F.I.P
Did you read that as R.I.P? It's basically the same thing. FIP is a disease that is a death sentence. There's no cure and the best way to positively diagnosis it is doing an autopsy. One of my kittens died yesterday from FIP. The worst part for me was that he was already in his new home. By being a foster parent for as long as I have, I've had to come to terms with the fact that they don't all make it. At least I have the satisfaction of knowing that he knew what it felt like to have real love from a real family, but I also know that a little girl is heartbroken because her kitten isn't with her anymore.
The kitten in the middle is Baskin Robbins, the one that didn't make it. His new name was Verde, which is Green in Spanish because of his jewel-like green eyes. Her daughter really enjoyed snuggling him. He was smaller than the others and quieter, but some kitties just like to snuggle more than play. The saddest part was that one of the kids had a special day at school today where they could bring pets for show and tell - the teacher had to leave the room to cry for the kitten. They had also adopted Baskin Robbins - the kitten on the right (now Sparky) but didn't want to bring him after all the drama. Sparky is also lonely and looks and calls for his brother. The family does plan to get another kitten from us after the holidays.
FIP stands for Feline Infectious Peritonitus (not sure if i spelled that last one right!). Basically almost every cat has been exposed to a corona virus and most fight it off just fine. For reasons we don't understand, some will have the virus change into FIP and those kittens will die and their littermates will go on to lead happy, healthy lives. Hopefully someday we'll understand more about this disease. It most often strikes kittens up to a year old, but I've seen it mainly in the 3-7 month range. We get a couple of cases every year and it's just so unsettling because most of the time there is no clue that anything is wrong!
I did have one case of it where the kitten just never seemed to be healthy, so I held the litter back, then as they got stronger I let the boy get adopted (and he's still fine) but one of the girls just got worse and worse and finally started showing signs of fluid build up. The sample of the fluid looked suspicious and we decided to put her down. My daughter still talks about having to put Lucy down 2 years later. I've got my rag tag group of cats now that there's just something off about each one, but at least it's not FIP.
Ironically, Dairy Queen went to our vet today for her shots and a check up and she's fine! I have Ben & Jerry still and they seem to be fine other than having a little cold. I'll keep my fingers crossed that they stay that way!
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