Feline Infectious Peritonitis is one of the strangest diseases in the animal kingdom. Caused by the feline enteric coronavirus, the disease is one of conditions more than of infection. F.I.P. appears as a disease when cat environmental conditions are that of over-crowding. A lone cat is highly unlikely to get FIP. A cat, especially a kitten, in a house of forty cats though, can very likely develop the signs of FIP infection. The most pronounced of which is an abdomen full of serum fluid that makes the belly noticeably large.
Testing for the disease is controversial in that it is an antibody titer measurement versus a positive or negative test result. So, a cat may show positive for the FIP virus, but never develop signs or symptoms of the disease. The level of the titer is fairly indicative of the cat's long term prognosis. A low titer (1:100) is evidence of exposure to the virus, but not a state of illness. A high titer (1:1600) or higher is a test result that indicates the long term prognosis may not be good. Again, the vagaries of the diagnostic results are what annoys so many veterinarians.
Treatment of FIP is purely symptomatic and is largely steroidal antiinflammatory drugs like prednisilone and sometimes an antibiotic. It is that cat's own immune system that is the problem in that the antigen-antibody complexes formed by the bodies' defensive system are actually the elements that form the granulomatous inclusions that accumulate in the abdominal organs, like the liver, kidneys, and intestines.
Prevention of FIP remains controversial too, in that the vaccine is not one hundred percent effective. It is a nasal vaccine given intranasally to create IgA type antibodies versus IgG antibodies that would result if the vaccine were given by injection. The IgA type antibodies remain in the mucus membrane surfaces of the nose, which is the primary point of entry for the FIP virus. How efficacious the vaccine is remains uncertain. The general consensus is it may be sixty to ninety percent effective.
So here we have a disease that originates from a common intestinal virus in cats, only becomes a disease when the environmental or immunological conditions are right, has no clear diagnostic tests, and no real treatment. And the disease has no analog in other species. What is a person to do? Mainly hope your cat doesn't get the disease. Avoiding crowded conditions is the most important factor in preventing cats from getting FIP, as any owner of a cattery clearly knows.
Dr. Doug Ikeler http://www.drdougikeler.com/
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