Beth, I have no experience with FIP. I do know that cats live long lives with it symptom free. I am not sure if the test for FIP is reliable (I think I read this somewhere), so I wouldn't worry myself over this. I read in my Cornell book that the coronavirus is a group of strains of viruses, one of which causes FIP, so the test your vet was referring to might have been one and the same, but not sure because of the different strains of coronavirus. It said the coronavirus is very common and as far as FIP goes, stress is the biggest factor in virus development. Cats with FIP usually have moderate to high titers of coronavirus, so if Alice had very faint, then the FIP strain might not have been what she had. The book also says that in multicat households, coronavirus is extremely common. There is no diagnostic test that can specifically identify carriers of the conronavirus, and a definitive clinical diagnosis of FIP can only be made during a necropsy (autopsy) after death or by a biopsy (not sure where or how).
I would start giving your kitties L-lysine (make sure there is no propenol glycol in the ingredients), about 500 mg per day, if they are showing symptoms of the herpes virus (sneezing, conjunctivitis, etc.), which is also difficult to test for and believed to be fairly common (maybe as common as the cold sore virus that humans get). This will boost their immune systems to put the herpes virus into remission if that's what they have. And help their immune system as far as the coronavirus goes. Once they are symptom free, you can keep giving them 250 mg. per day of the lysine, or just keep them as stress free as possible. Keep us posted on these babies. And take care of yourself while you are grieving for Alice. :) Wendy --- Gary Murphy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Thank you everyone for your condolences on Alice's > passing. How ironic that a horrible experience like > this leads to such a kind,wonderful group of people. > I hate to ask again so soon, but I need some more > advice. My sorrow for Ally is beginning to being > eclipsed by panic for the fates of the others in our > house. Does anyone here have any experience with > FCoV and/or FIP? The vet called my husband with > Ally's test results, said that it was a very,very > slight positive antibody titre (1 in 100?). I'm not > even sure if that is for FIP or coronavirus. The > information we have been getting from the vet seems > to conflict with what we are reading on the web. > She seems to think it somewhat likely that they will > come down with FIP as they were probably exposed at > the same time as Ally, whereas some of the web sites > say that only FCoV is transmisable, and that it then > sometimes mutates into deadly FIP individually > within each cat in response to stress. I threw out > the thermometer I used on Ally, am running out to > buy a new one so I can temp them all and isolate > (where I don't know, I'm out of bedrooms) any that > might be getting sick. They appear healthy so far, > but all four of them have wet sneezes at least once > a day, and three of them occasionally have a bit of > eye gunk and always have a tiny bit of the 3rd > eyelid showing way in the corner of their eyes. > Blue seems syptom free so far, her eyes are clear > and no sneezing, although she is getting eardrops > for a mild infection. Any experiences you can share > are greatly appreciated. > > Thank you so much, > Beth __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
