfortable with trying? Again, that is something only you can determine if it is an option.
It is something I will definitely call about! I will try anything to save our girl. I was hoping maybe just pneumonia, but her wbc is normal and he said according to her labs no sign of any infection, but his hopes are the combo of meds he gave her and she is taking at home will dry up the fluid.
 

FeebysOwner

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Me again - not trying to be a pest. But, I will tell you even 20+ years ago, my vet drained Tawny's belly 3 different times without sedation just to give him some relief while we were trying to wrap our heads around what was happening. He also never had any breathing issues, if that matters any.

I would consider consulting with an oncologist and perhaps a pulmonologist/cardiologist, and/or an internal medicine specialist.
 
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Shadowsmomma36

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Me again - not trying to be a pest. But, I will tell you even 20+ years ago, my vet drained Tawny's belly 3 different times without sedation just to give him some relief while we were trying to wrap our heads around what was happening. He also never had any breathing issues, if that matters any.
Oh you're no pest. I appreciate your insight and experience. Shadow is having breathing issues already. I think too he may want to see if the meds will help some before putting her through the added stress of more tests. But I am gonna call Monday. He is out of the office for the day.
 

kittenmittens84

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Definitely ask if they can draw some of the fluid from her chest to look at it. If a cat has FIP, draining all/a lot of the fluid isn’t recommended (unless it’s causing breathing difficulties) because the cat’s body will just pull more fluid to replace it which is taxing on their system, but seeing the color and texture of the fluid can help with diagnosis. In FIP cats the fluid is yellowish (often described as straw yellow), sticky, and high in protein.

There are several other things than can cause fluid to accumulate that aren’t at all related to FIP though so that’s good. Did they do blood work?
 
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Shadowsmomma36

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Definitely ask if they can draw some of the fluid from her chest to look at it. If a cat has FIP, draining all/a lot of the fluid isn’t recommended (unless it’s causing breathing difficulties) because the cat’s body will just pull more fluid to replace it which is taxing on their system, but seeing the color and texture of the fluid can help with diagnosis. In FIP cats the fluid is yellowish (often described as straw yellow), sticky, and high in protein.

There are several other things than can cause fluid to accumulate that aren’t at all related to FIP though so that’s good. Did they do blood work?
Yes they did. He said her CBC and everything looked normal. Even her RBC and wbc looked normal.
 

HAS

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Hi there. My sweet little man passed away at 7 months old due to wet FIP. He had been diagnosed with Coronavirus, so we knew there was a risk he could develop FIP, albeit small. Unfortunately he was not one of the lucky ones. It first started when we noticed he became lethargic with reduced appetite. A week later he had severe abdominal swelling. We had his belly tapped to withdraw a small amount of fluid and sure enough it was the classic FIP straw/amber color. Symptoms progress quickly. The fluid is the biggest indicator to test, as FIP is hard to diagnose otherwise. Please keep us posted, and prayers to you. The one thing on your side is the older a cat gets, the lower the risk of coronavirus mutating to FIP. It usually occurs in cats under a year.
 
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Shadowsmomma36

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Hi there. My sweet little man passed away at 7 months old due to wet FIP. He had been diagnosed with Coronavirus, so we knew there was a risk he could develop FIP, albeit small. Unfortunately he was not one of the lucky ones. It first started when we noticed he became lethargic with reduced appetite. A week later he had severe abdominal swelling. We had his belly tapped to withdraw a small amount of fluid and sure enough it was the classic FIP straw/amber color. Symptoms progress quickly. The fluid is the biggest indicator to test, as FIP is hard to diagnose otherwise. Please keep us posted, and prayers to you. The one thing on your side is the older a cat gets, the lower the risk of coronavirus mutating to FIP. It usually occurs in cats under a year.
Thank you for your reply, and I am so sorry for the loss of your furbaby. Well, I have a bit of good news for everyone! We went to her vet follow up appointment on Thursday of last week, and the vet said that it looked more like she had bacterial pneumonia the way she responded to the treatment of the steroids and antibiotics. Her lungs were moving air, although still sounded rough, but he could also hear her heartbeat whereas at the initial visit a week prior he couldn't. So he is really impressed with her progress so far!
 
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Shadowsmomma36

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That is wonderful news!
Yes, it is! She is back to her normal self again. Playful, spunky, loving. She is still currently on antibiotics and the steroids are down to every other day to wean her off. Her breathing is much better, and hardly rattles when she purrs now too. We are so relieved!
 
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