Anyone heard of the cat disease FIP?

After my little girl cat died a few weeks ago, I'm considering on getting a new kitten.. Or two. We might get a stray cat, or a breed cat, or both..

I've been reading up on cat's health issues and find one topic particularly concerning.. It is about feline infectious peritonitis, or FIP.

All internet sources state this is an infectious disease caused by corona virus which cannot be prevented nor treated and is a deadly disease in 100% of cases. It occurs mostly in kittens to young cats (age 2).

Cats get infected by faeces of coronavirus carriers. The majority of cats can get the virus and be sick about it, but in a few unlucky ones the virus may mutate into the deadly form.

I guess I just want to know all about it in order to lessen the odds of losing another cat at young age.

What particularly concerns me is that no matter the cats are kept indoors, according to some websites they can still be infected for instance by contaminated shoes or clothing from us pet owners (or visitors). Anyone who takes specific measures in order to prevent this? For instance, do you get your shoes off before you get in the house?

I might sound completely paranoid but I am just a little traumatized of losing our other cat at age 2. She didn't have fip btw, she haf acute renal failure.

I know an animal is a living creature and diseases cannot always be prevented, but i'd like to get as much advice as possible about those deadly diseases.

Thank you, L.

If it helps I have never had a cat with that.

Well according to the internet, your cat has about 1 in in 5000 chance of getting this FIP disease. That's .02%. That's rather insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

It doesn't help to to look up every horror story. I found that is the worst possible thing to do for anything .

Well according to the internet, your cat has about 1 in in 5000 chance of getting this FIP disease. That's .02%. That's rather insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

Agreed but I read somewhere that breed cats are susceptible. I'm considering a breed again since my last cat was a Sacred Birman and I absolutely loved her.

But also I read that cats who live in multicat environments like shelters are more susceptible. So getting one from a shelter which was the other option, is not much better apparently..

Owning a pet is so lovely but my heart breaks when I have to let them go..

Lucha, all my cats have been shelter cats none of them have had any life-threatening illness . They get all their vaccinations because we have a multi-cat environment that I have three cats . They do not go outside but the vet recommends all their vaccines because as you know we track things in on our shoes . Try not to be terrified that keeps you from enjoying your life .

Try not to be terrified that keeps you from enjoying your life .

Life is short. Far too short to be worrying about everything that could possibly go wrong.

I adopted a cat for my kids that, it turned out, had FIP (undiagnosed). We ended up having to have her put down. You don't know how awful it was seeing my 6'2" teenage son put his head down on my shoulder and cry over this poor kitty...broke my heart.

But...we tried again and this time our Samantha is healthy. We've had her for about 9 years and she is doing fine.

The pet adoption place we went to said they didn't screen for FIP, but most pet adoption places do. So I'd recommend adopting from one of the agencies that screen.

And think of it this way: if you adopt one of these shelter cats and it does happen to contract this disease, no matter how heartbreaking, you at least gave it a much happier life than it would have had in the shelter!

I work at a vet clinic and we see FIV often and Feline Leukemia but never that. And shelter cats are tested for both before they are adopted out so they will be healthy. (Can't say that for every shelter, but ours does)

If you do get from a breeder, please use a reputable one! Pet stores animals usually come from mills and they are horrible! Do research before making a decision.

Wish you the best of luck finding your new fur baby!