Nutrition

What do you feed an FIP cat?
Follow Dr. Diane Addie's recommendations below:

FEEDING THE CAT WITH FIP – USE A VARIED AND NATURAL DIET

Need to know:
 In this author's opinion, feeding as varied and natural a diet as possible to cats with FCoV infection and FIP is essential, avoiding highly processed, grain-based, commercial cat foods. Note that when you are changing the feeding of a cat you need to do so very slowly and gradually; otherwise the cat will wolf down the new food for a few days, then get sick of it and never touch it again! The way to introduce a new food is to give it for one meal, then go back to the customary diet for the next few meals, then give a little of the new food again, and so on, gradually increasing the frequency of the new foods, until giving a different food every meal becomes the norm for the cat. To introduce new foods gradually properly will take at least a month.

Feed cats with FIP a little red meat every day.
Around one tablespoon (soup spoon) of raw minced beef or other red meat or liver contains enough of the amino acid arginine which is essential for the health of a key immune cell (called the monocyte) in FIP. It is important that the meat or liver come from free-range animals because they will have eaten grass which is rich in omega 3. The author is aware of two commercially available cat foods in Europe which contain high-quality ingredients and are not full of additives: Applaws or Encore (www.applaws.co.uk made by MPM products, Cheshire, UK (www.mpmproducts.co.uk) and Almo Nature (Italy, www.almonature.com): no doubt there are others. In addition, these natural foods are highly palatable, reducing or eliminating the need to use appetite stimulants. Almo Nature has a canned beef cat food and a sachet of raw meat which busy cat guardians can use instead of fresh meat.

Feed cats with FIP a little salmon or other fish rich in omega 3.
FIP is a disease in which there is too much inflammation, and in humans, it has been found that omega 3 oils can help counteract chronic inflammation. An important omega 3 oil is called eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA): EPA is found in salmon, amongst other things. Both Applaws and Almo Nature have tins and pouches containing real salmon, and these cat foods can be given to cats with FIP.

Fish oil, rich in omega 3 fatty acids, could help cats with FIP, though one has to be wary that in cats, too much vitamin A will cause excessive bone to be laid down in joints, so this avenue of treatment must be pursued with caution and used only for up to about 6 weeks.
NEVER give cod liver oil to a cat—it contains far too much vitamin A.

Please note: this information is copied verbatim (with thanks) from Dr. Addie's post in our Facebook Group.

Chicken smoothie recipe

Feeding our FIP cats is essential, as FIP is a starvation disease, but sometimes it seems an impossible task. Yet the cat must eat to keep fighting. There are several foods you can try; we are sharing this recipe packed with calories and full of flavor, which can be blended to a smoothie-like consistency and used for assisted feeding, or perhaps as a treat, as it is quite appetizing and most cats will like it.
Please note that this recipe lacks essential nutrients that are a must for a healthy balanced diet. It is intended as complement food to get your cat to eat something palatable to sustain him when getting him to eat on his own is difficult.

This meat-and-bones broth recipe is adapted from two recipes from the idbkitties.net website.
• Take chicken with bones (legs, wings, breast or even better, half carcass), leave the skin on for cooking.
• Put meat in a pot, cover with water about 1 inch above meat level, add about a tbs of apple cider vinegar, cover and cook at the lowest setting anywhere between 3 to 6 hours. Cooking is done when the meat falls off the bones, and you have a rich broth. Keep checking the water level while cooking.
• When done, take the meat out, discard bones, skin, cartilage. Reserve the broth.
• Put meat in a blender, a little at a time, and cover with broth. Blend well to a smooth consistency, fluid enough to be syringe-fed. If your cat does not need assisted feeding, you can blend to a thicker consistency.
You may want to warm it up gently, especially if you are syringe feeding. (run the syringe under hot tap water for a few seconds is enough).

Variant:
Some cats prefer the meat; others prefer the broth, and others like both. You can experiment and see what your cat likes best. The meat tastes good and is high in calories, and so is the yummy broth.
You can modify the recipe and add some liver or duck, for example. You can prepare a large batch and freeze small portions. The preparation keeps for 3-4 days in the fridge. If you want to make a complete homecooked meal, you need to add supplements such as EZ for Life or similar.

Important:
Again, this recipe is NOT a balanced meal. This is complement food, given as an option to keep your FIP cat eating and maintaining weight.