FIP Cat Breeders/Catteries review: Do not buy from them! 53

RoseMarie Zizzo strikes again. One would think she would be preparing for her date tomorrow in a California court. No, she's much too busy churning out more evidence that proves the case of the plaintiff. Good work, Zizzo!

It is my dearest hope that when a judgment is handed down against you tomorrow, that the first possession you have to surrender is your computer.

This is one wacked out crazy person, this stuff is every where yet there is no proof provided anywhere that anything she says is true. How can anyone make these kind of claims that hurt people just because they want to throw a fit? Ms. Zizzo you obviously know nothing about FIP and you are showing your ###! No breeder is ever going to believe this because they know that every single cat in the world is pre-disposed to get FIP. Get a clue no one likes or respects what you are doing. You just make yourself look like an idiot with an axe to grind! Go get a life! Find a boyfriend and get laid! Oh never mind I saw your picture, you are way to ugly, you will need to provide the bag to cover your head!

Do not ever believe anything this nut zizzo write, she was kicked out of CFA and arrested for animal welfare issues i.e. dumping all her cats at a animal kill shelter many times. She did not love her cats, she let them die of diseases and left them to rot covered in ringworm. How can a horrible despicable person like her point the finger at anyone?

Read the truth about her here http://pedigree-cbs.rog or http://Zizzo-catbreederterrorist.org
Then see if you believe anything she says. She has no idea whether or not any of these people she has listed have ever had any sick cats or kittens, she is trying to get back at some one she cheated! She is Italian running a vendetta, and we all know about those people! She ripped off every cat breeder she bought cats from, just stole the cats and never paid for them.

Isn't it odd that there is one cattery which claimed to have purchased a cat infected with FIP from Lollimops that does not appear on this list? Let's rectify that now.

DO NOT BUY FROM THIS FIP INFECTED CATTERY: RoseMarie Zizzo, SharDew Persians Himalayans and Oriental Shorthairs, aka Fantastic Persians, aka Deo Gloria Persians.

To that, let's add,
DO NOT BUY FROM ANY BREEDER OR CATTERY THAT HAS BEEN SUSPENDED FOR LIFE FROM SERVICES OF THE CAT FANCIERS' ASSOCIATION: RoseMarie Zizzo, SharDew Cattery, located somewhere in CA. See proof of her suspension here; http://www.cfainc.org/org/disciplinary-suspensions.pdf
Scroll down. Zizzo's name appears towards the bottom of the left hand column.

Thanks for giving me the opportunity to add your name to the list of FIP infected catteries, Zizzo!

RoseMarie Zizzo failed to appear in the court action against her, and, as such, a default judgment in the amount of $7,500 was made in Melanie Lowry's favor!

Hope Zizzo has to hock her computer to pay!

Well I am certainly surprised by the fact that this crazy Zizzo person has missed the two most contributing catteries to Lowry's stock and she to them. What about Daisy Addison of Bali Hai cattery in Carlsbad, Ca and Christy Lee Morrison, PureLee cattery in Oceanside. Both Melanie & Christy got their cats from LeJardin, Roseanne Littlefield who was the mentor to both as they started out. They all traded cats back and forth for many years. Daisy has always worked with Christy, and her main male, Blue Haze came from Melanie's cat Madonna. Christy had a huge problem with FIP in the 90's, poor thing.

I think it is very interesting that all of Christy Lee Morrison's pedigrees have disappeared off of her website!

I just wanted to go ahead and say that I purchased a perfectly healthy cat from Silver Palm cattery the owner Roxanne has been nothing but helpful and supportive of me and my cat is now 9 months old. I just do not want her or her cattery to suffer from all of this. She even spent a large deal of money to take my kitten to the vet and get him medication for a small patch of dry skin before I got him. I was given his medical history from the vets office showing all his vaccinations and clean bill of health. I would recommend buying one of her kittens to anyone.

Let's not forget that Zizzo recently had a judgment rendered against her in a CA court. Hey Zizzo! Melanie Lowry wants her money!

I also want to ad that I have two cats from Lollimops. They are now 5 and 3 years old. My mother has a cat from Lollimops and so does her neighbor, those cats are 4 and 2 years old. We have never had any problems with the cats, they are healthy, very loving and sweet and we do not know how we would live without them, they have the most incredible personalities.

If anything happens to them or we want another cat, the first place we will go is to Melaine. She has been helpful, has given us guidance and even cared for them while we went on vacation. You cold not find a more caring breeder.

This terrible person is not telling the truth.

This site is just an evil person posting faults information about people to satisfy her own evil life!

I have been fascinated to read all this on the internet put out by this one person b-pcb.info, and the owner Rose Marie. What a sad pathetic person when this is all they have to do. There is so much of it. Does anyone else notice but me that this person is obsessed, very obsessed about FIP. Everyone has it except her, yet she is the one claiming it killed her cat. Nothing is being said about any of these other places, anywhere by anyone, only what she says. This is a terribly disturbed person, look how she attacks everyone.
Hate never destroys the hater, only the one that is doing all the hating. You need to seriously examine your motives, to people like me that know nothing about cats, this looks like a vendetta and you look like a very sick person.

Shakespears has a line in one of his writings that says "methinks the lady doth protest to much" which means when you complain to much and to loudly then you must be lying, or covering up something.

I have never had an FIP problem or any other contagious illness problem in my cattery. I also have never posted any pedigrees on my web site. I don't even have a way to post a pedigree to my web site. I do not have nor have I ever had a Lollimop cat. I had wanted one years ago but I never did get one. We and the others listed are innocent bystanders that have been falsely accussed. I am thankful to be falsely accussed. I would rather be falsely accussed and not have ever had FIP vs. the other way around.

Sincerely,
Christy.

I would like to know who this Lisa Burnside is that has slandered my cattery~Balihai and made factious comments that my cats are infected with FIP. Where is the proof of that? I have proof they are negative. I bought Jewelee's Blue Haze of Balihai from Sally Chapman in Tenn. not from Melanie. I can prove that too with Haze's registration papers. Melanie bought Haze's dam Madonna after Sally died from Sally's daughter in Ramona. I have never bought any cats from Melanie or has she ever bought from me. I challenge anyone to prove me wrong. I just do not understand how evil all this is and how dishonest it is. Come on people PEACE !

Hmmm, ok Christy what about the chocolate male you sent to a cattery in Arizona that died within 2 weeks of FIP, and all the other ones out there that you are lying about. Oh and lets talk about the little lilac girl on your website that you sold to the lesbian woman in Palm Springs in Oct 2007. the one absolutely covered in ringworm, also came with fleas and earmites. She is having one hell of a time getting the kitten cleared up! And has spent a fortune! And you promised to help, but haven't.
As a supposed Christian you are not supposed to tell such huge whoppers! Remember?

i agree with the compaint. i have been there with f. i. p. from one of the catterys listed on this page and i can assure you it didnt come from my house because the persian this cat replace dide of cancer

When looking for a kitten back in Januray of 2008, I did a lot of research on the internet. And yeah, I ran across this crazy nut Rizzo. On her list of catteries not to buy from is the name of the cattery I DID buy from. I won't say which one it was right now, because of ongoing negotiations due to a kitten from this cattery dying of FIP.

If I had listened to this nutcase, who may or may not be a nutcase, I wouldn't have a beautiful Persian on deathwatch from FIP right now.

Regardless of whether Rizzo is right due to knowledge or if she just got lucky and is vindictive, if I had heeded the warning, I wouldn't be heartbroken right now.

Be all of this bs what it may be. I think Corona Virus and especially FIP is the dirty little secret of catteries everywhere. Breeders know they'd be out of business in a heartbeat if people knew about these conditions, especially the chance of mutation of FIP. That is why the breeder I bought from as well as many others on this complaint board play dumb about FIP. Puhlease! If you don't know about this you have no business being in the business.

Oh, and I meant to spell that zizzo not rizzo. My bad. Not that it is a big deal but I am sure some of you will jump on it, so I thought I'd make that correction.

I'm sure I don't belong here, but I've already read the many pages of complaints about various catteries posted and in particular those run by or associated with Ms. Melanie Lowry, and now I feel compelled to comment.

First, my disclaimer: I am Not now, nor ever was a breeder or cattery owner, nor have I ever purchased a cat or kitten from any breeder mentioned on this board or in these many posts. To my knowledge, I have never met any of them either. As I see it, I'm a totally objective party.

I'm just a cat-lover who's looking to purchase a kitten, and I've never purchased one through the Internet before.
I stumbled upon this board while searching out catteries / breeders who might have a particular type of kitten I'm interested in. I consider myself to be a dedicated Mom to the Kitties I already have, and as such, when I found a link with the words "complaintsboard.com/?search=Persians", I felt a duty to my own babies to check this out first.

What I read in these pages (whether any or all of it is true) chilled me to the bone. Just considering the 'possibility' that anyone, much less a CAT BREEDER, could treat cats and kittens so terribly, house them in anything less than a clean and healthy environment, and not have them all checked and treated by a licensed vet regularly was enough to give me nightmares for a very long time.

But what also disturbed me is that most of the catteries on that long list of "don't buy from" (as well as those listed in other complaints for various reasons) are registered with CFA, TICA, etc.!

Granted, I haven't purchased a " registered, purebred kitten" in more than 11 years (my youngest 2 were "adopted" from foster homes - no papers), but I didn't realize how truly and utterly naive I am and probably was, even back in 1997. At least then I got to visit the cattery in person and pick up several kittens before I chose. I thought that being a registered cattery meant more than a piece of paper with the names of the kittens parents on it. I thought it meant that the cattery had to uphold certain standards & ethics, obey certain guidelines, be far and above the 'cottage breeders' I'd met when I was younger - the type I walked out of no sooner I walked in, and couldn't get to a phone fast enough to notify animal control.

Yet, if ANY of the charges that I've read are true, I have to wonder how the people in question sleep at night. How are we (the pet buyers who just want a little cat to love) supposed to know which breeders are actually reputable, and not scam artists - or worse - uncaring, cruel and inhumane?

I'm an intelligent adult (or so I thought) and I understand that given the number of Catteries in the U.S. today it has become a Huge business and as such, each breeder strives to make their Cats and Cattery seem better than all others - THE one to buy from. And as with any business (unfortunately) a certain amount of hostility and underhanded tactics to undermine competition is likely to rear its' ugly head. But people! We're talking about Living Creatures here, not socket wrenches or trash recepticles!

I don't know how much, if any, control these registries exert over breeders and the standards of each cattery, but I can assure you I'm going to find out - and give them a piece of my mind in the process. IMHO they have a responsibility to the consumer, but more importantly to the little creatures they track on paper but never ever see. There has to be some kind of control over these things, someone to inspect the catteries, someone that breeders have to answer to.

And NO, I'm not talking about the "self-appointed" person (IIRC, a Ms. Rose Marie Zizzo) who has been posting most of the stuff on here and has apparently set up her own 'Watchdog group'.

I'm sorry Ms. Zizzo, but I would not take anything you posted as "gospel" truth without question - even if I knew you personally and if you offered a legitimate basis of proof for your accusations.

For one thing, as an active breeder and cattery owner yourself, there is a immediate conflict of interest in being Ms. Lowry's competition as well as being a self-appointed accusator and judge. In addition, the sheer number of posts, accusations, vicious remarks and complaints you have leveled (all without substantiated proof, as far as I can see), truly does sound like the rantings of someone out to crucify an opponent rather than someone who only has the interests of the cats and customers at heart.

Even if every one of the things you said are true, I did Not see you asking her or any other breeder on your list if anything has been done to rectify the conditions of the cattery, improve their vigilence so that cats are no longer falsely sold as healthy if they are not (assuming it was an oversite), or ask if they plan to take steps to have their catteries tested for all these disease and maladies you claim they have and are perpetuating, so that those poor creatures do not continue to suffer, thereby eliminating the problems.

To me, what you "didn't" say spoke much louder than all that you did say. And whether your claims are true or not, I lost any respect I may have had for you as the head of the "b-pcb" when I saw how you handled this entire matter, and how seemingly uninformed you are about F.I.P.!
I would think that Cat Breeders would try to stay abreast of serious feline health issues, if not for the cats' benefit, then at the least for the continued prosperity of their own businesses!

For anyone interested, here are two excellent sources on feline diseases:

http://www.dr-addie.com/

http://www.vet.cornell.edu/fhc/brochures/index.htm (scroll down the page to the listings under "Infectious Diseases")

And finally, to those Breeders who were singled out by Ms. Rizzo, etc.:

Ms. Lowry, I don't know you, but since most of Ms. Rizzo's complaints seem directed at you, I've checked out "Boutique Kittens" If the "Boutique Kittens" are in fact yours, and those pictures do acurately show the well-being and overall appearance of your kittens at the time of shipping, then I applaud your efforts because those kittens are just darling pictures of health and joy.
(I couldn't get access to "Lollimops", which if I read correctly is also your site.)

Of course I understand that pictures can still be deceiving.

So to all of you Breeders I say this:

Whether any 'charge' posted here is true, or are nothing more than lies based on jealousy or competitiveness gone horribly awry ...

Please, Please, Please, remember that these little creatures are your charges. They are brought into this world under your stewardship, and you are responsible for each and every little cat that suffers or dies due to your neglect, your ignorance, your greed, your cruelty or your duplicity.

Your customers (of whom I may be one, someday) should be dealt with as honestly and fairly as you yourself wish to be treated. If you practice to deceive it will come back to you someday, in some way.

I beg of you all - instead of wasting your time back-biting and mudslinging here, put it to good use instead. Take a hard critical look at you Cattery "Business" and try to find out what you can do to improve the lives of those little ones before you try to increase your profits. All those little "angels" that you are placing in their forever homes will thank you for it, and the Angels above will smile gladly upon you too.

Thanks for allowing me to voice my thoughts and opinions.

Apology for Error:

This topic of breeders, complaints, etc. seems to go off on so many tangents that I got my data confused and I wish to correct my error.

In my post above I wrote ["Ms. Lowry, I don't know you, but since most of Ms. Rizzo's complaints seem directed at you, I've checked out "Boutique Kittens" If the "Boutique Kittens" are in fact yours, and those pictures do acurately show the well-being and overall appearance of your kittens at the time of shipping, then I applaud your efforts because those kittens are just darling pictures of health and joy.
(I couldn't get access to "Lollimops", which if I read correctly is also your site.)"]

I apologize to both Boutique Kittens Cattery and Lollimops Cattery for mistakenly attributing both of them to the same owner - Ms. Melanie Lowry. When in fact, as I see in yet another offshoot post, Kathleen Heineman has Boutique Kittens, and Ms. Lowry has Lollimops. They were 'linked' in a complaint by Ms. Zizzo because allegedly one got a kitten from the other, so it all seemed like one large post to me. I'm truly sorry for that mistake.

I would also like to make it clear that I cannot really take sides on these issues and complaints (nor would I wish to get caught up in all of this!) because I have no idea who's right or wrong, lying or telling the truth.

I just posted as a Mom owned by pet cats, who was appalled by the things I read, and hoped to appeal to all of you with some voice of reason ... Concentrate on taking care of your kitties and keeping them healthy. It's obvious that everyone is wasting their precious time here in heated verbal battles that no one can possibly win. :(

Bottom line is this when purchasing kittens from a cattery. Require they be tested for Corona Virus and if they come out positive, take a pass on that cattery.

This is something people need to know about and no, it doesn't always mutate into fip, however, there is strong evidence that there is genetic predisposition for the mutation of fip in certain lines of cats. The lines need to be eliminated.

Catteries do not want to hear this. But once the public figures out what the deal is with Corona Virus, they will know to require this test to safeguard their investment and their peace of mind. Right now, the breeders know about it, but do they mention to you the words Corona Virus? Absolutely not. And why is that? Because they'd be out of business.

I will NEVER accept another cat without a Corona Virus test and I will never accept one which tests positive for this virus. If I had known what this really meant, I wouldn't have bought this kitten.

The breeders also need to understand that when they have this in their cattery and continue to sell cats, a caring cat owner will go to extraordinary lengths to try and save their babies. You will probably never get more than an offer for another kitten, regardless of the thousands of dollars in vet bills that fip can cost for diagnostics and ultimately futile treatments. I've spent almost 2, 000.00 in tests alone trying to figure out what was wrong with my baby I've had less than 6 months!

An offer to "replace" a kitten is the absolute cheapest way for a breeder to get themselves out of this kind of pickle. Of course, you will never know how many cases of fip kittens they've seen in their cattery, because they will never tell you that.

They might even be like the breeder I bought from and tell you that they've never had fip in their cattery before. Then in the next phone call, step on their tongue and become a consummate expert on fip and tell you not to go to any extraordinary lengths to save my kitty because nothing they did saved them when they were dealing with fip before.

The breeder I bought from willfully lied to me about fip in her cattery. And she thought I was too stupid to catch that in our conversation.

I'm seriously thinking small claims court for this issue. I am pretty sure that I would be able to collect for emotional distress in this instance. My vet has seen me break down in her office 3 different times because of this situation.

Breeders, let it be known this much.

I will be trumpeting high and low across the internet the importance of a Corona Virus test prior to purchasing a kitten from ANYONE.

This little tiny piece of information is what is going to cause the lot of you that are harboring this nasty secret to clean up your acts.

Perhaps you should have done your homework on FIP It is the dreaded disease of ALL cat breeders and ALL cat owners. Ignorance like the crazy woman's, Rose Marie Zizzo, has fostered the idea that it is the breeders fault. Well...if there is no test for something that according to UCDavis, 95% of all cats carry, no cure, no way to prevent, and the vaccine will give the disease to young kittens and only protects against two strains and every cat has it's own strain, what do you suggest?
Here is the truth, ALL catteries have had a brush with FIP, the crazy one just made these catterie's experience public and a target. It is kept quiet in the breeding community for just this reason, it becomes a witch hunt.
It is an immune mediated response disease, which means the immune system attacks itself. No one can stop that, no one can prevent it even the best researchers in the world have not been able to come up with a cure, and a treatment, or even an effective vaccine.
OH, and one more thing, it is not even diagnosable without a necropsy. Did you have one done or did your vet just do a I don't know so it must be? FIP is a catch-all diagnosis for many of the idiot vets out there that do not know what they are doing and don't really care. Oh and one more thing, there seems to be a link between the distemper vaccine and FIP. Did your vet over vaccinate? Here is some info on that vaccine.

(A close breeder friend sent this to me and she didn't want me to reveal her name but, she wanted other breeders to know her experience and pass to this along. I personally use killed vaccines but, for those of you who don't - here is the info - feel free to pass it on)

Last week I lost a kitten to FIP. It was one of a litter whose first vaccination had been with a MLV Intranasal six weeks earlier; I had no doubt that the MLV Intranasal Distemper vaccine was the cause, and my vet agreed with me. Especially since I have used only killed vaccine for about 25 years and had no cases of FIP.

So my vet called the company that manufacturers the vaccine and was told that MLV distemper vaccines cause white blood cell counts to drop sharply, which compromises the kitten's immune system, and allows a corona virus to mutate to FIP. The vaccine companies are aware that their MLV distemper vaccines can act as a catalyst in the development of FIP. Why have they not shared that information with breeders and the vets who are using their vaccines? In fact - why are they still producing/selling MLV distemper vaccines?

My advice is to NEVER administer any sort of MLV distemper vaccine. For safe vaccination and excellent protection from Distemper, Schering-Plough PANAGEN (killed distemper vaccine) is available/safe/effective.

Fel-O-Vax PCT is becoming hard to find, but it and the killed distemper, as well as the Pfizer Felocell C (IN) are available from http://www.vetmeddirect.com/Feline-Vaccines.htm . The Felocell is a MLV Intranasal that is made with different lines of Rhino and Calici and will increase your kittens' immunity. It doesn't cause the serious URI problems that the other MLV vaccines cause. In fact, it can be administered to a cat/kitten with a constantly running nose, and will clear it up.

OH and one more thing, corona virus testing does not mean your cat won't get FIP if it is negative! Doesn't mean it will if positive, so you are wasting your time...and I do not believe you will find a cattery that won't test positive...so get off your high horse, don't waste your time or everyone else's and support research, cuz we all wish there was a cure.
Remember SARS? Well FIP is the same kind of disease, and there is no cure for that one either and they went to FIP researchers for help.
Trust me, breeders do not want to deal with this either!
even the zoos have problems FIP in the big cats, especially the cheetahs!

OH and eliminate lines? You are as ignorant as Rizzo Zizzo. That only makes the gene pool smaller, and does nothing to eliminate FIP! What a dope...go get an IQ test to see if you are still breathing!

Nice. I just had my kitten put down and yes I had a necropsy. Yes, it was FIP. Yes, it cost another ton of money I'll never be compensated for.

If I hadn't been lied to and tried to be made a fool of by this breeder, I might not be so angry about this.

"(A close breeder friend sent this to me and she didn't want me to reveal her name but, she wanted other breeders to know her experience and pass to this along. I personally use killed vaccines but, for those of you who don't - here is the info - feel free to pass it on)

Of course she didn't want you to reveal her name.

Note: I have not revealed the breeder's name who lied to me.

If I keep getting replies like this I might just do it though.

You apparently have no idea what it feels like when it's your pet that dies of this horrid disease, nor do you care.

If you think I haven't done my homework on FIP since watching my baby swell up like a balloon and trying everything in the world to make it better, you are the one who needs to check if you are still breathing.

Now, maybe you should get an IQ and an empathy test while you're at it.

If my kitten was over vaccinated it was done by the breeder. My vet never vaccinated the cat.

Who's on a high horse? I'd say it was all the breeders who don't care about anything but keeping on selling animals for money and not caring or even educating their clients on what can happen especially if they've had a high incidence of FIP in their cattery. (higher than 1 or 2 percent)

I'm not going to bother citing links for proof that I "did my homework on FIP" for you. Since you are a breeder that is something you need to do for yourself.

There is a genetic presdisposition to FIP and by continuing to breed the cats who are producing an above average number of FIP kittens is unconscienable. You've done a good job in pretending there is nothing that can be done by the breeders, but if you did your homework you'd know there is. Of course, if we make this confusing enough, anyone looking at this to buy kittens won't know who to believe, now will they?

Nothing will be done because it costs too much money and it is very difficult to do. But it is the right thing to do when there is a high incidence of this disease in a cattery. You know what it is and so do I.

I just hope everyone else knows to ask the right questions when buying a kitten. Not that they will get a straight answer... I didn't even after the fact.

I am totally horrified at all this . My name was unjustly added to all the FIP hoopla and I have proof all my cats are negative.How could anyone be allowed to print such untruthful lies . I stand behind every cat/kitten that leaves my house.ALL my cats are tested for everything under the sun >I challenge anyone to prove me wrong.My vet will verify everything I am saying.I don't know about all these other people but I do know my cats are virus free. I have been breeding for almost 2o years now.

This complaint has no merit simply because the complainant and subsequent posters are ignorant of the facts of FIP. Here is some information that should be taken into consideration about FIP:

FIP: Fact & Fiction
by Leah Montgomery, DVM
If there is a single health issue that most frightens the cat breeder, it is a diagnosis of FIP, Feline Infectious Peritonitis. There is a deep sense of helplessness that we feel when dealing with FIP because there is little we can do to either prevent it or treat it. Indeed, we still don't understand as much as we would like about this disease.
FIP is a disease that results when the corona virus that is often normally present in the majority of cattery cats, mutates into the FIP virus. While there is a test that results in a "titer" to measure "exposure" to the corona virus, there is no test for the FIP virus available.
Signs of FIP:
• General illness,
• fever,
• weight loss,
• anorexia,
• anemia,
• Swollen abdomen
• Central nervous system disorders
• Kidney disorders
• Liver disorders
• Eye disease
FIP is always fatal once symptoms appear, and there is little we can do.
While researchers know less about FIP then we wish, there has been significant advances in our understanding of the disease in recent years. Still, there persists some misunderstandings amongst cat breeders about the disease.
________________________________________
MYTH: the FIP virus and feline corona virus are the same thing.
FACT: The common benign form of feline corona virus is referred to as FECV (feline enteric corona virus). When FECV mutates into a disease-causing form, it is then referred to as FIPV (feline infectious peritonitis virus). FIP is the term for clinical disease associated with feline corona virus infection. The FIP is the resulting disease when the very rare occurrence happens of a corona virus mutating.
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MYTH: My cat caught FIP at a cat show
FACT: The corona virus mutates within an individual cat. The vast majority of cats do not "catch" FIP, but develop it themselves from their own mutant FECV.
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MYTH: I'm afraid my cat with FIP will infect all my other cats.
FACT: Cats who are ill with FIP are unlikely to be a risk to other cats and thus do not need to be isolated.
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MYTH: I bought a cat whose antibody titer was above 1:800, so that means he is infected with FIP
FACT: Antibody titers are meaningless for diagnosis of FIP or prognosis
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MYTH: Cats with FIP always have big swollen tummies
FACT: There is both a wet and a dry form of FIP. In the most dramatic form called wet FIP, the cat’s abdomen swells with fluid as a result of widespread injury to the circulatory system. Fluid may also accumulate in the chest cavity, causing breathing difficulty. Other signs include intermittent fever, loss of appetite, weight loss and depression. The dry form of FIP shows no swollen tummy.
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MYTH: If my cat has a swollen tummy, he must have FIP
FACT: There are many other reasons a cat may have fluid in the abdominal cavity so you must check with your vet regarding a diagnosis.
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MYTH: My cat has a swollen tummy and a high corona virus titer so my vet says he must have FIP
FACT: Although a combination of symptoms may suggest a diagnosis of FIP, there is no foolproof way to diagnose FIP in a sick cat. Tissue biopsy (microscopic examination of tissue) is the only way to confirm that FIP is present. A negative antibody titer does not rule out FIP. Neither does a positive antibody titer rule in FIP as a diagnosis
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MYTH: I heard they now have a test for FIP
FACT: There is no test for FIP. Sometimes incorrectly “called" an FIP test, the test is for the presence of the corona virus only. Presence of corona virus (CV) antibodies in the blood is generally inconclusive. A CV titer may be useful to determine if animals in a multi-cat household, shelter, or cattery have been exposed to a corona virus, but even very high antibody levels do not accurately predict if a cat will develop FIP.
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MYTH: I heard that FIP is inherited.
FACT: FIP is NOT inherited. There may however be a genetic predisposition to the development of FIP. Thus breeders are encouraged to select breeding stock showing resistance to infections of all kinds - especially fungal and viral infections. Cats with strong genetic resistance to infection will have a decreased risk of developing the mutation that leads to FIP.
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MYTH: If I vaccinate all my cats, they won't get FIP
FACT: While a vaccine is available, its effectiveness and safety is questionable
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MYTH: My cat got FIP from a new cat I bought
FACT: Transmission of FIP from cat to cat is considered to be rare.
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MYTH: Only very young kittens get FIP
FACT: The peak ages for losses to FIP are from 6 months to 2 years old (with the highest incidence at 10 months of age). Age-associated immunity to FIP appears to be possible.
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MYTH: My kitten caught FIP from its mother
FACT: Transmission of FIP from a queen to her unborn kittens has not been shown to occur.
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MYTH: If I have a titer done on a cat I and it is negative, then I know it will not get FIP
FACT: there is no way to screen healthy cats for the risk of developing FIP.
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MYTH: If you have a cat who dies of FIP, you should not get a cat for a couple years because of the FIP virus hanging around the house.
FACT: The FIP virus is generally unstable outside of the host cat, but has survived on dry surfaces for up to seven weeks in laboratory studies. FIP virus can be inactivated by most household detergents or disinfectants.
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References:

• Polli, Leigh. "Highlights from The Winn Feline Foundation International FIP/FECV Workshop." Cat Fanciers Almanac, 11(8), December 1994.
• Richards, James R. DVM. "Management of Coronavirus Infections in Catteries and Multicat Households." Comprehensive Seminar for Cat Breeders Cornell University School of Continuing Education and Summer Sessions.
Siegal, Mordecai (ed.) Cornell Book of Cats: Comprehensive Medical Reference for Every Cat and Kitten. New York: Villard Books, 1991.

Just want to add my comment about ROXANNE, owner of Silver Palm Cattery, Ramona, CA. who sold me my Blue Tabby Persian Male, now 2 and a half, a perfect affectionate
HEALTHY writ large kitty, I named CAL for CA. RAMON for Ramona, site of the cattery.
He was shipped cross-country to my Arlington, VA home at 3 months. I've had pure breed cats before, adored them but CAL ezceeds them in every aspect, socialized utterly and a
dear companion, never sick one day, and a furry specimen of beauty, if not show cat caliber.
I have complete faith in SILVER PALM Cattery, especially of the caring excellent breeding
and business practices of Roxanne, since our relationship was superb as seller to purchaser.

You people who are complaining about FIP and holding breeders responsible are crazy and ill-informed. Do your homework! FIP cannot be controlled, it 's a mutation within the kitten's body, no breeder or owner can prevent. Quit trying to place blame, read the scientifc evidence...(Cornell, UC Davis, Auburn, Winn Feline) many cats carry coronavirus whether it develops into FIP is up to the kitten's immune system not the breeder! Like the common cold, some people fight it off while others develop into bronchitis and pneumonia.

IF there was a way to prevent FIP most ethical breeders would do what it takes as its just as hard for them to hear one of their beloved babies died! Now if its an issue with ringworm and parasites, well those can be controlled and that is neglect! You can screen and test cats all you want but they can be unreliable, you can get a negative PCR result now and later the kitten develops FIP anyways and just because they have corona doesn't mean they will ever get FIP. Unless you are God, nobody can control this sad disease popular among all cats! What we can do is help fund research at one the universities studying it! Spend your time writing a check vs. placing blame on people who have no control over a disease, not even highly educated and qualified veterinarians and feline experts can get a handle on this one!

Kitten in picture was lost to FIP at 5 months old...NOBODY"S FAULT, I adore cats and that is the natural risk of owning them but well worth the beauty and uncomparable companionship.

To whom it may concern,
My name is Mark, I am Rose Marie Zizzo's cousin.
I feel the need to explain to everyone who has posted comments
blogs and words of hate about my cousin the reason she is the way
she is and to warn innocent people of potential misery.
Rose Marie was always a troubled child but trouble turned to
tragedy when she was 11 years old Rosemarie had always exhibited
signs of mental instability however when she was 11 years old, we
were just kids and my cousin, who had always been obsessed with
cat's, ruthlessly poured gasoline on the neighbor's cat, then lit
it with a lighter she stole from my mother, I ran screaming to my
mother Rosemarie stood and watched with fascination.
My mother quickly called 911 but it took them over 24 minutes to
get to our home and sadly it was too late for the little kitten, it
was at that time my cousin was taken from our home and placed in a
mental facility. She lived out the next several years there and
was stabilized on medication for her Schizophrenia disorder, she
appeared to be fine when they released here but then she began to
collect cats in her trailer until one day a someone reported her to
the authorities for having over 75 cats in her trailer many of
which were severely sick and deprived of human compassion.
As the investigation continued multiple cat bodies were found
stored in her freezer, it was at this time that our family
discovered that Rose Marie had stopped taking her medication, she
was once again hospitalized for week in 1/2 and released. Having
all of her cats taken from her she turned her mentally deranged
mind to the Internet where she began a marathon of stalking cat
breeders building what appeared to be cat breeder consumer sites.
Because of her ongoing harassment and defamation of reputable
breeders, tons of breeders began to complain about Rose Marie to
CFA, they banned her from ever registering cats.
She was now banned from the world's largest cat breeding registry
and all of her cats she once owned were taken from her. One would
have thought this would have been the end of her brutal online
attacks against pedigreed cat breeders, it would have been in a
sound and stable humans mind but that was not the case with Rose
Marie Zizzo. Going on and off of her medication made her medical
condition even worse. She had become fixated on a woman known as
Melanie Lowery. Melanie was a cat breeder who had sold her a cat,
my cousin began to post comments that the cat was ill and Melanie
was evil, after enduring two years of vicious attacks from Rose
Marie Melanie had finally had enough and filed a lawsuit she won
this lawsuit in the amount of $7500, my cousin was found guilty of
Internet cyber bulling and wrongful defamation of character our
family had to scrape together the money to pay Melanie for my
cousin's wrongful actions.
This slap on the hand did not faze my sister, she continued to
widen her selection of cat breeders primarily consisting of Persian
and Himalayan cat breeders then quickly turned on all other
pedigree cat breeders. At this point Rose Marie had been kicked
out of CFA, lost a lawsuit, had a judgment against her to silence
her online attacks and all of her cats were taken from her, these
events continued to deteriorate her mental illness, as our family
we did not know what to do for psychological disorder which
escalated around the world via the Internet so we began to distance
ourselves from her and remind her we would not be here to bail her
out financially again.
Her family support network had been exhausted by her controversial
behavior and outburst which occurred on a day to day basis, her
irritable moods could be triggered from a certain food, too little
or not enough sleep. The one thing we began to notice was how the
simple glance at even a feral cat launched her into another online
tirade and violent declamation. Her wild words pushed cat breeders
to form an alliance against her, while some fought back others
ignored her demagogue, vehement ways. To this day Rose Marie
continues to build multiple complaint sites in which she uses to
feed her perplexed and delusion state of mind.
These web sites are as dangerous as she is, with no family no cats
and no friends only a computer she learned the dangerous skill of
installing malicious spyware and tracking malware on her sights to
see how many people were reading her disoriented post about cat
breeders.
The hazardous malware installed onto anyone's computer who dared to visit Rose Marie's complaint sites fell victim.
This became her new obsession. When people visited her site for any length of time her
websites installed invisible history tracking spyware, this
software enabled Rosemarie to track the future Internet surfing
history of people who visited her site, using this spyware she was
able to watch people go into their online banking and credit card
statements.
Unsuspecting cat breeders and everyday citizens reading her rants
fell victim to her watch full eye. Rose Marie was able to see the
login information and passwords breeders used to advertise their
cats for sale online. Breeders could not understand how personal
information stored only in their email boxes was being displayed on
Rosemary's websites. As Rose Marie read through the emails of any
and all who visited her web sites she posted personal information
such as income tax documents for the world to see, by this time
Rose Marie was no longer only targeting cat breeders, everyone was
a victim who was seeking phony complaints stored on her deceitful
websites. We as her family knew to never visit any of her sites
because she WILL obtain personal documents and private information
and post them on her website in hopes of getting a reaction from
anyone.
Rose Marie has hundreds of complaint sites with various looks and
feels to them.
The only safe, accurate and authoritative consumer review sites are
www.consumerreports.org
The Attorney General's Office (Per state)

The FBI has now been notified of her illegal online treacherous
behavior. Under no conditions should anyone be so drama driven
that they feel the need to visit one of her many websites, doing so
WILL compromise your computer and financial records to this
seriously ill mind. As ashamed as we are of the fact that Rose
Marie continues to fail taking her medication I feel that the
obligation to intervene in hopes of saving another family from
suffering distress and torment by my cousin's ruthless actions.
I do hope this glimpse into the personal side of Rose Marie Zizzo
will help to explain the torment and torture to all who take
admonish.
Earnestly,
Mark Zizzo

Catfishcrew...

Yes, it CAN be controlled through responsible breeding.

Massive inbreeding will cause a decrease in immunity of the cats. It happens from breeders who care little about the breed or the cats and only want the almighty dollar. That and poor management skills of the owners who most likely have too many cats and don't have the time, money or desire to take care of the cats as they need to be taken care of.

Please add Diane Varni owner of Orecatay Cattery in Yoncalla, Oregon to your list of Breeders/Catteries with selling documented FIP positive cats. Her cats were tested in Feb. 2013.

Hi from Christy Lee Morrison, 1st of All i have NEVER gotten any cat or kitten from Melanie Lowry. But that doesn't mean she is/was anything less than a Loving, Caring, Passionate about the health and happiness of all Cats always offering to help other breeders. Please believe me as i know more than anyone as i for years saw Melanie who made all her cats/kittens lives as close to Heaven here on earth for them as anyone besides GOD Himself would. She is constantly on her feet making new cat furniture for them or cooking their food fresh for her cats herself adding herbal supplements specifically for cats ultimum health, and she gives her cats new litter in sterilized litter boxes EVERY day.
2nd of All i, Christy Lee-Morrison have never put any of my pedigrees on my web site or On-Line ANYWHERE because i don't want anyone to be able to steal my cats ancestry info.
3rd of All i, Christy Lee.Morrison have NEVER had a cat or kitten have Fip in my cattery in my whole life, that includes the "90's"!

Complaints Against Cat Breeders is a Criminal Enterprise.

Coral Bay has never had FIP Cats.
I demand your group pay damages. You apologize to my cattery name. You pay me restitution. You make your business by being a piece of ###!

CORAL BAY has not had a kitten since January of 1997.
And so you are a liar--how evil you are for continuing to harass about what you do. Coral Bay never bred anyone's cats, and the kitties we had were stolen by your selfish group. How horrible you were to steal my little kitties! I demand you retract your statement about your evilness. We never had FIP.

CORAL BAY does not work with other catteries. What happened is identity theft.

CORAL BAY-- HAS NEVER DONE BUSINESS WITH ANY OF THE BREEDERS LISTED. I have asked this person to remove the reference from their publication without success. Our kittens were stolen before 1997, and we had no cats after that. So the reference to Coral Bay is False. Coral Bay had always been FIP and FELV Negative. (Appology for swear word, but there is no way to retract.) I have no way any business with any of the breeders listed above. I would suggest anyone that buys a kitten to go get it checked out with a vet before you buy, and have it in writing that you to return if there is a problem-- As I would have done. We have never had no problems and had no cats or kittens after January 1997. This person had a one time service from a cat that had been sold, and did not profile that animal in her photos but one that was stolen. THERE IS NO CONTACT WITH THIS INDIVIDUAL. CORAL BAY IS A PRIVATE ENTITY, AND NOT RELATED TO THESE OTHER CATTERIES NOR DOES CORAL BAY HAVE ANY RESPONSIBILITES CONCERNING THESE OTHER INDIVIDUALS-- Disclaimer.