Coronavirus Vs Fip

[Mescatsamis]

Hello everyone.....sorry if this is a a duplicate of previous advice given relating to coronavirus. I have read the other threads but I’d hoped someone could give me some symptom specific advice....

My cat, Groot, is 15 months old. I adopted him at 8 months old. He’s very small (2.6kg at “healthy” weight) and I never worried about it but my vet has brought it up a couple of times. He’s been healthy since we adopted him, aside from four/five bouts of hypersalivation. He’s usually well with it and my vet has never been able to get to the bottom of the problem.

I adopted a second cat, TARS, in early December, and he is about 9 months old. They had some fights, which I’d posted about before. 90% of the time they do brilliantly, but sometimes their fights turn into Groot making those typical “cat fight” sounds. I put it down to TARS being much bigger and stronger than Groot and maybe getting a bit carried away, and Groot being a spoiled mardy bum. Anyway, Groot started hypersalivating last week and looked like he was straining on his litter tray, and hopping on and off, on and off. I suspected he had a urinary infection and took him to the vets. He was prescribed cystease and metcam and was diagnosed with stress related cystitis. I expected this was off the back of us adopting TARS and the two of them settling in together. As usual, we didn’t pay too much attention to the HS.

The following morning, I could tell something wasn’t right. He appeared to be presenting some weird neurological signs, like his head kept going to one side, he kept walking backwards and he was absolutely covered in diahorrea. Straight back to the vets where they kept him in, gave him fluids, X-rays, scan etc. There wasn’t any fluid in his chest or abdomen and nothing jumped out. It was at this point that FIP was mentioned to me. I had never heard of this before and naturally was absolutely terrified of it. His liver and kidney functions were fine, no anaemia. I was told some further bloods needed to be sent away, he was discharged to recover at home with me. One because they thought he would do better in his own environment and two to keep costs down. The vet suspected that my insurers wouldn’t cover his treatment as they won’t pay for his HS as they deem it to be pre-existing. I was told not to give him metacam while he had diahorrea and has some binder I need to give him to firm his poos, along with antibiotics for toxoplasmosis, just in case.

Thursday night, he was dreadfully ill and I was devastated that we were going to lose him. Since then, he is continually getting better every single day. Today, he is totally back to his old self. His poos are still soft, a bit like mousse, but he is not incontinent with them. He isn’t lifting his tail but I bet his bum is very sore. He’s fully cleaned himself so he’s no longer covered in poo, his appetite is back, no dribbling, he’s as good as new. His tests have come back as negative for toxoplasmosis.

He has tested as positive for coronavirus and my vet seems to think he’s got dry FIP. I’m honestly not sure, and although I trust my vet, I do have concerns. Would he be getting so much better if it was FIP? Could the diahorrea just be a symptom of his coronavirus? I understand that it can present itself this way and that cats can emit the virus through their poo and effectively work it out of their system. I also understand that most cats carry coronavirus, that they can live with it if it doesn’t mutate, and that they can pick it up again after they’ve had it. Could his HS be attributable to coronavirus or FIP?

Can cats present neurological signs with infections like elderly people and rabbits can?? I appreciate I’m not a vet and am clutching at straws to avoid having to deal with potentially losing my boy but I don’t want your write him off if there’s another explanation. So sorry for the very long post and I’d be so grateful if anyone could provide me with any assistance, positive or negative. Thank you so much

* present neurological signs with URINARY infectious

 

[Mescatsamis]

My precious kitten, Klaatu died of FIP and I know a lot about it. There are 2 types - the more common is wet. Here are the classic symptoms of FIP.- bad diarrhea, fever, high bilirubin, weakness like they cannot get up and fluid in the abdomen. Most vets do not understand FIP. At UC Davis, Dr. Peters is probably the world authority and I know a lot from him. FIP can only be identified on an autopsy. There is no test. Ask him what his blood work is. Don’t rely only on his diagnosis as I say they don’t often understand it. Cats are expos

 

[Mescatsamis]

Got cut off exposed to the corona virus. Research it.

 

[Mescatsamis]

One more thing. FIP is 100% fatal. They don’t get better. There is no cure. They can get periods where it will seem to abate some of the symptoms but what your cat has is not FIP.