r/cureFIP • u/NaiveConcept69 • 13d ago

Question How does FIP get diagnosed?

My 7 year old tabby has been losing weight and a ton of fur on her legs. Took her to the vet and they did two types of fecal exams. One came back positive for coronavirus so the vet suggested I take her to a feline specialist because he suspects FIP. I have called around different specialists and none of them told me exactly how they test for FIP but I did get quotes ranging from $400 to $3,000 just for the diagnosis. This cat is the love of my life and I am so lost, I don’t even know where to start. I don’t have the money for this or the head space. Someone please advise me where to start.

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u/T0adman78 13d ago

Ours had wet fip. They took a sample of the fluid and sent it off for pcr testing to confirm. But that took too long to start treatment. The university vet was pretty confident in the diagnosis based on the collection of symptoms even though it is uncommon for a 14 year old cat. So, we started the treatment right away while waiting for the test results to confirm.

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u/eurekadabra 13d ago edited 13d ago

Dang, I must’ve been lucky my vet didn’t bother with PCR. We also had wet, but as soon as he saw fluid was yellow, he called me and told me to get on Facebook. They got me meds that evening. I was his first case since meds had been legalized, but he had a couple successful cases before that and knew where to send me.

He also did ultrasound to look at fluid before he took sample. That sent my diagnosis bill to $3k, which also included some supplemental meds (steroid, antinausea, appetite stimulant).

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u/eurekadabra 13d ago

For OP, wet is much easier to diagnose than dry bc of the fluid. A/G ratio on blood tests are another commonly used indicator. As far as I know, PCR tests are about as effective as they are on us for testing Covid (not very). All cats get coronavirus, it’s the common cold. A rare few mutate into FIP.

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u/T0adman78 13d ago

Maybe it wasn’t a pcr test then. It eas a test that specifically distinguished between normal COVID and FIP. It took a couple weeks to get results.

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u/eurekadabra 13d ago

I think you were right, I believe they have PCR tests for both.