If you have a cat and want to keep it happy and healthy, you’ll need to take it to the vet regularly for vaccinations and protection from disease. There are many diseases that cats can contract, including feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), and feline leukemia.
Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP):
This is a cat disease caused by coronavirus infection. There are many different strains of the coronavirus that can make your cat sick, but most of them don’t cause the severe type of illness. The type of coronavirus that causes FIP invades and grows on certain white blood cells in the cat’s bloodstream. The infected white blood cells then travel through the cat’s body where an intense tissue reaction can occur. Infected cats can transmit the virus to other cats through their saliva and feces. Saliva can get into water and food dishes, toys, clothes, bedding, and surfaces they lie on. The virus can survive for several weeks, but can be inactivated with common household detergents and disinfectants. Multi-cat household owners should use one part household bleach to thirty-two parts water (4 ounces of bleach per gallon of water).
The symptoms of FIP are those of a mild upper respiratory illness in which the cat will sneeze, have watery eyes and a watery nasal discharge. Sometimes the cat will have a mild intestinal disease. Cats usually make a full recovery from FIP and can also become carriers of the virus. Unfortunately, some cats can develop the fatal disease weeks, months, or even years after first having the disease.
The symptoms of lethal FIP are anemia, depression, fever, and weight loss. The cat will develop kidney failure (increased water and urine intake), or have liver failure and be jaundiced, or have pancreatic disease and show signs of diarrhea, vomiting, and diabetes. You may also have neurological disease, manifesting as loss of balance, behavior changes, paralysis, and also seizures. You may have an eye disease, including eye inflammation or blindness. Because there can be so many different symptoms of FIP, it can be difficult for vets to diagnose.
Cats that are very young, or older than 10 years, or cats that are in poor physical condition are all prone to FIP.
The first FIP vaccine (Primucell PIF) was introduced in 1991.
FIP has not been documented in any species other than the feline population.
Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV):
The virus that causes Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) is the same family of retrovirus viruses that includes Feline Leukemia Virus (FeLV), it is different in many ways, including virus shape and genetically.
IVF is basically spread through bite wounds; therefore, cats that are outdoor cats that are allowed to roam free are prone to this infection. Sometimes, an infected mother cat can transmit the infection to her kittens by passing through the birth canal or through milk when she nurses.
A cat can have the FIV virus for years before showing signs of illness. The virus will make the cat more susceptible to diseases caused by common bacteria, viruses, protozoa or fungi found in everyday environments that would not normally affect a healthy cat. The IVF cat will have a weakened immune system.
Symptoms of FIV infection:
In the early stage of infection, the virus is carried to nearby lymph nodes where white blood cells are produced and the virus spreads to other lymph nodes throughout the body, resulting in temporary enlargement of the lymph nodes, which if a vet is examining the cat at this stage, the vet may notice swollen lymph nodes. Usually there is a fever while the lymph nodes are enlarged.
The health of a cat with FIV will deteriorate progressively and the owner may notice loss of appetite, poor coat condition, inflammation of the gums (gingivitis) and inflammation of the mouth (stomatitis), and chronic infections of the skin, infection of the urinary bladder and upper respiratory tract infection is also often present. Slow but progressive weight loss is very common, followed by severe emaciation at the end of the disease. When a cat has IVF, he is prone to different types of cancer and blood diseases. Some cats with IVF may have seizures and behavior changes, as well as other neurological disorders.
The diagnosis is made with a simple blood test.
There is an IVF vaccine.
Feline leukemia virus (FeLV):
Feline leukemia virus (FeLV) is also a retrovirus, just like FIV, and HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus. In the US, approximately 2-3% of cats are infected with FeLV.
FeLV is spread through saliva and nasal secretions, but it can also be spread through contaminated urine, feces, and milk from infected cats. It can be spread through a bite, or by sharing litter boxes or food and water dishes. An infected mother cat can transmit FeLV to her nursing kittens. Cats in multiple households where there is an infected cat are at risk, as are cats that are allowed outside unsupervised, where an infected cat may bite them.
FeLV symptoms are loss of appetite, slow and progressive weight loss, poor coat condition, enlarged lymph nodes, persistent fever, pale gums, gingivitis, stomatitis, skin infections, urinary tract infection, upper respiratory tract, persistent diarrhea, seizures, behavior changes, and also eye conditions.
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