Fip Question

[Blahblahblah]

I recently found two 7-10 week old kittens. I currently have a 6 and 1 year old cat. When I took them to the vet's I was warned that the more cats in a house the higher the possibility of FIP. This scares me because I lost a kitten many years ago from this horrible disease and I dont want any to get sick. My question is, is this something that I should be super worried about? Does the diesease go up a specific percentage percent I have in the house? Is it just the kittens who are at risk or is it the older ones as well? I've been researching this for days so any help is appreciated.

 

[1CatOverTheLine]

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B Blahblahblah - Do you want the long, scientific answer or the short answer?
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[Blahblahblah]

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B Blahblahblah - Do you want the long, scientific answer or the short answer?
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Let's start with the short answer

 

[1CatOverTheLine]

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B Blahblahblah - The short answer is, "yes," by increasing the probabilities that one of your cats will experience the protein mutation which causes the relatively benign FCoV to become enteric (FECV) and which leads to FIP.

RNA viruses mutate drastically, and there's only a single mutation of FCoV which causes FIP, as shown by the Cornell University Study, so the odds are extremely low that one cat, two cats or fifty cats will experience the mutation. If it happens, however, and the cat who experiences the mutation sheds the virus into the litter box, cross-contamination of the whole clowder becomes a very real possibility.

The long answer would include that we now know enough about the FIP m FECV to understand the proteasation, and that there are now two (as of this past month) suppliers of the protease inhibitor known to cure FIP. There's a layman's article by Dr. Justine Lee (VetGirl) here:

New cure for Feline Infectious Peritonitis | Dr. Justine Lee, DACVECC, DABT, Board-Certified Veterinary Specialist

but she's among the few veterinarians already offering the protease inhibitor by injection, although more forward-thinking veterinarians are already getting on board. If you'd like to read the research abstracts, the studies et. al. I'll be glad to include links.
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[Blahblahblah]

Thank you for responding. This issue is stressing me out so much. I want everybody to be happy and healthy. Other than having multiple litter boxes and cleaning them frequently, is there a way to keep the possible spread down?

 

[1CatOverTheLine]

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B Blahblahblah - Not really, no. Even doing a Direct FIP test won't assure that one of the cats won't be affected by the mutation later, and again, once shed, the virus is in its "live" form, and can easily infect the other cats.

This strictly anecdotal: I've lived in multiple cat households (11 cats currently, but far more than that in the past) for more than sixty years, and have never seen FIP. I wouldn't hesitate for a moment taking in another cat as long as my veterinarian gave her or him a clean bill of health, and I see the risk as being extremely low. The caveat here is that I've seen the FCoV genome, and know the number of nucleotides the original virus comprises, and hence the reason the FIP is called almost universally, "a very rare viral mutation."

The above is neither medical advice nor a suggestion that adding another cat is perfectly safe - but the probabilities are enormously in your favour.
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