Oral treatment with Xraphconn® containing GS-441524 was highly effective for FIP without causing serious adverse effects. This drug is an excellent option for the oral treatment of FIP and should be trialed as potential effective treatment option for other severe coronavirus-associated diseases across species.
Cats with FIP treated with remdesivir typically improve clinically over the first 2-3 days. The anecdotal evidence of cats treated with remdesivir and GS-441524 says that around 80-95% of cats are successfully treated.
A new drug called Remdesivir has become available legally in the UK, which is showing promising results for the treatment of FIP. Initial experience using Remdesivir have been positive, with a 80-95% response rate, although still too early to see how many will recur, we have reason to be optimistic.
Although the effusive form of FIP is often rapidly fatal, some cats can live longer than one might imagine (weeks or months) with supportive care. Pulmonary fluids need to be drained, but abdominal fluids typically should not be drained. Cats with the dry form may stay alive for months or more.
Anecdotal evidence appears to result in 80-95% of cats being successfully treated.
The less common form of the disease is 'dry FIP' in which there is no build up of fluid but thick scar tissue develops on the cat's internal organs. Except in rare cases, wet FIP is fatal within about five weeks of diagnosis. The dry form is equally deadly but affected cats may survive for a few months.
Supportive care will prolong life, and some cats with FIP can live in a state of chronic disease for weeks, months, or, rarely, a year or more.
It is not recommended to euthanize a cat, even with FIP, as long as it looks and acts fairly normal. Miracles do happen, but they can't happen unless they are provided time to happen. However, some owners choose to end suffering at an earlier stage, given the grave prognosis.
Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) is a painful, incurable disease that's nearly always fatal.
The treatment is also hard on both owners and cats, as injections can be painful. There is also a problem in some cats, especially those with neurological involvement, with development of partial drug resistance, which requires an increasing dosage.
How much does it cost? Although FIP is now curable, the treatment is not inexpensive. Costs will depend on your cat's weight and other symptoms. Typically, costs vary from typically around $1,000 to $3,000 for the duration of treatment.
At the time of the survey, 96.7% (380 cats) were alive, with 54.0% of them considered cured and another 43.3% being monitored in the 12-week observation period. A total of 12.7% of the cats suffered a relapse of clinical signs of FIP, and 3.3% of the cats died despite GS-441524-like therapy.
Dexamethasone (or other injectable corticosteroids) can be used to kick start the immunosuppressive treatment (or for cats which cannot be pilled). It can also be administered directly to the site of inflammation in effusive FIP cases.
FCoV can be killed by most household disinfectants, such as bleach (Addie et al., 2009). Therefore, after the death of a cat to FIP, the litter tray can be disinfected using bleach, and soft furnishings can be steam-cleaned. To be 100% sure that all coronavirus has gone, wait 2 months before obtaining another cat.
Although the disease occurs in all breeds, purebred cats are more susceptible including, Abyssinians, Australian mist, Bengals, Birmans, Burmese, British shorthairs, Himalayans, ragdolls, rexes, and Scottish folds.
Many cats with non-effusive FIP will have ocular (eye) symptoms as their only clinical sign. Once disease develops, without treatment, most individuals deteriorate rapidly, although some cats remain normal for several weeks. Unfortunately, the disease will eventually result in death in almost every case.
Early signs of FIP can vary but often include a rising and falling fever, loss of appetite, and energy loss. As time goes by, infected cats may have more FIP symptoms that depend on the form of FIP.
Clinical signs of FIP include:
Decreased appetite to complete loss of appetite. Chronic weight loss or weight gain (seen more with dry FIP)
Other forms of FIP
Thus, a wide range of signs may be observed including neurological disease (e.g., a wobbly and unsteady gait or fits), bleeding in the eyes and other vague signs of disease that may occur with lesions in the liver, kidneys or other internal organs.
Some say it's because God chose only the sweetest of kittens to go to Heaven early. Those more pragmatic point out kitties sick with FIP don't feel very well, and that is actually what the purring is all about. So much purring, in fact, that FIP was once called “the purring disease.”
Lily, a 9-month-old female Bengal cat, is now in remission from feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) thanks to clinical trials at the UC Davis veterinary hospital. Currently enrolling cats, these new clinical trials are focused on improving treatments for FIP.
Definitively diagnosing FIP antemortem can be extremely challenging in many clinical cases. FIP is often misdiagnosed [29]. Many times, its general clinical signs (eg, chronic fever, weight loss, anorexia, malaise) are nonspecific.
One of the most difficult decisions is to determine when to stop treatment. Although some cats, often younger ones with wet FIP, can be cured in as little as 8 weeks and possibly sooner, the usual treatment time is 12 weeks. Some cats may even require dosage adjustments and even longer treatment periods.
Relapses of disease following cessation of treatment have occurred within days to several weeks after stopping treatment and the relapse rate appears to be much higher than for cats suffering other forms of FIP.