FIP death in multiple cat household...questions for the future.

[KeiAlways]

Hello - I posted recently about my cat Kei having to be euthanized due to rapid decline caused by FIP. We will forever regret that we brought her to the vet a week prior and they said her belly was "ok" (it wasn't) and by the time they knew what it was, it was too late to find someone with the drug shown to cure this viral mutation. If only she had been sick a couple years later, I'm sure it would be a standard treatment. Anyways, no point in clinging to that.

We have 2 other kitties, an 11 month old and an 11 year old. They are both sorely missing the relationship with Kei.

I discussed this with 2 vets. One said, "don't get another cat for YEARS". I refused to accept this as 80% of cats have coronavirus at some point. Called another vet, and they said no need to wait.

Can anyone help guide me through this decision? There are many, many cats in need of a home and I don't want to live life based on a small risk that will be there anyways. But I'm also scared.

Thank you,

 

[carebearbaby1]

FIP is an individual mutation, it's not contagious once it's mutated. Give your house a good cleaning, get new litter boxes and food bowls just in case.

 

[HAS]

We adopted two 6 month old kittens (different litters) from a shelter. Within a month of being home, one of the kittens had died of FIP. Our other kitten showed no signs. We adopted another cat 2 months later after watching videos from FIP research scientists, as well as reading up from vets who dedicate time to really researching it. We did not proceed without doing a ton of research. Most vets do not possess specialty knowledge around FIP, and since the industry doesn’t have a canned response to guide doctors, you’ll get all sorts of answers. We deemed it low risk and have not had any issues.
I urge anyone to check out this very informative talk from Cornell FIP researchers that goes into great detail here:

 

[KeiAlways]

Thank you so much, I will be watching this now. It's so strange to me that an illness with such a high fatality rate isn't given more attention. But I suppose we are seeing improvements with that on the horizon. I appreciate the information!