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After FIP loss, how do I know if my new cat has FCoV before adopting?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Cat | Mixed Breed | Female | spayed | 8 months and 23 days old | 4 lbs

My cat just passed away from fip and I want to know, before adopting, if I can tell if my next cat has FCoV or not. I can't go through this again

2 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Christie Long, DVM

Veterinarian, Certified Veterinary Acupuncturist

Published on March 14th, 2017

Another option would be to consider adopting a healthy older cat. Most cats with FIP are diagnosed before 2 years of age. If you find a 3 year old cat (which the shelters are pretty full of!) that's healthy (based on the assessment of the shelter vet) you should be able to feel confident that it does not have FIP. Hope that is helpful.

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Other Answers

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    Answered By Dr. Melanie, BVSc MS

    Veterinarian

    Published on

    I am so very sorry that you recently lost your cat to FIP. How horrible, please accept my condolences. I know that the Animal Health Diagnostic Center at Cornell University offers a fecal RT-PCR test for FCoV that can be used to identify asymptomatic carriers of FCoV. It's not likely you will be able to test the cat before adopting it, but you could speak to wherever you are adopting from to see if you can do it (and pay for it) so you would know if the cat had FCoV or not. I hope this helps!

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