Saving Jack from FIP
Donation protected
JUNE 14, 2020 UPDATE: JACK IS CURED! Jack finished his remission period, with beautifully healthy labwork, on June 2nd so is officially cured. He has beaten FIP and we look forward to seeing all his future days with him. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you!
Fundraising has been disabled for our Jack, but if you stumble upon this page and feel like helping, please consider donations to any one of the many FIP treatment fundraisers on this site or more generally over at Zen By Cat.
All our love,
Jack and the Salvatores
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TL/DR: Jack was diagnosed with wet FIP on 12/17/19, which is considered nearly 100% fatal. We are going for the hail mary experimental antiviral treatment option which has had success in saving FIP kitties in recent years and could use your help.
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The week of December 8th four month old Jack's belly started to bloat. We joked around, calling him a pregnant goat, and submitted a fecal sample to the vet which we were confident would show he had an easily treated parasite problem since he is still a kitten. But the fecal came back normal and our anxiety started creeping in.
On December 17th we brought him to the vet for an exam, labwork, and x-rays to see what was going on. Our vet gasped and his eyes went wide when he saw the size of Jack's abdomen, said on palpation it felt like fluid, and brought him back for the x-ray. The kids and I went to the waiting room and our vet, who normally would have given us non-critical news there, had us return to the private exam room where he informed us that the x-ray was unreadable because there was so much fluid present and held up a vial of the fluid he had extracted which was the bright yellow typical of FIP. No cure, supportive care, compassion, I'm so sorry.
We had him send out the fluid and bloodwork anyways for hopeful confirmation or refutal and I attempted to hold it together enough so that I could pay the bill and get everyone bundled into the car to return home. My nine year old sobbed and pleaded the whole drive as tears streaked down my own face. Is there anything we can do? I don't want to travel for Christmas. What if he dies alone while we are gone? This is the worst year. Please please pleeeease can't we stay with him?
I notified the rescue where we had adopted Jack in case they needed to do anything internally about it (bleaching etc) and the rescuer thanked us for loving him and mentioned I could check out a support network which had seen some success in using a newly researched experimental protocol in getting some cats through FIP. I reached out to them, read through the peer-reviewed study out of UC Davis, and spent several hours on the phone, in chat, and talking in person with our regional coordinator and local families who are further along in treating their own FIP cats, who are thriving on the medication.
If we do nothing Jack will definitely die so we've decided to give a try. It entails 84 days of treatment and supportive care (subcutaneous fluids, vitamins, liver support etc). At his current weight, which will hopefully increase while on the meds, his dose will cost $32 per day, plus cost for supportive care and bloodwork rechecks.
It's a hail mary for sure, but it's the holiday season and he's worth it.
Can you help us?
Fundraising has been disabled for our Jack, but if you stumble upon this page and feel like helping, please consider donations to any one of the many FIP treatment fundraisers on this site or more generally over at Zen By Cat.
All our love,
Jack and the Salvatores
-------------------------------------
TL/DR: Jack was diagnosed with wet FIP on 12/17/19, which is considered nearly 100% fatal. We are going for the hail mary experimental antiviral treatment option which has had success in saving FIP kitties in recent years and could use your help.
-------------------------------------
The week of December 8th four month old Jack's belly started to bloat. We joked around, calling him a pregnant goat, and submitted a fecal sample to the vet which we were confident would show he had an easily treated parasite problem since he is still a kitten. But the fecal came back normal and our anxiety started creeping in.
On December 17th we brought him to the vet for an exam, labwork, and x-rays to see what was going on. Our vet gasped and his eyes went wide when he saw the size of Jack's abdomen, said on palpation it felt like fluid, and brought him back for the x-ray. The kids and I went to the waiting room and our vet, who normally would have given us non-critical news there, had us return to the private exam room where he informed us that the x-ray was unreadable because there was so much fluid present and held up a vial of the fluid he had extracted which was the bright yellow typical of FIP. No cure, supportive care, compassion, I'm so sorry.
We had him send out the fluid and bloodwork anyways for hopeful confirmation or refutal and I attempted to hold it together enough so that I could pay the bill and get everyone bundled into the car to return home. My nine year old sobbed and pleaded the whole drive as tears streaked down my own face. Is there anything we can do? I don't want to travel for Christmas. What if he dies alone while we are gone? This is the worst year. Please please pleeeease can't we stay with him?
I notified the rescue where we had adopted Jack in case they needed to do anything internally about it (bleaching etc) and the rescuer thanked us for loving him and mentioned I could check out a support network which had seen some success in using a newly researched experimental protocol in getting some cats through FIP. I reached out to them, read through the peer-reviewed study out of UC Davis, and spent several hours on the phone, in chat, and talking in person with our regional coordinator and local families who are further along in treating their own FIP cats, who are thriving on the medication.
If we do nothing Jack will definitely die so we've decided to give a try. It entails 84 days of treatment and supportive care (subcutaneous fluids, vitamins, liver support etc). At his current weight, which will hopefully increase while on the meds, his dose will cost $32 per day, plus cost for supportive care and bloodwork rechecks.
It's a hail mary for sure, but it's the holiday season and he's worth it.
Can you help us?
Organizer
Stephanie Piantedosi-Salvatore
Organizer
Los Angeles, CA
