Lisa: How long should I wait to get another kitten if I just had a kitten that contracted FIP?
I had a kitten that had to be put to sleep because he contracted Feline Infectious Peritonitis. I’d like to get another kitten but I’ve gotten 3 different waiting periods from vets. One vet said 30 days, the second vet said 6 months and another said 1 year. Does anyone have any experience with this? Any help would be appreciated.
Answers and Views:
Answer by Gr8 F8
never, no more, stop breeding
Waiting period for what? FIP is genetic, they normally are born with it, they can get infected from their mom. Just get new litter boxes, bedding and toys for your new cat, and be sure to take him to the vet for a thorough checkup and get him all the necessary vaccinations to prevent such diseases. Good Luck,go get a new kitty, maybe two, two are less damaging to your home and keep each other happy and ultimately are healtier.Answer by Tigger
I won’t go so far as to say I’m actually experienced with this virus. But I have been in other situations where infections can be dangerous and good sanitation is vital. And that seems to be the case with FIP, from what I saw when I ran a quick search.
According to the research, this is one virus that can mutate readily, much like the human flu viruses do. So if I were you, I would sterilize everything your first kitten touched- or dispose of it. And wait at least 6 months to make sure it’s not still lurking.
Good luck.
Answer by Susan MThe problem with FIP is that for a cat to get it, it must already have feline AIDS. You should wash anything the kitten enjoyed sleeping on, throw away toys, etc.
I had three cats years ago. One was a little kitten. She got peritonitis. It was the first time I had heard of it. She had to be put to sleep. The other cats never got sick , nor have any of the others I’ve had since. That was 1979. I’ve always had two or three cats. The young ones met the old ones, so there was no transmision in my house.
Read the next article with a grain of salt, since the Wikipedia article says this is not an infectious disease. There is no clear answer.
How is it transmitted?
Wouldn’t we all like to know! Seriously, there seems to be two schools
of thought. One group (from Cornell-based publications and
seminars) states that the spread is not known with certainty, but
is believed to be by ingestion or inhalation of the virus. The
other school of thought (from Dr. Pedersen and the UC, Davis based
publications) believes that transmission is most prevalent when
cats have close contact with other infected cats or their
feces/urine. Both schools seem to feel that feces may play a large
role in the method of transmission.
Some studies suggest that viruses that can cause FIP can survive
on dry surfaces (food/water bowls, litter boxes, human clothing,
etc.) and can survive at room temperature probably up to 2 or 3
weeks. If this is the case, then the two schools of thought on
methods of transmission may not be so far apart, especially given
that litter can contain dust to which small particles of feces can
adhere. Thus the virus can possibly be spread via litter dust on
shoes or clothing or etc. making it behave as if it were an
airborne virus!
From:
Also see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feline_infectious_peritonitis
Answer by A VeterinarianHeartfelt condolences for your kitty. 🙁
(Don’t know what’s up with the goofus who told you to quit breeding, as I don’t see anywhere in your post that you’re doing that….you just want another kitten, right?)
The reason you’re getting so many different answers is that, to be honest, no one really knows the answer to that question.
FIP is one of the oldest viruses of cats, with (ironically) the least amount known about it, including transmission. We still don’t even have a good test for it to confirm that’s what it is.
When I was in veterinary college, I adopted a stray 7-8 week old kitten with the intention of giving it to a relative who had recently lost her lifelong cat-companion, since this kitten had similar traits. I was keeping her for a couple of months until I could get her there. Right as that was happening, I had a 6-year old cat who became ill with vague, seemingly unrelated problems (started just before I took the kitten in.) The symptoms rapidly progressed over several weeks. Even though I had experts at one of the top veterinary colleges at my disposal, no one could make a definitive diagnosis. Some of the things made them suspicious of FIP, but it wasn’t clear-cut. We ruled out just about every other known cat disease, however, and my cat continued to get worse until the point that death was coming no matter what we did….so I had to make the same hard (but best) choice you just did. Necropsy (still the only DEFINITIVE test, unfortunately) confirmed FIP, without a doubt. (She had the ‘dry’ /chronic form of FIP rather than the ‘wet’/acute form.)
So here I had a young kitten with an immature immune system who had been exposed to a verified case of FIP over several weeks…..the worst imaginable scenario. I couldn’t very well give this kitten to a close relative now, knowing that it might soon come down with and die of a fatal illness. So, I kept the kitten myself. I didn’t bother disinfecting everything, since they were both strictily indoor kitties and the kitten had already been directly exposed to the same carpet, furniture, and the cat itself. She finished veterinary college with me (another year and a half in that same house), and lived until she was 17 years old. Never once had a symptom remotely suggestive of FIP.
Not much has been figured out about transmission of the virus since then, either. You’ll find the most recent (and trustworthy, unlike a lot of answers here are going to be) information possible at the Cornell Veterinary College website. I’d suggest you go there (Cornell.edu, I think) and search their site for FIP info.
And before anyone suggests vaccinating a new kitten or cat against FIP (there HAS been a vaccination available for several years)…….DON’T DO IT. It is not effective, and has been shown to even make the cat worse if it does get exposed to the virus after vaccination. Until Cornell tells me that it’s good to give, I won’t.
ETA:
1. No….FIP is NOT genetic. It is a specific strain of a feline coronavirus. They do NOT have to be born with it. A female cat who has it will almost always spontaneously abort (have a miscarriage of) her kittens, IF she can even become pregnant in the first place.
2. No….they do NOT have to first have feline AIDS in order to get FIP.
3. I sure wish people would quit quoting Wikipedia as a ‘source’….anyone who wants to can add anything they want to any entry there. It is not written by experts. It is really not much more than hearsay.
I would wait the 6 months and adopt a cat that is UTD on all vaccines and over 2 years of age.Answer by Appli3d
This link shoudl help you out a lot.
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