Symptoms and treatment of feline infectious peritonitis transmitting abdomen

“Transfusoriasis” is short for feline infectious peritonitis, which is a cat owner’s nightmare because it’s pretty much a death sentence. Fortunately, feline infectious peritonitis doesn’t occur at a very high rate (in a sense, it’s not low), so most cats won’t “win”. But there are a few cats who may have a nightmare.

Feline Transmissible Abdomen and Feline Coronavirus

Feline infectious peritonitis, or FIP for short. Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) is caused by an inappropriate immune response to a common virus called feline coronavirus (FCoV). Feline Coronavirus (FCoV) is a member of the ancient coronavirus family. There are two types of feline coronaviruses, type I and type II, both of which can cause infectious peritonitis in cats. Feline coronaviruses are transmitted from cat to cat by the “fecal-oral” route, but are not contagious to other species. Coronavirus-specific antibody positivity rates can be as high as 90% in areas with high concentrations of cats, and as high as 50% in individual cat breeding facilities. It is worth noting, however, that only about 5% of these virus-positive individuals end up with feline infectious peritonitis.

Simply put, feline coronavirus is very common in cats – the infection rate in cats that keep a single cat household is already 50%, half the probability, which is very high. In cats more often: 2 or more cats in a household, or even in a cattery, the probability is 90%. Therefore, “feline coronavirus” in cats is very, very common and not at all unusual. (In the above paragraph, “single cat keeping place” refers to the situation where only one cat is kept in the house; “Coronavirus-specific antibody” is positive, which means that the cat is infected with feline coronavirus, so the cat’s immune system produces the corresponding antibody, and it is possible to know whether the cat is infected with feline coronavirus by checking whether the cat has this antibody. By checking whether the cat has such antibodies, you will know whether the cat has been infected with the coronavirus or not.)

Moreover, cats infected with coronavirus usually do not have any symptoms of illness, and the immune system will directly clear or suppress it. A small number of cats may have a runny nose, sneezing, watery eyes, or diarrhea, but they get better quickly, and the parents may not even realize what the cause is.

Most of these cats will live out their lives without incident, but a few will unfortunately “win the lottery” and develop “diarrhea”.

Moreover, the mechanism of how “feline coronavirus” causes “feline infectious peritonitis” is said to be caused by “mutation of the virus”, but there are newer information on the internet which shows that This is not the case:

It was once hypothesized that there were two categories of feline coronaviruses: enteric coronaviruses, which do not cause feline infectious peritonitis, and enteric coronaviruses, which are mutated and can cause feline infectious peritonitis. However, recent studies have shown that all feline coronaviruses can cause feline infectious peritonitis, and reverse transcription PCR studies have shown that the previous hypothesis is not valid, and that only the virulence of the same virus behaves differently.

Symptoms of Feline Infectious Peritonitis

The scary thing about feline infectious peritonitis:

It’s the feline coronavirus that’s everywhere, and there’s almost no way to avoid the source factor. Many cats have it, and if you get it, there is a certain probability (5%) of “passing the abdomen”.

There is no typical symptom: most cats do not have detectable symptoms in the early stage, but once it is manifested, it has already entered a very serious period:

Ⅰ. General symptoms

A. Symptoms may appear suddenly or slowly over several weeks.

B. Early symptoms are nonspecific, such as anorexia, weight loss, poor spirits and dehydration.

C.39.5-40.6°C (103.1-105.1°F) fever for antibiotic tolerance and fluctuating fevers.

D. may have jaundice

E. anemia

F. large abdominal circumference with fluctuating palpation

G. pupils are variable in size

II. Exudative

A. fever may be present.

B. abdominal effusion – with typical ascites

C. pleural effusion with shortness of breath or dyspnea, weak heart sounds, and/or pale mucous membranes.

D.Pericardial effusion , also presenting with dyspnea.

E.Jaundice may be present

F. may present with iris discoloration – primarily due to iritis

III. Non-exudative

A. Symptoms are unremarkable.

B. Persistent fever and weight loss are common.

C. Symptoms reflect the organs affected.

The most commonly affected organs are the abdominal cavity (kidneys, lymph nodes, peritoneum and greater omentum, liver).

Neurologic symptoms – depends on the site of infection.

Damage to vision includes purulent granulomatous uveitis, bruising of the anterior chamber of the eye, retinal hemorrhage, peripheral vasculitis, or choroidal retinitis.

D. jaundice may be present

E. there is pain on palpation of the abdomen

F. Enlarged mesenteric lymph nodes may be found in individual cases.

Diagnosis of Transmissible Abdomen in Cats

The trouble and horror of transmissible abdominal disease is not only the presence of coronaviruses everywhere and the uncertain small percentage of “winners” that they bring. What is more troublesome, and more of a headache for the doctor, is the diagnosis.

If it is a wet abdomen (with ascites) it is relatively easy, if it is a dry abdomen (without ascites) it is quite difficult:

There is no direct diagnostic method, unlike diseases such as feline distemper, which can be determined with special test strips, or a specific test can determine whether it is or not – the diagnosis of transmissible abdominal disease relies on a very large number of conditions to gradually deduce, rule out, or determine, so it is necessary to do a very large number of tests, conduct a very large number of tests, and make a comprehensive judgment, because the manifestations of transmissible abdominal disease are diverse and varied. Judgment, because the manifestations of abdominal transmission is diverse, and other diseases are easily confused, so the diagnosis is actually doing subtraction one by one to exclude the possibility of other diseases, excluded to the end are not other diseases, that is abdominal transmission.

Treatment of Transfusoriasis in Cats

Unfortunately, transmissible abdominal disease is basically fatal (about 95%?) and the prognosis is very poor. The prognosis is very poor, and there is no specific treatment that can completely cure it. All that can be done is supportive treatment – that is, treating the symptoms, alleviating the symptoms, and prolonging the survival time.

However, because it is very difficult to confirm the diagnosis of transmissible abdominal disease, it is all “deduced”, so if the cat can eat and drink (sometimes even if it is forced to feed), and there is still a possibility of survival, don’t easily give up hope, unless all the methods have been tried, the owner has tried his best, and all the possibilities have been ruled out, and the cat is already in pain to the point that there is no quality of life! Then the parents will choose to be happy and send the cat to Meowstar for relief.

Prevention of Feline Transmissible Peritonitis

Although the disease “feline infectious peritonitis” has the word “infectious” in it, the disease itself is not infectious, but the infectious one is the “feline coronavirus” before the virus mutates and has a 5% chance of causing disease. “Therefore, prevention is mainly from the source of the feline coronavirus:

The source of the cat coronavirus to prevent: coronavirus through the “feces – mouth” transmission pathway, so the focus is on the cat’s defecation and dietary hygiene to do: indoor breeding, do not allow the cat to go outdoors to contact the public environment and the feces of other cats, have more than one cat when the cat litter box ded