Answer: Well, feline infectious peritonitis (EIP) is a viral disease of cat which has been recognized only since the middle 1960s and is apparently becoming increasingly common.
How the disease is transmitted is still unclear, though it is more common in colonies rather then in single-household cats and younger animals, particularly those under three years old. It seen likely that, unlike FIE (FPL) virus, the virus of FIP does not survive for long in the environment.
In some ways the name of the disease is misleading because it occurs in two main forms. Both have an insidious onset starting with a high temperature, loss of appetite, increasing dehydration and weight loss. One form is the so-called ‘wet’ form, of which an important feature is peritonitis (inflammation of the peritoneum the membrane which lines the abdominal cavity and covers s the abdominal organs). Inflammatory exudates slowly collects in the abdomen, making it appear greatly swollen, and often also in the chest, producing increasing difficulty in breathing. The second form of the disease is called the ‘dry’ form, where there is no fluid accumulation and in which the kidneys, eyes, and nervous tissue may be damaged. Often the color of the cat’s eyes appears to change.
In both forms there can be an incubation period of several weeks are months before signs appear. In some cases, concurrent FeL V infection may trigger the onset of signs of FIP by lowering the cat’s immunity.
As well as its increasing occurrence, the importance of the disease lies in the fact that, with or without treatment, the disease almost invariably fatal, usually within two to five weeks, and that as yet there is no vaccine against it. However, many cats seem to develop a good natural immunity to FIP and clinical disease only appears in about 20% of the infected cat population. To limit the spread of FIP in a colony, the affected cats should be isolated or destroyed and the cattery thoroughly disinfected.
