05 Jan FIP – THE WORST THREE LETTERS ANY CAT LOVER WILL HEAR
You’ve come to the SOCK FIP website to find information about feline infectious peritonitis.You may have a friend or acquaintance who has lost a cat to FIP, and you want to know more about this disease and whether your kitten or cat may be at risk.Or you have a sick cat yourself and your veterinarian has mentioned FIP as a possibility.Tests may have been run, but none are conclusive.It is a difficult diagnosis because other feline diseases have some of the same signs as FIP.You want to better understand this disease and what it means for your cat.While there is a lot of good information on the web about FIP, there is a great deal of misinformation as well.It is confusing and you are searching for answers.And you are also looking for hope.
You are not alone in your quest.I have been in your shoes, and so have many others including all of our SOCK FIP volunteers.
FIP is the most complex, misunderstood, and lethal of all feline infectious diseases.There is no way to know how many cats have been lost to this terrible disease since it was first clinically diagnosed in the early 1960s.Unfortunately, even after decades of research, kittens and young cats and those who love them continue to suffer from the heartbreak of FIP.
My fellow SOCK FIP volunteers and I sincerely hope that your kitten or cat does not have this disease.But if you or a friend are facing FIP, this website is designed to provide you with up to date information and resources to help you.
SOCK FIP volunteers are dedicated to helping cat lovers better understand this disease, and to supporting FIP research at the UC Davis Veterinary School.We are extremely fortunate to be working closely with Dr. Niels C. Pedersen, the Director of the UC Davis Center for Companion Animal Health, and his talented and dedicated team of researchers.Dr. Pedersen quite literally wrote the book on feline infectious diseases and is one of the world’s experts on FIP.If you’d like to know more about Dr. Pedersen and the UC Davis Veterinary School, go to CCAH.
To help you understand FIP, we have asked Dr. Pedersen many of the most common questions about the disease. You can find his answers under ABOUT FIP.
If you are facing an FIP loss or have lost a kitty to FIP, you can find links to pet loss support groups and resources in FIP SUPPORT.This section also allows you to create a memorial to your cat lost to FIP.To create a memorial, you will need to register and sign in on our HOME page.
Be sure to keep an eye on our NEWS and EVENTS sections.We plan to provide updates on the latest progress in FIP research, and to keep you informed about upcoming SOCK FIP information booths and other FIP events, lectures, conferences and fundraisers.
And if you are looking for hope, it is on the horizon.Unfortunately, this may not come soon enough to help your cat if it does have FIP right now.But thanks to decades of careful study, researchers understand the virus and the infection much better now. They also have new tools that allow them to look at viruses at the molecular level. The Feline Genome has been sequenced, and with this important new feline DNA roadmap researchers will be able to identify viral genes responsible for causing disease and host genes that affect resistance and susceptibility.All of this may help researchers develop tests and treatments that could ultimately become the solutions we need for feline infectious peritonitis.
SOCK FIP is part of a worldwide effort to defeat FIP.We welcome any help you may be able to provide.Please be sure to tell your cat loving friends and your veterinarian about our website.And if you’d like to make a donation to FIP research at UC Davis, or help in other ways, please go to HOW TO HELP.
We hope you will let us know if there are other questions you have or information you need but you didn’t find on our site.You can email us at
This website is a work in progress and we will continue to update it.Please come back and visit again and help us in our mission to SOCK IT TO FIP.
Nancy L. Reeves
SOCK FIP Volunteer
sockfip.org Content Manager
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