Please help us treat Fang’s FGESF

Hi, we’re Angel + Zak and we’re raising money to treat our sweet baby boy, Fang. Fang is a beautiful ragdoll who has just turned 3 years old. We’ve had our little Fangle from the day he was born, and we feel like he chose us to be his pawrents. He’s helped us through multiple losses.

He very suddenly became ill in March. He wasn’t eating much and quickly became lethargic. We took him to our local vet and they found what they thought was 3 tumours in his intestines that indicated lymphomas. We brought him home and thought we’d only have a few weeks left with him. We were offered to be referred to a specialist vet for confirmation of this diagnosis and possible treatment options. A couple of nights later he dramatically declined and could barely walk, he was wobbling when he’d try to take a step and he was overshooting/missing all of his jumps. He had a stroke like event that caused us to rush to the vet and been referred for an emergency at the specialist clinic. He was admitted for overnight treatment and various tests to confirm what it was. Even being away from him for a day when he was receiving tests was challenging, it felt like a part of me was missing. All I wanted to do is snuggle him tight. Fang had to stay in the hospital for 2 nights, but we were allowed to visit him in the evening and he already seemed so much better. He was chasing his cat dad around the room and playing! The initial ultrasound, biopsy and blood results showed that his blood proteins were very high, likely causing the stroke like event. They also confirmed 3 lesions in the intestines and bacteria in the mass lesion. At this moment in time they suspected lymphoma or FIP. Upon further testing they mentioned the possibility of FGESF for the first time. Feline gastrointestinal eosinophilic sclerosing fibroplasia is rare inflammatory disease in cats that affects the gastrointestinal tract and associated lymph nodes, causing mass lesions within the stomach or intestines. Fang’s blood markers didn’t point to lymphoma but instead FIP or FGESF. We were given some options that could help diagnose Fang’s condition- undergoing a surgery to test the tissue, an endoscopy, another needle biopsy, or starting him on FIP treatment immediately. Surgery was completely off the plate as one of his blood markers indicated he could have complications from surgery, so we went for the biopsy. He was given antibiotics to reduce the inflammation in his intestines and get rid of the bacteria, and we opted to begin treating FIP just in case this is what he had as the longer a cat goes without medication the worse prognosis can be. We didn’t notice a huge amount of change during this time so we stopped this after 1 week to see how he was. Based on this, and the internal medicine team’s discussion, we were leaning more towards Fang having FGESF. This disease is incredibly rare and newly discovered, but based on studies cats tend to respond well to prednisolone, an immunosuppressant corticosteroid. Fang has been on this medicine for a while now and has been responding well to it.

During his various vet visits and hospitalisation his little brother, Flump, is lonely without him, never leaving my side, which makes it all even more heartbreaking.

The money raised will go towards the excellent but costly care consisting of sedation, ultrasounds of his abdomen, blood testing and medication. We’re now at over £7,000 for the total costs so far for Fang’s treatment and medication. We’re absolutely kicking ourselves for not having insurance, but Fang had always been so healthy so it never really crossed our minds. Each ultrasound + blood test costs £650-£800.

Anything helps whether it’s sharing or donating.

Thank you so much for reading x