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loss or failure to gain weight, waxing/waning fever). Check out a list of various clinical signs in the figure at the end of this article!
Broadly, we talk about two categorizations of FIP: the ‘wet form’ and the ‘dry form.’ • Effusive, or ‘wet’, FIP might look like the pot-bellied cat, or the cat working harder to breathe due to large-volume abdominal
fluid compressing/restricting the diaphragm. FIP effusion most commonly accumulates in the abdomen or chest, and
occasionally in the pericardial sac or scrotal sac. • Non-effusive, or ‘dry’, FIP tends to show up as
pyogranulomatous lesions in organs like the kidneys, liver, lymph nodes (including mesenteric lymph nodes), and in the eyes and brain.
Bullous keratopathy in an FIP positive cat. While this cat’s bullous keratopathy may have been idiopathic in origin or linked to other factors, it’s possible this was caused from progression of severe anterior uveitis and corneal edema secondary to FIPV. (Image courtesy of Dr. Amy Kaplan, cVMA, DACVECC, MRCVS) manifestations include pruritic nodules or papules and other dermatologic changes, as well as glomerulonephritis due to immune-complex deposition. For these reasons, separating FIP into ‘wet’ and ‘dry’ forms is not particularly useful, because they do not represent distinct disease entities. However, the patient’s clinical signs can help guide our selection of diagnostic tools, and can help identify which treatment protocols to follow.
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Neurologic signs reflect the neuroanatomic distribution of disease, which may be focal, multifocal, or diffuse and can be seen as clinical signs of: And because FIP doesn’t follow the book, cats can present with mixed-form FIP showing clinical features attributed to both ‘wet’ and ‘dry’ forms. Regardless of the form, cats may also develop jaundice, lymphadenopathy, or pale mucous membranes. Less common
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