Cleaning After Kitten With Fip

[Lyss]

Hi everyone, new to the site so please excuse me if I am not using proper etiquette.
About a week ago I lost my 8 month old kitten, Sally, to the dry form of Feline Infectious Peritonitis. My family would like to adopt another kitten, and as far as I know, the virus can live in the home for up to 7 weeks. Do you have any advice for cleaning a house after a cat with Coronavirus/FIP? I'd hate to bring a kitten home and have them exposed and develop FIP again. Thank you in advance.

 

[kashmir64]

I don't have experience with FIP, but it can't be that different than Coccidia or Giardia. The best thing on these is to have your home steam cleaned. Unless you have old carpet and you don't care too much about stains (like me). Then spray anywhere your kitten walked with 10% ammonia. Run any blankets it was on through the wash with HOT water. If you are going to use the same stuff, ie. litter pan, scoop, brush etc.. make sure to thoroughly douse them with the ammonia mixture. Set them in the sun to dry and air out. Also either get new food/water bowls or do the ammonia thing with them. Ammonia kills anything.
I am so sorry for your loss. It's hard

 

[Kieka]

I am so sorry for your loss. I know someone who that happened too and she threw out anything that couldn't be cleaned with bleach. She then asked friends and family to come over for a kitty shower to help replace the toys and trees she couldn't clean.

Anything that is mobile I would take it outside and leave it in a sunny spot for a day. Sunlight can help in killing germs on surfaces that bleaching might not kill or fully kill. Also read labels on cleaners because some require you to leave the product on whatever for a specific time to actually work properly when it comes to contagious bacteria.

 

[kashmir64]

An important note: Never mix ammonia and bleach. It creates mustard gas and will kill everyone. Just in case you were thinking of double dosing cleaning.

 

[abyeb]

I am so sorry for your loss. FIP is a horrible disease. I have heard that the virus can live in an environment for up to three months, so I would advise not to bring in a new kitten until after that period, just to be on the safe side. You don't necessarily have to throw away anything that can't be cleaned with bleach, just waiting several months would suffice.