A boy named Sue and Covid Cat Flu

 

Tiramisu came into our lives as a beautiful little rescue kitten, my son had been begging us for a companion and Sue fit the bill perfectly, Miller is 8 and he is an amazing kid, bright, clever, spunky and a champion for neuro diverse kids, he himself has ASD, ADHD and anxiety, so he has always had his own personal challenges, when Sue came along, he was a companion for Miller, immediately being drawn to him, they became best mates in minutes and Miller’s emotional regulation really improved, Sue became a safety net for him, he even began sleeping in his own bed with Sue, took on all of the responsibilities for him and started to really understand empathy and caring for another creature. Miller has terrible anxieties around death, sleep, and lots of daily activities that should be fun for a kid, are not possible for him, Sue has helped him find his peace and calm in a world that’s really overwhelming for him.

 

Skip forward a month and our usual chaos was reigning supreme, we moved house, had three kids with gastro, multiple ED visits, and a whole bunch of crazy christmas lead up, we started to notice that Sue was poorly, not eating much(we thought he was just fussy!) not jumping and playing and quite sleepy, not knowing much about cats we didn’t assume it was terrible but took him to the vet assuming they would tell us it was a little bug, however our worst fears were realised when they told us Sue had Cat Covid.

 

Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) is a viral disease of cats that occurs throughout the world and is almost invariably a fatal disease, it is a corona virus, that up until recently has had no cure, it’s a death sentence for the cat.

 

As you can imagine, hearing this news was devastating for us, but even more so for Miller, the first vet recommended we take Sue to a specialist to see if he might be a candidate for a new treatment. You might have heard of remdesivir, it was trialled as a treatment for human covid but turns out it’s actually very effective at curing FIP, the problem is, it’s new, requires an 84 day treatment cycle of injections and it’s VERY expensive. With everything going on in the world, the crazy time we have had with covid cancelling all our shows etc, and christmas coming up, we just can’t afford to go it alone, we considered our options but little Sue has been such a help for our Miller and is a real part of our family, we have to do what we can to save him from this terrible illness.

 

The cost is around 7k, this will include the meds and all the test involved, with the treatment Sue has a 90% chance of survival. we have started him on the the medication now, and he is in hospital and starting to perk up, but now we are asking for some help. We will be doing a whole bunch of things, including auctioning some art of Miller’s, doing a fundraising concert and Miller has asked that people donate to Sue instead of getting him any christmas presents. ❤️

 

We know this is a tough time but we are so in love with this little man and will do what we can to help

him through this, every little bit counts x