Preventing FIP is simple

"God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."Reinhold Niebuhr

What really really makes me mad about FIP is the complacency in the cat owning community since it is supposedly a coronavirus mutation confined to the unlucky individual cat and furthermore not transmissable to humans; FeCoV (feline coronavirus) is an oral fecal thing and has a very short persistance outside a host therefor theoretically easy to beat. No FeCOV = no FIP. Worse things have been banished with no more exciting weapons than soap, clean water and flushing loos.

"FIP is pretty rare in housecats who are not exposed to other cats, occurring in roughly 1 in 5000 cats in this situation. FIP is fairly common in catteries in which feline coronavirus carriers are present, occurring in about 1 in 20 cats in this situation." 
Read more: Feline Infectious Peritonitis( FIP) and Feline coronavirus (FeCoV) - VetInfo 

What really really scares me about FIP though is the breeding of virulence by letting it cycle multiple times through kitty hosts who are unaturally confined indoors with an abnormal number of other potential hosts, who are to boot, probably immune suppressed through poor diet and inbreeding. "Wu Lien-teh, moreover, suggested that virulence increases in the course of an epidemic. Dongzheng Yu conducted a series of experiments in rats to test this idea. He injected them with a strain of plague from wild rodents; the injected rats were not easily infected and died slowly. Next, he withdrew plague bacteria from those rats and injected it into others, and on and on. Eventually, this serial passage produced a plague strain so lethal that rats injected with only a tiny amount died rapidly, suggesting that the strain's virulence had markedly increased." http://discovermagazine.com/2001/nov/featblack#.UaXtboLC--k

The knee jerk reaction, massive culling, as happened to the civet cats in China during SARS, is probably counterproductive - civets have low immunity anyway, why ruin the genepool further?

 "The last thing we should do is to take it out on the bats, because the evidence suggests that they have carried this coronavirus for thousands, perhaps millions, of years; only recently has it emerged in a big way, and it was human behaviours that made the difference." http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/news/060101_batsars

We need to change our behaviours now, because this is the one thing about FIP we can control while still dreaming of some miracle pill - and it's entirely DOABLE http://www.dr-addie.com/Prevention/PreventionS1.htm#How to eliminate FCoV infection from a cattery

Death and taxes

"In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." ~ Benjamin Franklin

FIP is not an illness the general cat owning public are aware of though breeders and vets are well acquainted with the general hopeless picture, if not the finer points since they tend to treat those affected as disposable, as do the bean counters - the insurance companies.

There were breed premiums mentioned in the brochure I picked up while waiting at the vet last november with little Mishka - all runny nose and feverish mystery. I was moved to pick up a brochure as it felt really odd to have a sick cat who was so young. Birmans weren't considered one of the dodgy breeds by the insurers. In fact prior to accepting Mishka a little investigation had falsely assured me the breed was considered a very hardy, healthy one. A much better tool found too late: This web page contains a list of genetic or inherited conditions which have been reported and lists the cat breeds affected. It's long and Birmans are frequently mentioned.

www.dr-addie.com/Conditions.htm

It didn't seem worth the premium based on the past record of First Cat - two vet visits in 19 yrs. With 20/20 hindsight it was a minor saving as in the teeny print you can only get off the interwebs FIP is specifically excluded including euthanasia for FIP. Neither PI nor interferon nor Moducare would be acceptable even if it was covered, being experimental or non-prescription treatments.

The current purchasing system for medications and nutriceuticals resembles a MLM Ponzi scheme, and I expect asking the government to release the most expensive of these treatments for FIP, the feline interferon, from GST is talking to stone. Mishka also takes a fair few nutritional supplements since she won't eat raw meat - colostrum and whey powder - full of growth factors, vitamin C, rutin and fulvic minerals and we have tried a heap more curcumin, pentoxifylline, prednisolone to name a few.

but restoring my faith in human nature are a bunch of people who give of their time and resources freely; I'll just mention someone here: Jevgenia sent Mishka her left over polyprenyl which amounts to nearly a full months course to try. It made it through customs without the stupid $325 AQIS clearance form we truly didnt need - we could have imported via Tanja who already had one for her cat (deceased) but the information given to her incorrectly said each cat had to have a separate permit. This butt covering delay has seen more than one cat die already waiting for their chance. If you want other cats in australia to have this chance too then donate to Mishka's fighting fund (right) so I can bring in enough boxes of PI on the one form to have spares ready to send out.

Mishka was knocked back months ago by the PI people because she has wet fip and their initial study showed it was ineffectual but possibly because most cats only survive a few days with the disease and PI needs about 2 -4 weeks to effect a change. It's still an off label use for FIP, dr Legendre himself is calling it a delaying treatment not a cure but what else is there except hope? Now it's approved for rhinotracheitis and not a freeby experimental drug you just need deep pockets, a vet's prescription (and for non US cats someone with the import clearance) in order to have a go.

Mishka has fought on for nearly 4 months now - i think largely due to having her own physician ( my husband) careful nursing, FOI and Moducare. The vets have been a mixed bag - choose with care!