Support Maverick’s fight against FIP

Hello Everyone, my wife and I need your help. One of our worst fears came true on January 9th, 2022, a snowy and icy day. When we woke up, I sat up in bed and looked at my feet, our 8 month old kitten Maverick was laying on the floor stiff, staring off into space. Upon picking him up we knew he was breathing but his jaw was locked. Immediately we called the vets and we got to work getting the inch of ice off the car just enough to be able to drive as safely as we could to make the 45 minute drive to our vet office. Once we got there, they immediately took Maverick in, he’s been a regular at our vets since he was about 5 weeks old. Mav was brought into our lives at 4 weeks old when a friend helped to rescue him off the side of the road. Upon him being found, it was obvious he had health issues, including a double eye infection and a severe upper respiratory infection. One week later we took the leap and brought Mav into our home for good. Maverick has been a fighter since day one. Unfortunately, he has had many ups and downs health wise during his short 8 months on Earth.

When the vet came out to tell us what was going on with Mav, we could have never prepared ourselves for what she had said. There were a few things that the vet brought to our attention, but the one that she was leaning towards the most was FIP. Feline infectious peritonitis, a viral disease in cats caused by certain strains of a virus called the feline coronavirus. Most strains of feline coronavirus are found in the gastrointestinal tract and do not cause significant disease, in fact most cats are exposed to this when they are very young and can fight it off and it causes no issues. Some cats, in Maverick’s case, the strain mutates into FIP. FIP usually wont pop up right away, meaning a lot of cats seem like they are in perfect health until something goes terribly wrong. Up until a few years ago FIP has been known to be 100% fatal which lead our vet to encourge euthanizing our beloved Mav. We both knew in our hearts it was not his time to go so the vet gave us a couple minutes to talk our options over. Fortunately, after just a few clicks on Google we found a whole community of FIP survivors and their families. Surprisingly FIP is more common than you think it is. There has been research for the last few years focusing in on a medication that will help cats, like Mav, recover from FIP.

With this knowledge we asked the vet to give our boy a shot of prednisone and fluids for the day and that we would pick him up before they closed.

The rest of the day consisted of talking to some of the most amazing people who have experienced owning a cat with FIP who helped us get this medication as it is not FDA approved yet. When we picked Mav up, our vets also gave us an antiviral, but things were still not looking too good for Mav... but we had hope.

We began administrating this medication that same night, and within an hour, he was already walking and eating. Over the last three days we have seen Maverick slowly, but surely get back to his playful self. He has the zoomies, he's playing, climbing on cat trees, and eating plenty of food. He has always struggled gaining weight, so the increase in appetite has been a miracle for us. Unfortunately, this is going to be a long, tiring, and expensive process but for Maverick we will do anything. We have been there every day since he was 5 weeks old.

For the next 84 days we will be needing to administer this medication, and then 84 days after that he will, hopefully, be in remission.

Although this medication will be difficult for us to afford, we will do anything for our animals. We have poured our whole life into saving animals. Whether it be taking in senior dogs so they are comfortable, or taking in cats that need more help health wise than most can do, or are willing to do. We have strived to keep every animal in our home, warm, loved, happy and healthy - no matter what it took. Unfortunately I have not been able to work full time, and at times not at all, due to a car accident. This has lead to us not having much extra income, but we always find a way for our animals.

Although we have had a few sleepless nights this week, full of worries, monitoring, and of course taking in every bit of information we could... we can say we are seeing the positive effects of this medication and we are seeing that our Maverick is himself again 90% of the time. He is a rambunctious, sassy, and energetic little kitten that has always been a fighter who just needed someone to fight beside him, and we are going to every step of the way. Although we know this may end in heartbreak, we will try our hardest, and we can tell Mav will as well. We are praying everyday that Maverick will make a full recovery after the full 168 days are up. With that being said if you can, please donate towards the costs of his medications and monthly bloodwork visits. If you are unable to donate at this time, please share to get the word out and send us all your love and support.

Please help us save our boy, Maverick.