Vaccinate

[I luv herfrds]

Pretty sad day for us.
My son's cat, Lucy, died in my arms as I was rushing her to the vet this afternoon. :cry2:

She had just not been herself this last week. She was still eating and drinking. The only change in her was she was not running around the house. She was still tripping me in the doorways though.
This afternoon she was sitting in front of my husbands chair panting and drooling. Very sick acting.
With the weekend it was pretty hard to find a vet. Finally did get a hold of one. Never made it. :frowns:

Finally was able to get a hold of our vet. He came out and did a post mortem. He found the she had Feline Peratinitist Infection (FPI). There would have no way to save her even if we had found her sick a long time ago. There is a vaccine for this though.
The main cause was heart failure due to the FPI.

 

[hillsdown]

ILH sorry to hear about Lucy. How is your son doing, he must be heart broken.
I will have to ask my vet if that is something we should be adding to our vaccination schedule as I am not familiar with FPI . I sure would hate to lose the Kit Cat to something that is preventable.

Thanks for the info.

 

[I luv herfrds]

Sorry Hillsdown it is FIP. Feline Infectious Peritonitis Virus.
Taking our other three cats in to be tested. This cat could have had this her whole life, or caught it at any time. No way to know. It is contagious.
Had a friend wanting a cat, so we had given them one of our barn kittens. Called them to let them know. They are going to have their kitten tested.
Called the vet clinic and they looked up the info about FIP. It is not a vaccination they normally give.

Son is wanting to get another cat. Going to look in the pound tomorrow. Vet's advised to wait til after the test results before bringing in a new cat. So we are just going to be looking.

Son is sure missing his cat. She would sleep with him, bite him on the chin to wake him in the morning :lol2: and she would meet him at his bedroom door waiting to go to bed.

 

[I luv herfrds]

Here's my son's favorite picture of his cat. It was taken this last Christmas. That is her cat toy on her head. She sure did love playing with it.

 

[I luv herfrds]

Got the call today about the test results.
Our other 3 cats have tested positive for the FIP. :frowns:
Nothing we can do, but go on as before. No new cats are going to be allowed in until all of these have passed on. Son is disappointed. He found a cat he really wanted. Told him the bad news.
Vet said it just means that they were exposed to it. No kidding.
Called the friends and told them the results. Told them that if they wanted to give the kitten back we would take her back.

 

[redcowsrule33]

The reason your vet told you it only means they were exposed is that FIP is caused by a mutation of a common virus in cats called a coronavirus. The test can't tell the difference between the benign and mutant strains. We no longer run the test because it doesn't tell us a whole lot, and exposure never is equivalent to disease.

As far as the vaccine is concerned, it does little to nothing to prevent the disease and isn't recommended by the American Association of Feline Practitioners.

Bottom line, it's nearly impossible to prevent, difficult to diagnose, and not treatable. I mourn the loss of your cat. Don't mourn the others based on a positive test.

If you want to learn more go to http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/brochures/fip.html

 

[I luv herfrds]

redcow I know that. I went digging on the internet like crazy because the vet, not our normal vet, lacks a good "bed side" manner and was not able to tell me much. Found out more on the 4 different web sites I visited then he ever told me.

Right now I am concerned about our oldest cat. He has had a problem with his left eye and now he is sneezing like crazy. Our regular vet is coming out tomorrow to look at a bulls eye and is going to check him out.

 

[hillsdown]

ILh, how is the new kitten doing, and do you have pics yet ?

 

[I luv herfrds]

HD she is doing fine. Running around terrorizing the rest of our cats.
I have some pictures on my film camera. I will have to get them developed this week and post her on here.

 

[I luv herfrds]

Fuzzy Lover. Son's new cat.

Fuzzy Lover napping with Diesel Kitty.
Yeah we give our cats weird names.