Our feisty baby Milky Way needs your help! About 2 weeks ago Milky started being less playful and sassy. By that weekend he stopped showing interest in his food and by Sunday night he felt like he was burning up. He hadn't moved from the couch and his siblings were starting to avoid him. I noticed he was wobbly on his feet when trying to move around. I brought him to the vet Monday, March 3rd, not knowing if he would be coming home with me. He had bloodwork done and a physical exam; then the vet confirmed her suspicion was the same as mine...Milky Way was presenting with FIP.
FIP, feline infectious peritonitis, occurs when a cat has an auto immune response to a mutation of the feline coronavirus. FIP has been a fatal diagnosis for cats until just recently. Unfortunately, I am all to familiar with this. Those who knew me 10 years ago may remember my very first (not family owned) pet Charlie. My poor Charlie was diagnosed and suffered from FIP, until he lost the fight in 2016. I vowed I would never watch that happen to one of my babies again.
There is a treatment being used for FIP that is a series of injections over at least 84 days. Milky Way began treatment on March 5. He has been fever free since March 6 and has started to gain his appetite back! He lost quite a bit of weight and is very slowly starting to put it back on. He is back to his feisty self but needs to take extra nap breaks.
We will be continuing with the injections for the full 84 days. Milky Way will require bloodwork every 3-4 weeks during treatment and bloodwork a couple times during the post-treatment observation period. Between the cost of medications, supplies, vet visits, supportive treatments (fluids, appetite stimulants, high calorie supplements) and lab work we could really use some support!
To date we have put out $1400 for the initial diagnosis visit/lab work and his first 2 weeks of meds. The remaining medication cost is estimated $500 and next 3 rounds of bloodwork estimated $750.
If you can help in any way it would mean the world to us!