Luna's Initial FIP Diagnosis & Lab Results (2017)
Many people have asked me to post Luna's symptoms and diagnostics that led to her FIP diagnosis, so here it is! During Luna's routine check-up and second Felo-vax vaccine, I asked our vet if she thought her abdomen might look slightly distended.
It appeared to me to now be bloated as it had not been like that when she came to live with us. She did not think it looked out of the ordinary, but Savannahs was slim and lanky in my mind. She thought it was "normal kitten pudginess and nothing to worry about. "We proceeded to give Luna her second Felo-vax [killed] vaccine. She had done just fine with the first one, having gotten it the day before she came to live with us, and did just fine. From the time of the vaccine until this diagnosis (just a few days), Luna became lethargic and her abdomen more distended. She felt very hot to the touch.
We took her to MedVet for an emergency room visit. Her temperature was 105 degrees, and she had a grade 3-4 heart murmur, which the prior vet had noticed when I took her for her shot and wellness check-up. The fluid sample from her abdomen was a stringy, yellow consistency, and the ER vet did not doubt that she had FIP. She let us see the fluid as well, and I wish I had snagged a photo of it, but I was shocked I didn't think about it.
The ER vet said we could see an Internal Medicine specialist on Monday, but our next call would most likely be to have Luna euthanized. This was on Friday, April 21st. We went home devastated, not knowing what to do next. I spent all day Saturday researching options, looking for clinical trials, calling significant universities, and leaving messages. On Sunday, I got a call from UC Davis to discuss Luna's diagnosis and learned that a new drug was just about to be rolled out for a new research trial. In the meantime, we took Luna to see the Internist on Monday, April 24th.
They had us leave her there for the day, and she had an abdominal ultrasound, x-rays, fluid analysis and cytology, and a cardiac echocardiogram. The cardiac echocardiogram ruled out any cardiac anomalies, and it was determined that the excess fluid caused her murmur in her abdomen and the increased workload on her heart. Her organs were also normal and without lesions or other abnormalities. She continued to have a fever of 104.3. She had severely elevated white blood cells, low red blood cells and hemoglobin (indicating anemia), increased neutrophils and band cells, low albumin, and an albumin/globulin ratio at the low end of normal. These are all components of a positive effusive FIP diagnosis.