Health Issues in the Persian Cat - FIP

EXCITING NEWS UPDATE
Published June 11, 2013 Research breakthrough in genetic link for FIP: http://www.vet.cornell.edu/news/FIP.cfm

Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP)

FIP is another disease that affects virtually every cattery if they breed long enough. It is a disease caused by a corona virus which is mutated in an immuno-compromised kitten. There are two forms of this disease, wet and dry, the former taking the life of the kitten in a short period of time and typically characterized by straw colored fluid filling the peritoneal cavity (thus the name FIP). Alternatively, fluid may be found in the lungs. The dry form can linger for months with various symptoms and kittens fail to develop into healthy adults.

The wet form generally hits very quickly, typically between 4 and 5 months of age, and involves fluid filling in the peritoneal cavity or thoracic cavity. The dry form, with a lack of fluid development, is more difficult to diagnose because the symptoms can represent other illnesses. Common signs to both forms include but are not limited to the following:

antibiotic unresponsive fever, lethargy, anorexia, weight loss, exercise intolerance, shortness of breath, changes in the appearance of the eyes (i.e. dilated blood vessels in the iris known as uveitis), a color change in the iris, urinary incontinence, and central nervous system disturbances (i.e. staggering, seizures, behavioral disturbances).

Donegal’s Black & Tan (BT) – CNS (staggering)
Donegal’s Tullamore Dew (Tullydew) uveitis & iris color change
Donegal’s Cindy Clawford & Donegal’s Al Pawcino wet FIP at four and five months respectively

The dry form of FIP is harder to define and diagnose, and usually takes several months to finally cause the demise of the kitten. It typically requires necropsy and biopsy of various tissues to determine if FIP was the cause of death.

Rates of FIP vary according to which source is providing the information. According to the Merck Veterinary Manual 2011 edition: “The prevalence of clinical FIP is <1% of cat-containing households, even though 20-35% of cats are infected with coronavirus”. Suffice it to say that somewhere between 5 and 10% of cattery kittens will succumb to this disease. It is heartbreaking, but unavoidable as corona virus is contagious and exists virtually anywhere there is a cat colony.

The difficulty that breeders and veterinarians have in predicting the possibility for developing FIP is the lack of definitive testing. Benign corona virus can be passed in-utero but is more likely passed through direct contact via the oral and/or fecal route. Testing merely detects the exposure to a form of corona virus and contributes little to determining which kitty will mutate that virus and develop FIP. The closer the kittens are related to a kitty that converts this virus, the greater their risk will be. High stress will also increase the risk. Multi-cat households, moving, and spaying or neutering are all stresses that can cause this conversion.

Donegal Cattery has once again stepped up to the plate in research endeavors and since 2010 submits DNA on all kittens to the study being conducted by Neils Pedersen, DVM at UC Davis. The study's acronym SOCK FIP stands for Save Our Cats and Kittens from Feline Intestinal Peritonitis. It is believed that there is some genetic component to this auto-immune disease complex, and the researcher of this study hopes to uncover this connection.

It is impossible to determine which kittens will succumb to FIP. They can appear very healthy for four, even five months of age, then they become febrile, their appetites wane and the abdominal distension becomes apparent. One way to help kittens to develop strong immune systems in the face of corona virus is to limit their exposure while their immune systems are developing from six weeks, after maternal immunity wanes, to three months when their individual immune systems are fairly well developed. Then they are slowly introduced to adults in the cattery who are shedding higher levels of the virus. Donegal Cattery has had these measures in place since the first case of FIP hit the cattery early in the 1990s. The incidence rate at this cattery is now down to about 3% of kittens converting corona virus to FIP. When a case does occur, the breeding parents are prohibited from breeding again to each other in case there is a genetic component being passed to the offspring.