Wet FIP

▶︎ Early stage
Recommended dose: 100 mg/kg/day

Young cats (≤2 years old) with periodic fever, lethargy, loss of appetite, weight loss, growth retardation, dry hair, and ineffective antibiotic treatment, needs raise the doubts about FIP.  Clinical symptoms of diarrhea or constipation may also occur in some FIP cases.

FIP usually leads to leukocytosis, increased neutrophils, decreased lymphocytes, elevated serum total protein, hyperglobulinemia and hypoalbuminemia, A: G≤0.6.

Wet FIP usually has ascites or pleural effusion. The increase of ascites will cause the abdomen growth gradually and softer touch. When you gently tap its abdomen, water waves will sway, and the increased pleural effusion will also cause faster breathing. Pleural effusion can be drained, but ascites typically should not be drained unless it affects breathing.

▶︎ Mid stage
Recommended dose: 100 mg/kg/day 

Along with the condition development, above symptom will aggravate gradually. Or cause chronic non-regenerative anemia (HCT≤24%), hyperbilirubinemia, urine is golden yellow to dark yellow; increased ascites or pleural effusion may cause difficulty breathing, When the cat begin abdominal respiration, it need to be sent to the doctor in time; meanwhile the appetite will be further reduced, it can only eat a small amount of food.

▶︎ Late stage
Recommended dose: 100 mg/kg/day

As the virus destroys and impairs the function of immune cells and condition has worsened. infected cats can develop other signs symptoms such as severe anemia (HCT≤16%), when HCT≤14%), timely blood transfusion is recommended. Loss the ability of self-feeding, walking unstable, ataxia, which may cause serious icteric and hemolytic anemia. The median survival of wet FIP is only 8 days, so early diagnosis is very important, the treatment of wet FIP is relatively easy. By timely treatment, the clinical symptoms are reversible, and the quality of life can be fully restored to the healthy level. However, in the late stage of wet FIP, irreversible damage such as multiple organ failure may occur. About 50% of the cats in this stage may still die within 1 to 7 days after treatment.

Dry FIP

▶︎ Early stage
Recommended dose: 100 mg/kg/day

Young cats (≤2 years old) with periodic fever, lethargy, loss of appetite, weight loss, growth retardation, dry hair, and ineffective antibiotic treatment, needs raise the doubts about FIP.  Clinical symptoms of diarrhea or constipation may also occur in some FIP cases.

FIP usually leads to leukocytosis, increased neutrophils, decreased lymphocytes, elevated serum total protein, hyperglobulinemia and hypoalbuminemia, A: G≤0.6.

Dry FIP usually has a long subclinical period, which will gradually form granuloma in various organs. This may cause not only swelling of liver, kidney and testicles but enlargement of intestinal lymph nodes, and extensive purulent peritonitis. In addition, renal medullary ring signs are also common in dry FIP.

▶︎ Mid stage
Recommended dose: 150 mg/kg/day

As the disease progresses, above symptom will aggravate gradually. Or cause chronic non-regenerative anemia (HCT≤24%), jaundice, urine is golden yellow to dark yellow.

Some dry FIP can cause eye lesions, mainly uveitis. The eyeball becomes cloudy due to the aqueous humor exudation of the fluid fibers and cellular components. The iris texture is no longer clear, and sometimes a yellow-white small clot is formed. As the inflammatory product increases, a floating white turbidity can be seen in the vitreous, choroid Yellow-white granulomatous nodular plaques may appear in the blood vessels. When the virus invades the optic nerve system, it will be more difficulty to treatment. 

▶︎ Mid-late stage
Recommended dose: 200 mg/kg/day

As the virus destroys and impairs the function of immune cells and condition has worsened. infected cats can develop other signs symptoms such as severe anemia (HCT≤16% ), when HCT≤14%, timely blood transfusion is recommended. Other than this, infected cats may deteriorate into neurological signs and symptoms such as nystagmus, resting tremor, unable to jump to high places, rear limb weakness, bradykinesia and postural instability. FIP can also cause aseptic meningitis or meningitis epidemic, when the virus has penetrated the blood-brain barrier into the central nervous system (CNS), the treatment will be much more difficult than expected.

▶︎ Late stage
Signifies an ominous prognosis.

Rigidity, confusion, urine or fecal incontinence, convulsions, seizures, tremor, paralysis, disorientation, and shock may be seen in the late stages. When symptoms emerge, cats is often already in an advanced disease stage where the central nervous system is affected and Indicated a poor outcome. Although some cats completely reversed the condition and returned to a healthy through treatment at this stage, there was also a recurrence rate of about 30% after stopping the drug.

We would especially grateful to Niels C. Pedersen, Diane Addie, Yunjeong Kim, Hui-Wen Chang, Carol Johnson DVM, Heather Lorimer et al for their long-term research on FIP, which gave us a deeper understanding of this deadly disease. We also want to express our highest appreciation to many owner and cats for challenging the traditional "impossible" during the FIP treatment. They have suffered many hardships, but also found many hopes, and finally created miracles of life again and again.