Can FIP be spread in my house?

[Khawkins0508]

Sadly our cat Bronte passed away a month ago as a result of suffering with what our vet thought was FIP (Feline Infectious Peritonitis).

We would love to adopt another cat at some point, but I’m worried about whether the virus may be lingering in our home?

We have thrown away all of Bronte’s things, as we know the virus would have been on them. I’m just now worried about whether it could be in the house itself. We have had no other cats, so it’s not possible it has spread to another at this point.

Does anyone have any idea if it is possible for it to spread in this way?

[Ruth B]

I will admit to having no experience with FIP nor any type of veterinary qualification, but i have read quite a bit about it since I first heard of it a few years ago.

FIP is not thought to be contagious itself, it is a mutated version of the Coronavirus, which is contagious and very common in cats. Indications are that even in multicat households that have more than one cat with FIP, the mutations shown in the virus are different indicating that the virus has mutated separately in each case. The more cats in the household, the more chance for slight variations in the Coronavirus and the higher chance of one mutating, which is thought to be why it is more common where there are a lot of cats kept in close proximity, such as rescue centres or breeders.

It also appears to be more common in younger cats, the theory being that an older cat has probably already built up a resistance to Coronavirus and its own immune system can deal with any infection that occurs before it has a chance to mutate.

Unfortunately it is still a disease with a lot more questions than answers concerning it. There apparently is a vaccine but this is for Coronavirus as they can't predict the way the virus will mutate each time, and from what I have read the vaccine isn't that efficient anyway.

The best advice I could offer would be to consider adopting an older cat rather than a kitten. As mentioned it normally affects younger cats, those under 1 year seem at greatest risk, but I doubt even a kitten would be at any real risk of picking up the mutated virus around your home.

[booktigger]

I'm sorry to hear of your loss - when I lost a cat to it over a decade ago, the rule of thumb was to wait 6 months before a new cat, I already had a cat who had lived with the one I lost, and he never developed it, nor did the new cat (didn't quite wait the 6 months, think it was 5) - I would agree about not adopting a kitten though, but if you have thrown everything away and buy new, I would think it low risk.

[Antonio]

One of my cat, Tom, died from FIP in 2013.
He was an outdoor only cat. He arrived as a stray in 2011 and stopped in my courtyard. Something made me think that he could have something, so I never let him inside, where my other two cats were.
Tom resulted positive to FIV and later on even to FeLV, so my suspicions were confirmed. He lived with us until two years later when one morning he got a fever that couldn't be cured even with meds. In a few days the diagnosis was FIP.
He kept going, until on a day he was so tired we let him in and gave him a room on his own, we knew it would have been for a short time. The other two cats in the house weren't allowed in that room and, after taking care of him I would wash my hands three times before touching anything else in house.

When he died I threw away all his items and washed the room with bleach and water (1/4 bleach in 3/4 water) every four weeks for three months. I washed the floor, the walls up to 1 metre of height, all furniture, windows, doors and everything else in that room.
Tom died in early September, I opened the room to the other two cats on Christmas day.

This is what I'd do.

[Khawkins0508]

Thanks everyone for all of your helpful comments. I have a good idea of what to do now.