Feline Infectious Peritonitis: Welfare and Treatment

Key Welfare Considerations

• FIP results from a mutated form of feline coronavirus causing fatal systemic inflammatory welfare disease.
• Classic 'wet' FIP causes effusions — pleural, peritoneal, or pericardial — with significant welfare respiratory or abdominal distress.
• Dry FIP causes granulomatous lesions in multiple organs with progressive welfare neurological or ocular signs.
• FIP affected primarily young cats (under 2 years) and older immunosuppressed cats.
• Until 2019, FIP was considered an incurable welfare death sentence — diagnosis was terminal.
• GS-441524 antiviral treatment achieves over 85% sustained remission rates in wet and dry FIP welfare cases.
• Treatment requires minimum 12 weeks of daily injection or oral medication welfare commitment.
• Ocular and neurological FIP forms require higher antiviral doses and longer welfare treatment duration.
• Welfare monitoring during treatment includes serum AGAG levels, protein electrophoresis, and clinical assessment.
• Relapse after treatment completion occurs in a minority — retreatment achieves welfare cure in most relapses.
• The cost of GS-441524 treatment remains high but has fallen as access has expanded — welfare cost barrier is reducing.
• Generic antiviral products from compounding pharmacies have increased welfare treatment accessibility.
• Remission cats appear clinically cured — long-term welfare outcomes are excellent in treatment responders.
• Early welfare diagnosis through protein electrophoresis, effusion analysis, and PCR enables prompt treatment.
• FIP treatment represents one of veterinary medicine's most remarkable recent welfare breakthroughs.