Sadly, I am coming back to this forum to discuss one of the felines in my household. I have 5 indoor and 1 (feral) outdoor. (Long post ahead)
About a year or so ago, our cat Gizmo started developing a pot belly. Thinking it was worms, we quickly dewormed him and continued to do so over the course of a few months. His conditioned worsened and I pleaded with my mother to go to the vet. (I could not take him on my own)
Now, after almost a year of pleading with her, we think it may be FIP. I know there is no definitive way of knowing and he goes to the vet on Friday. I know that even there it will be hard to get a 100% diagnosis.
I just wanted to know if he still had a worm issue, could it present itself with wet FIP symptoms? Since FIP likes to mimic several other illnesses and is hard to pinpoint.
I feel like I may be in less denial than my mother, but I am still clinging to the hope he doesn't have that terrible illness.
A very rough timeline would be that Spring of last year he presented a distended potbelly that was bloated and hard (not jiggly at all), some diarrhea, eating more, no vomit.
We had brought in one of our ferals sometime last year and he now lives in the house so we thought maybe he brought in worms despite deworming him as well.
Dewormed several times through Spring-Autumn and showed very little improvement.
His stomach got a bit smaller in November, but by December it was back (but not hard) and he started hiding a little more. He has always been very social, but we could never pick him up -- and I was able to in December... which isn't good.
I begged my mother a few more times, but nothing came of it (she admits she was in denial), until recently when she was able to pick him up. He has lost a lot of weight, is vomiting every othr day, he eats constantly, his belly is big (but not like last year), he has the dreaded triangle face, and he is sneezing. His coat is dull and I know he is malnourished despite our best efforts. (I have been giving him more of a fresh meat/canned diet vs his dry food)
He is about 10 years old, and has never really had any issues until now.
My main concern is that, if he has FIP, what do I do about my other cats? What are the chances that they have the mutation? What are early signs? What do I do to prevent it? All 4 other cats are VERY affectionate toward him. So I am very worried that they would all have FCoV, especially our feral we brought in who is very very VERY bonded with him. What is the risk of mutation there?
How long would I have to monitor them if (i hate thinking about this) Gizmo has it and passes away?
I can't take Gizmo away from everyone if he has it, because that = stress.
What leads us to believe he most likely has it, is our past with another one of our babies dying from this terrible disease. I am still very ignorant to it, and I am running myself up a wall thinking about all of the possibilities.
I just need some piece of mind/some solidarity until the vet appointment on Friday.
About a year or so ago, our cat Gizmo started developing a pot belly. Thinking it was worms, we quickly dewormed him and continued to do so over the course of a few months. His conditioned worsened and I pleaded with my mother to go to the vet. (I could not take him on my own)
Now, after almost a year of pleading with her, we think it may be FIP. I know there is no definitive way of knowing and he goes to the vet on Friday. I know that even there it will be hard to get a 100% diagnosis.
I just wanted to know if he still had a worm issue, could it present itself with wet FIP symptoms? Since FIP likes to mimic several other illnesses and is hard to pinpoint.
I feel like I may be in less denial than my mother, but I am still clinging to the hope he doesn't have that terrible illness.
A very rough timeline would be that Spring of last year he presented a distended potbelly that was bloated and hard (not jiggly at all), some diarrhea, eating more, no vomit.
We had brought in one of our ferals sometime last year and he now lives in the house so we thought maybe he brought in worms despite deworming him as well.
Dewormed several times through Spring-Autumn and showed very little improvement.
His stomach got a bit smaller in November, but by December it was back (but not hard) and he started hiding a little more. He has always been very social, but we could never pick him up -- and I was able to in December... which isn't good.
I begged my mother a few more times, but nothing came of it (she admits she was in denial), until recently when she was able to pick him up. He has lost a lot of weight, is vomiting every othr day, he eats constantly, his belly is big (but not like last year), he has the dreaded triangle face, and he is sneezing. His coat is dull and I know he is malnourished despite our best efforts. (I have been giving him more of a fresh meat/canned diet vs his dry food)
He is about 10 years old, and has never really had any issues until now.
My main concern is that, if he has FIP, what do I do about my other cats? What are the chances that they have the mutation? What are early signs? What do I do to prevent it? All 4 other cats are VERY affectionate toward him. So I am very worried that they would all have FCoV, especially our feral we brought in who is very very VERY bonded with him. What is the risk of mutation there?
How long would I have to monitor them if (i hate thinking about this) Gizmo has it and passes away?
I can't take Gizmo away from everyone if he has it, because that = stress.
What leads us to believe he most likely has it, is our past with another one of our babies dying from this terrible disease. I am still very ignorant to it, and I am running myself up a wall thinking about all of the possibilities.
I just need some piece of mind/some solidarity until the vet appointment on Friday.
