# Coronavirus? Help



## bengalnic (Dec 4, 2008)

Hi,
I have a bengal girl who is due to go to stud this weekend. I had her blood tested for Felv/Fiv and Fip. Snap test came back fine but the vet reported to me this morning that she had a high level of antibody and that as she is well in herself she has been exposed to coronavirus but does not have the disease. 
The stud owner is still happy to take her, will keep her seperate from the boy and just put her in for supervised mating, as the boy is negative at the moment.
I have been reading up as much as i can but am still confused and concerned about the whole thing.
Should i still breed from her? Should i be doing anything to stop her develop the full disease? 
I have two other cats, a young bengal girl (1 year) and a rescue cat (who i am now worried is the source of the coronavirus as he has constant diarhoea, which i thought until today was food or stress as he is really nervous).
Sorry for the long story but i need some advice from someone with experience, my vet wasn't much help as she wasn't sure about it all herself. I asked should i test the rescue cat and she said there was no point as there is no definative test!?
Thanks
Nicola


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## Leah100 (Aug 17, 2008)

There are several articles here
Feline Infectious Peritonitis: Winn Feline Foundation

sorry about the FIP in the title, there is info on Corona there, including tests that are available.
Corona is extremely common in multicat households, and it is something that a healthy cat will usually combat fairly easily. FIP mutation is very rare comparatively.


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## Taylorbaby (Jan 10, 2009)

Hiya I have just read about thius virus and I would not breed from the cat.
Sorry to hear they have passed it around imagine if they passed it to the kittens?

http://www.dr-addie.com/

The Fight Against The Most Deadly Cat Killer (FIP)

Help The Fight Against FIP

The Fight Against The Most Deadly Cat Killer (FIP)

By: Val MacQueen & Dr Diane Addie

(Posted with explicit permission)

FIP Forum - A discussion forum for those who have a cat with FIP or have lost a cat to FIP.

Journalist Val MacQueen talks to Dr Diane Addie, PhD, BVMS, MRCVS, one of the world's foremost researchers into Feline Infectious Peritonitis

The diagnosis of Feline Infectious Peritonitis, or FIP, is a death sentence. There is no cure. Once FIP develops (from the coronavirus) in a cat's body, it kills swiftly and mercilessly. A cat diagnosed with dry FIP can sometimes live for two or three months and wet FIP (where the abdomen or lungs fill with fluid) kills almost immediately.

As my own vet told me when my own cat was diagnosed, The virus always wins. He gave her two to three days to live. Reeling from the shock, I allowed her palliative treatment from cortisone injections, but she declined so fast that I had to have her mercifully put to sleep only a few days later. She was dead within a week of diagnosis.

In these days of medical miracles, we laymen are stunned to encounter a killer for which there is no treatment and whose progress is predictably deadly and without hope. But the FIP virus is a tough nut to crack. One who knows only too well is Glasgow University's Dr Diane Addie, who has been dedicated to researching Feline Infectious Peritonitis for almost 16 years. I spoke to her just after she returned from a stint of exchanging information with American colleagues at the Cornell University Veterinary School (renowned for its feline medical research). It is worth noting here that Dr Addie does not use laboratory cats in her own research. I will address this later.

VMQ: First, I asked Dr Addie... We all know that a common cold is caused by a virus. We humans have been cursed with it for millennia yet, despite all the research, it has been impossible, to date, to find a cure for it. Bacteria can be fought with antibiotics. Why are viruses so much more difficult to battle?

DR ADDIE: Viruses have to live inside the cells, whereas most bacteria live outside cells. Thus an anti-viral drug would have to get inside the cell, whereas antibiotics don't have to. The other problem is the rate at which viruses can evolve and change - they may have as many generations in a few days as we've had since we learned to walk upright.

VMQ: I understand that FIP is an auto-immune disease, like AIDS or lupus. Is this right?

DR ADDIE: No, AIDS is not an auto-immune disease, it is a viral disease, like FIP. Lupus is an auto-immune disease. Auto-immune is different from immune-mediated: the former is where the immune system turns against your own body, immune-mediated is where the immune reaction to the virus, which SHOULD cure the cat, for some reason actually kills it.

VMQ: I have been told by vets that FIP is transferred by cats sharing food bowls, greeting one another nose-to-nose and breathing each other's air, and sharing litter trays. I believe you have narrowed it down from that?

DR ADDIE: FIP is spread through infected faeces, there is little danger in sharing food bowls or greeting each other.

VMQ: Is there an effective vaccine?

DR ADDIE: Not in the UK. There is an American vaccine, called Primucell, made by Pfizer. It's given by droplets up the nose and it does seriously reduce a cat's chances of developing FIP. Any cat about to be introduced into a multicat environment (like a boarding or rescue cattery) should, in my opinion, be vaccinated with Primucell if it is available in their country. (Editor's note: There are American veterinary pharmacology companies which sell various pet remedies and vaccines over the internet, but note that importing prescription only medicines is illegal.)

VMQ: Can a cat be born with natural immunity?

DR ADDIE: Probably not. Though we encounter some cats which I term 'resistant' - they don't get infected, they don't make immunofluorescent antibodies, they don't get FIP. We don't know why. I need funding to research these cats further. The Orion Foundation gave a donation to look at their FLAs. That's feline leucocyte antigen - which is part of the immune system which determines how a cat can handle a particular disease organism. But unfortunately the answer wasn't in the one FLA molecule we were examining. We need to look at others.

VMQ: If you have one cat who died of the disease, how long does your house remain infectious? How long should you wait before giving another cat a home?

DR ADDIE: At least a month. Possibly seven weeks.

VMQ: If you have more than one cat, and one dies of the disease, what should you do about your remaining cat(s)?

DR ADDIE: Avoid stressing the cats in any way. We are finding evidence that severe stress can tip a cat over into developing FIP. The exact determinant of FIP developing has never been fully established.

VMQ: Now to a terrible question and one cat owners often fear to ask: If you have a cat that shows no symptoms of the disease, yet you have it tested because its companion died of FIP, and the test comes back positive, is this an automatic death sentence?

DR ADDIE: Almost never! Ninety per cent of cats successfully survive being infected with this virus. However, a minority of cats unfortunately develop FIP, and these cats usually have a history of having been stressed. Once FIP develops, it is usually a death sentence for the cat.

VMQ: In some of your papers, you have talked about healthy cats shedding the virus? This means, they are infectious, but are slowly divesting themselves of the virus, I believe. If one is lucky enough to have a cat that does this, how long would it take it to be clear of it? I think you recommend having a second blood test about four months later to check the status?

DR ADDIE: Shedding is the term we use for excreting the virus, being infectious, in the faeces. There is no correlation between shedding and eliminating, or getting rid of, the virus. We would simply call that end of shedding.

Most cats recover in 2-3 months, then their antibodies go away after several more months. Some cats shed virus in their faeces for almost a year before eliminating the virus and several months later their antibody titre (that is, antibody titre is the amount of antibody present; it is the way we measure antibodies) falls to zero.

VMQ: You've mentioned that a FIP-positive cat could be tipped over into developing the disease by stress. If trying to alleviate any stress in the cat until it has eliminated the virus, would it be best to wait to introduce a new cat into the house for six months or so?

DR ADDIE: Once a cat's antibody titre is zero, you can stress him or her as much as you like! However, remember a couple of things - test that the new cat is coronavirus (FIP) free first of all, for the safety of both cats. Also, that many cats have herpesvirus infection, so that stressing them can trigger a herpes-shedding episode (which might appear as a bout of cat flu or conjunctivitis).

VMQ: Would you also advise not putting a cat in a boarding cattery during this period when you're hoping the cat doesn't tip over into FIP?

DR ADDIE: Definitely not - much too stressful. And sadly, research has shown that putting a cat into a rescue cattery can cause him or her to increase FcoV, (Feline coronavirus, the virus which causes FIP) shedding by a million-fold! Also, if you have a young cat known to be carrying the coronavirus, put off having them neutred until such time - hopefully - that they have eliminated the virus from their system.

VMQ: I saw somewhere else that there is a possibility that interferon may be helpful to cats with full blown FIP. What do you think of interferon treatment? I know it is terribly expensive and takes around three months to work, by which time the cat is normally dead.

DR ADDIE: The jury is still out on that one. There are anecdotal reports of interferon effecting a cure and in one Japanese study 4 cats of 12 recovered. However, we need a properly controlled clinical trial - which of course requires funding to do!

VMQ: Last time we talked, you mentioned good litter tray hygiene. Does this mean a cat can get re-infected by its own faeces?

DR ADDIE: Mainly it's about preventing transmission of the virus to other cats. But it is also possible that the cat re-infects himself.

VMQ: Just to clarify the point for us laymen, should one completely change the litter every time the cat leaves some faeces in it? Or can one just remove the faeces immediately and preserve the litter for use later?

DR ADDIE: No, but change the litter every two or three days and at that time give the tray a good disinfection with household bleach. I am looking for a cat litter manufacturer who will help me to develop a cat litter which will itself kill or contain the virus.

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## Taylorbaby (Jan 10, 2009)

VMQ: What about urine?

DR ADDIE: No need to worry about urine!

VMQ: In a household where there is a dog and a cat, people may worry that their dog is at risk if their cat is unfortunate enough to develop FIP. Is there a concern?

DR ADDIE: The virus cannot leap species. A dog sharing a house with an infected cat cannot possibly catch FIP. And neither can you!

VMQ: If one feels one's cat might have been exposed to FIP, is there any reason to have a blood test, given that if the cat shows positive, there is no cure anyway?

DR ADDIE: A positive antibody tests shows only that the cat has been exposed, and a healthy cat with antibodies will usually remain healthy. I think the knowledge is valuable, because if the cat is at risk, one can reduce stress and reduce the cat's chances of developing FIP. You also know whether or not it's safe to introduce a new cat. If you don't test, you don't know.

VMQ: I understand the analysis of blood when testing for FIP is very complicated - and the tests devised at Glasgow University are the most dependable in the world. Is this correct?

DR ADDIE: Our tests are envied by others the world over as being very reliable.

VMQ: Dr Addie, I know that for your research, you refuse to use laboratory cats (meaning, I think, that you do not infect healthy cats in order to study the progress of the disease). Most cat owners would heartily approve and be most grateful to you, but can you tell us how you study the disease without subjecting laboratory cats to it?

DR ADDIE: My research relies entirely on samples I receive from naturally infected cats. Their humans and vets send me their faeces and from time to time their blood samples. When, in the course of time, they die, they also kindly send me their bodies for post mortem.

This research has overturned 40 years of research based on laboratory strains of feline coronavirus being injected into laboratory cats.

Here are some examples: It was believed that there were two feline coronaviruses, one that only caused diarrhoea, one that caused FIP: Not true - they can all cause FIP.

It was believed that cats with FIP no longer shed virus: not true, they do! It was believed that a cat was more likely to get FIP the second time he met the virus. Not true. It's more likely the first time. It was believed that cats only shed FCoV for a couple of weeks: not true, they shed it for months.

VMQ: It would seem that you're saying that using purposely infected laboratory cats to study the disease was actually counter productive and led scientists down the wrong path entirely?

DR ADDIE: Absolutely!

VMQ: Dr. Addie, thank you so much for taking the time to explain this hateful killer to cat owners who have been starved of helpful information on this subject.

DR ADDIE: Thank you for the interview!

Dr Addie's research is expensive. Glasgow University has provided facilities and funding for 16 years, but she needs additional funds to carry on her research and buy the expensive chemicals she needs. She also needs to be able to pay a modest salary to a qualified research assistant or PhD candidate. If you would like to make a contribution, however small to her work in combatting FIP, you can visit her website at Feline Infectious Peritonitis and Coronavirus Web Site.


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## Elmstar (Apr 7, 2008)

It _is_ likely that the rescue cat is the source of the coronavirus as diarrhoea is a common symptom.

Coronavirus is very widespread in cats and very difficult to avoid completely. Most cats get rid of the coronavirus naturally and very few develop FIP which is what everyone really worries about.

The best course of action is to treat the diarrhoea with antibiotics, over time he should be able to rid himself of the coronavirus.

Your vet is wrong as there _is_ a test for the coronavirus. You can have this done if you like but you can pretty much guarantee that he'll be positive with a count of 640 or 1280 and that in itself will not mean that he'll go on to develop FIP for which there is no definitive test.


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## Elmstar (Apr 7, 2008)

There's no reason not to breed from her if she's not showing any ill effects however you'll need to pay special attention as being pregnant and giving birth is very stressful and her count may go up.


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## lizward (Feb 29, 2008)

I doubt if there are many of us who have zero corona titres. Certainly I don't. I'd be inclined not to worry too much.

Liz


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## Supernova (Mar 7, 2009)

I agree. It is very unlikely that any breeding cats in a cattery/multii-cat household are free of corona virus. When i discussed this with my vet he said to ensure that a cat had no virus at all it would need to be taken away from its mum prior to 6 weeks (early weaning and isolation) and additionally live alone with no access to any other cats or the great outdoors. Most breeding cats/kittens are not reared/do not live in such circumstances.

You don't mention what your girls titre count is. From reading up Dr Addies advice seems to be that anything over 1280 is considered high however this doesnt necessarily mean that you do not breed from this cat as leaving a cat to call or neutering her can be very stressful and this in turn can increase the count. I tend to agree with the stud owner who suggested a supervised mating, to ensure her stud is not exposed to a high level of CV, and then the early weaning and isolation technique described by Dr Addie. The kittens will be protected for the initial 5-6 week period by mums antibodies. It is only when these wear off that they become exposed to mums high count and the CV itself.

The link below provides some useful information but really to get the full picture its best to read the full content of Dr Addies site.

Dr. Addie - Fequently Asked Questions

Hope this helps.


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## Supernova (Mar 7, 2009)

Sorry should have said this. Corona Virus is not FIP. The 2 are commonly intermingled and used to describe the same thing. Very few cats with Corona Virus ever go on to develop full blown FIP so please dont panic when you start reading some of the material that has been provided.

The best way to help reduce CV counts is through good housekeeping practice and not exposing your queen to stress. Dr Addie suggests some good practices on the weblink attached.


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## bengalnic (Dec 4, 2008)

Thank you for the replies. I am a lot less worried now. I have seen a lot of people recommending hoeopathy to prevent it turning into FIP. Does anyone know about this? I have tried looking for the FIP nosodole on some of the homeopathy websites but can't find it? What exactly should i be looking for?
Thanks
Nicola


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## lauren001 (Jun 30, 2008)

Interview with Niels Pedersen - September 2008 http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/ccah/documents/Pedersen FIP Interview 9-10-08.pdf

I agree, you can still breed with your girl. Coronavirus is very common, it would be almost impossible to have a zero titre coronavirus cattery.


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## Cerridwen (Jul 26, 2008)

Please do not become hysterical over FECoV! It's estimated that 80% of our pedigree cats have been exposed to it and only 5% of them will ever develop FIP. FECoV is NOT the same as FIP! I think we all know what would happen if we excluded the 80% of the pedigree cats that have been exposed to FCoV from breeding. We would get into big inbreeding problems.

The few breeders I know of that have tried to keep their catteries FECoV free have all failed and there's actuarally no need to even try since 95% of the cats with FECoV never will develop FIP. They'll get a temporary diaorrhea at the most.

Keep the stress level in the cattery low and stay away from blood lines with many FIP cases (since 50% of the FIP cases have a genetic predisposition).

I've never tested my cats for FECoV, I've just always assumed they've been exposed to it.

Don't get me wrong, FIP is a horrible disease and I have some very close friends that I've had crying in the phone due to FIP but the truth is that the large majority of the cats exposed to FECoV won't ever develop FIP so there's no need to be hysterical about FECoV.


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## lauren001 (Jun 30, 2008)

> Keep the stress level in the cattery low and stay away from blood lines with many FIP cases (since 50% of the FIP cases have a genetic predisposition).


That is a very good point, certain lines do seem to have a problem with FIP, better to breed away from these lines than worry about chance Coronavirus titres.


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## bengalnic (Dec 4, 2008)

Picked up the results today and the level was 2560!


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## Supernova (Mar 7, 2009)

Ok I still wouldnt panic just yet. I am not sure how many calls your girl has had or how urgent her mating needs to be but I think what i would do is to isolate your girl and keep her stress free. The titre counts can come down. If she has been exposed to a high count say by sharing the litter tray with your rescue moggy (who may be the main carrier) then this would explain the high reading you have. 

Having spoke at length to my vet about titre counts and testing his view is that you need to run a number of consecutive tests to really understand what is going on. If your girl was say stressed on the day of testing then this could influence the high count.

A breeder friend of mine had a cat with a titre count of 1280 and that cat now has a count of under 300. No miracles involved just good housekeeping, isolation from source and no stress. 

Whilst many would say neuter the cat and dont use her for breeding my concern would be that putting her through any operation at the moment could just tip her over the edge. Not something i would do unless I had absolutely no other options.


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## Cerridwen (Jul 26, 2008)

Supernova said:


> Whilst many would say neuter the cat and dont use her for breeding my concern would be that putting her through any operation at the moment could just tip her over the edge. Not something i would do unless I had absolutely no other options.


A very good point. With high titres the last thing you should to is to put the cat through some kind of unnecessary stress and surgery is one of the most stressful things you can put a cat through.


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## Elmstar (Apr 7, 2008)

I'm not sure, was this the count for your Queen or for the rescue cat?

If this is for your Queen I certainly wouldn't take her to the stud until her level decreases significantly.


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## Supernova (Mar 7, 2009)

I think that any decision taken needs to be done with all the facts to hand. I dont think anyone here has enough background to give you the correct and full advice you need - the full background and pros and cons needs to be taken into account. If you want to talk to someone about this in more detail, happy to help  Just drop me an e-mail.

You should check out the FAB site too. They are running a seminar in Scotland mid May where a number of important kitten topics will be discussed including CV and FIP. Dr Addie will be there. We are thinking about attending this. The more we educate ourselves, the better


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