Question about Corona Virus please advise!
Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2014 6:51 pm
Hi everyone,
Hoping for some advice as I live abroad and am not convinced the vets here know much about this problem.
I have two healthy cats in my home (2.5 years, unrelated, they don't go outside as I live abroad in a city hostile to cats). About a week ago I took in a friendly stray kitten (7-8 months, seems healthy but skinny). I've kept the new cat in its own room, but have been exchanging smells between all the cats on fabric and allowed my cats into the room to sniff about when the new cat was at the vets.
I found yesterday the stray tested positive for Corona Virus though it doesn't appear sick. The vet here said it had to be put down and that my existing cats were probably already infected. He talked about wearing protective clothing to handle it and all sorts of precautions. I'm really confused as everything I read seems to say Corona Virus is very common and only rarely develops into FIP (at which point we'd see symptoms and he wouldn't be so contagious anyway?). Seems our existing cats might be infected but there's not much we can do anyway, it's just about probabilities/genetics.
What should I do? Is it safe to integrate the stray cat into our home? Should we re-home him? Do we need to get our cats tested now/in the future?
Thank you very much for any advice or information you can give.
Natasha
Hoping for some advice as I live abroad and am not convinced the vets here know much about this problem.
I have two healthy cats in my home (2.5 years, unrelated, they don't go outside as I live abroad in a city hostile to cats). About a week ago I took in a friendly stray kitten (7-8 months, seems healthy but skinny). I've kept the new cat in its own room, but have been exchanging smells between all the cats on fabric and allowed my cats into the room to sniff about when the new cat was at the vets.
I found yesterday the stray tested positive for Corona Virus though it doesn't appear sick. The vet here said it had to be put down and that my existing cats were probably already infected. He talked about wearing protective clothing to handle it and all sorts of precautions. I'm really confused as everything I read seems to say Corona Virus is very common and only rarely develops into FIP (at which point we'd see symptoms and he wouldn't be so contagious anyway?). Seems our existing cats might be infected but there's not much we can do anyway, it's just about probabilities/genetics.
What should I do? Is it safe to integrate the stray cat into our home? Should we re-home him? Do we need to get our cats tested now/in the future?
Thank you very much for any advice or information you can give.
Natasha