Truly cannot believe I’m writing this, but here it goes…
This August, Eric and I adopted 8 month old Christmas after I fell madly in love with her during a trip to the Catcade. She integrated into our little family seamlessly, and everything felt very lucky.
About 3 weeks ago, her entire demeanor changed. On a dime, all kitten energy was lost: her eating slowed, she stopped playing and being curious, and she became so lethargic she only slept all day. By the time we realized this wasn’t going to work itself out Eric and I both had COVID, so we couldn’t take her in for a check-up until last week.
After rounds and rounds of testing, imaging, and supportive care, today we finally received a diagnosis - the ever rare and dreaded FIP. If you are familiar, you know how devastating this is. If you aren’t, I don’t recommend looking it up. Unfortunately but expectedly in this time, Christmas has rapidly declined. She has fully refused food for the last few days, she’s topping out at a 105.5° fever, she’s becoming unsteady on her legs, and her tummy is full of fluid that has put so much pressure on her intestines that they’re now compressed, leaving her in constant pain.
The good news is, within the last few years, treatment has become available and has a very high success rate, where once this disease was basically guaranteed to be fatal within a very short period of time. The bad news is it has yet to gain FDA approval, making the care back alley and extremely expensive.
This is why we’re coming to you. We’ve spent thousands of dollars on care and testing for Christmas over the past few weeks, and have thousands more left to go with her new treatment and monthly vet visits and blood draws. We have unfortunately exhausted all of our emergency resources and have begun dipping into our checking accounts, which will not last us long at the rate the treatment is needed.
If you are able to help us in any way, we are eternally grateful. Even if that means simply sharing this to your platforms to gain awareness on the disease. So truly, anything helps immensely.
Thank you thank you thank you. We look forward to updating you again when Christmas looks a little more like this again.
