Sick cat - FLV or FIP likely, any experience?

[tiggyhop]

Hi all

Have spent a sad morning at the vet with my 18 month old male (neutered) kitty. He has a distended stomach, is lethargic and generally not in good shape.

The vet wants to do extensive blood work, x rays etc, at vast expense but cannot advise me of any treatment options. We have gone ahead with limited blood work which should come back later today, but my view is that things don't look good for kitty.

Does anyone have any experience of, particularly, FIP?

Many thanks!

anyone??

FIP is an infection with a mutated variant of a cornavirus. A positive cornavirus test is not diagnostic of FIP it just says your cat has encountered a cornavirus not the specific one. There are two different types of FIP wet which gives fluid in the chest and abdomen and dry which tends to give angry miserable cats. The only positive diagnosis of FIP is at post mortem.
Distended abdomen with fluid I presume can have a very large range of possible diseases ranging from FIP, heart disease, liver disease to suggest just a few.

Thanks Lizcat. Have you had experience of a cat with FIP?

I have had experience of a couple of cats with positive cornavirus titres that were very suspicious of FIP. To be honest I then either send them to the Oxford cat clinic or the cat guys at Bristol University so that someone who has big guns cat medicine qualifications makes the eventual decision the only one I've been wrong about had terrible hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and didn't survive either. The others have all had positive diagnosis at post mortem. I have had both wet and dry cases. FIP is the great magician of the cat medicine world though it should always been on a differential diagnosis list as it can mymic almost anything else. Equally because of this you can tell an owner that it's a possibility and they have a negative titre.
I love cat medicine and the one certain thing I know about cats is that they love to throw a curved ball. So I wouldn't be ruling anything in or out with your cat. This is equally true for response to treatment they never cease to surprise me.
I will now go and stroke my beautiful lethargic and inappetant hyperthyriod cat (opposite symptoms to what they should be).

Thanks so much Lizcat, he is still eating (small amounts), still washing and doing ok although very poorly, so we are lavishing care and attention on him. Our other cat came back from the nearly dead at Christmas so there is no way we have given up hope on this one.