Hi, I'm Bea and I am reaching out into the world as a last hope. We adopted Maxx in October 2024 from a local kitty rescue that found him wondering the parking lot of TJ Maxx (note the name).

Maxx was estimated about five months old when he came to us - hiding in every nook and crany in our closet. Then he integrated himself into our little family within a couple of weeks.

Needless to say we were worried when he started getting lethargic, withdrawn, and bloated late mid-January. We were told by our usual vet to take him into a local 24/7 veterinary emergency care. After a few days of testing, blood transfusions, and various IV fluids, they came back with a diagnosis: FIP (Feline Infectious Peritonitus).

A simple online search will tell you that FIP comes with a less than 1-month life expectancy after diagnosis. Thankfully that is no longer the only option. The emergency care vet had us start Maxx on a compounded prescription called BOVA from Stokes Pharmacy. There's been mixed results on survival rates, long-term health, and quality of life, but Maxx was fighting and we did not want to give up on him.

Maxx has been on BOVA for almost two and a half weeks as of Sunday, February 9th. To say I have seen an improvement is putting it mildly. He's been eating well, regaining weight and muscle, and gotten more energetic with each passing day. Tests and scans have also come back positive for the most part: red blood cell count is up, glucose is steady, and less abdominal bloating from fluids. Now we're focusing on managing health issues that are occuring and may occur due to the FIP - including a respiratory and heart problem we are currently managing with different medications.

All that being said, Maxx is still in recovery. We are being cautiously optimistic that he will survive well past the one month marker for the FIP diagnosis. This brings us to the reason for a GFM. The weeks of emergency care stays, transfusions, tests, medications, and on-going care is - for lack of a better term - expensive. I set the current goal at USD$20,000 as a "Hail Mary", I guess one could say. The amount would help us cover part of what was spent to get Maxx healthy enough to be home with us now.

Any amount donated or a share on your preferred social media platform would be incredibly beneficial. We are definitely not expecting such a large goal to be met, but are also hoping there are kind souls out there. Our endless gratitude to anyone who can help!