Greetings Humans,
My human servants in New Zealand, Ken and Richelle, who will never stop being mine, no matter how far away they live, have been feeling sad lately since one of their foster cats, Jesse, died. I have heard them talking a lot about FIP (Feline Infectious Peritonitis) with Hiroaki over Skype. They seem to feel sad that they didn’t know about it sooner as if knowing could have prevented it. I see humans like to know things, so I will share what I found out. Maybe another cat won’t have to suffer as long as Jesse did.
Jesse in better times
FIP comes from a mutated coronavirus and it always kills. Some of us do live a bit longer once we get it, but it is a case of weeks or months usually. There is no way to really know if we have FIP until after we are dead but there are certain signs that a vet can interpret. We lose our appetite (always a bad sign), lose weight (not so bad for some), our former glorious, soft coats go dull and rough and may fall out (horrible), our eyes get more yellow on the inside of our eyelids. Some of us get pale noses or have our iris turn more brown and some of us even have bleeding on the inside of our eyes or develop white spots on the outer layer. A few of us even have problems keeping our balance and may even have tremors and seizures. A type called ‘wet’ FIP fills our chest or abdomen with fluid making it hard to breathe. The ‘wet’ type kills us more rapidly.
All that is terrifying so it is a good thing is that few of us get FIP. I guess my servants can be excused their ignorance. Lots of us carry the un-mutated coronaviruses and those are very contagious. Mother cats spread it to their kittens, and cats that live closely will share it whether they are outside or inside. Some servants will never know how their only cat caught a coronavirus since they never imagine what we get up to when we are outside. The signs of this infection are very mild, however. We might get a runny nose or sneeze a bit or even have tummy upsets or mild diarrhoea (yuck!). Most of us only carry the virus for a few months unless we get reinfected. A few of us carry it all the time even though we are not sick.
If we are carriers, it is spread through our saliva and faeces. That’s why it is so important for our human servants to keep our food areas and litter boxes clean. Well, that’s important anyway regardless of whether they have one or many cats! Cats younger than two and older than ten are most likely to have the virus mutate. No one knows why that happens, but some think stress is involved. Human servants should always strive to keep their cats happy and peaceful. But, of course, you do that already. Otherwise, why are you here?