Please help Milly beat the coronavirus

Hi everyone,
Semi-long read but please take the time 

Now I know there are cat people, and there are dog people and there are people who think I am insane for even doing this but for all of my animal lovers out there who couldn’t imagine a day without their fur baby, I ask you for your help.

I’ll never forget the first time I saw this 6 month old kitten, the only one to really brush up and ask for my attention. I immediately fell in love and adopted my sweet Milly girl back in October from the animal resource center in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania. My Milly girl has brought so much happiness into my life. So much happiness that I wanted to thank her...so I adopted her old foster-housemate Tipper a month later! We have been one big happy family the last few months. Milly loves to climb walls, jump on the fridge and do the occasional somersault.  You can typically find these two wrestling or slapping me in the face at 5am for some breakfast (They REALLY take the whole “most important meal of the day” thing seriously). Needless to say, there is never a dull moment in my home. 

The last two photos of Milly were taken today at the vet.I woke up this morning to a very lethargic kitty. Instead of patting my face to wake me up as she does every morning, she was curled up sleeping on the hardwood floor. Instead of racing me down the stairs for breakfast, she swayed side to side down the hall way trying to get to me, instead of chowing down as she typically does she just stared blankly at her food. Now Milly’s appetite has slowly declined over the last two months as her playfulness did, but I didn’t think much of it until today.  When I came home for lunch and saw my normally bright-eyed and bushy-tailed kitty, boogery-eyed and sleepy, I knew something was wrong. 

I took my baby girl to the vet where they ran bloodwork to find that she is EXTREMELY anemic. My sweet Milly’s  red blood cell count isat 19%, where a healthy cat should be in the 30.3-52.3% range. We found out that Milly has an autoimmune disease. After further research, we believe Milly has FIP—which is a deadly viral infection that is caused by a strain of the FELINE CORONAVIRUS that less than 1% contract.

Currently there is no FDA approved medication or cure to treat it.  However, an antiviral drug had been used in trials at UC Davis where the trial team conducted in-house trials of therapies for FIP with great success. Today this same medication is being used very successfully in other trials to treat and cure FIP cats!! The downside is the drug is very expensive, being that it is not FDA approved. FDA approval requires extensive testing and trials before it is approved. 

After contacting Milly’s fostermom, I learned that Milly’s blood brother had also been diagnosed with FIP. He was treated with this drugand made a full recovery! This give me so much hope everyone, you don’t understand! The only other option is to let Milly die a very painful death within the next week or put my sweet girl down. Both of those I refuse to let happen.

Being a recent college graduate (yes, I’m going to play the student loans card) and also just a young adult starting out in life, the cost to continue the 12 week treatment is overwhelming. 

I sit here writing this at 10 at night during my second emergency vet appointment of the day, waiting for Milly to get a life saving blood transfusion and start her 12 week long medication. I am embarrassed to be asking my friends, family and strangers of the internet for help but the fact of the matter is, I simply cannot save Milly’s life on my own. 

If Milly is able to get this medication (truthfully, If I am able to afford it), she will live a long happy life and maybe finally beat her brother Tipper in a wrestling match—to which, I promise to make them little wrestling outfits and put it on YouTube upon Milly’s recovery.

Milly needs this life saving medication for any chance of survival and additionally her survival would bring us closer to FDA approval of the drug. Once the drug is approved it will drop in price and be available for vets to dispense to desperate families whose pet develops this horrible disease.

I know! I totally got suckered into being one of those (dare I say it) CRAZY CAT LADIES who will do anything for their fur baby. But please, help me keep the light of my life alive.  Any donation is appreciated, as are positive thoughts and prayers.

Thank you for your kindness in advance 

your friends,
Abby and Milly