FIP

javannalynn

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So yesterday we got the blood test back and found out our foster (who was on the fast track to being our foster fail) has FIP ocular. I have zero knowledge of FIP at this point so I have spent the last few days reading everything in the world I could find and still feel like I've learned nothing. So has anyone treated their cats with the Injections? I have heard both good and bad things about it. Price-wise I think the injections would be our only option but I need some real-life people to let me know how their experience went with the injections? Any other advice is totally appreciated!

Her name is Greybee. She is about 5 months old now. Her brother died on Sept 27. Now we know that was likely also FIP because he had all the symptoms she does he just crashed much faster.
PXL_20201226_211818138.jpg
 

BlackCatOp

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Aww what a cute baby and I’m sorry to hear about the FIP diagnosis. What injections are you referring to? Technically, there is no FDA approved treatment for FIP.
 
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javannalynn

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Furballsmom Furballsmom yeah the fountain was still new and has been cleaned.

BlackCatOp BlackCatOp which is why i have questions about using the GS that is out there. a simple google search directs you to ways to obtain a non-fda approved medication for FIP treatment. I just don't know if i should try these options or if anyone has had success.
 

BlackCatOp

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I have no personal experience with the GS treatment but from I have heard I don’t think I would meet a stranger in an alley to obtain an unknown medication- even if it was my cat’s “only chance.” I think there is just too much risk at being scammed, IMO.

I just wish the drug maker would make it available for us to use in cats. That would stop all of the black market sales and further the health of our felines.

Wish I had more to offer 😔
 

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Hi. I am so sorry to hear about this. There has been a ton of 'conversations' about FIP, and while I am sure you are in no mood to dig through previous posts but I am offering a link to them (see below) nonetheless. I know there has been dialog about 'black market' treatments, so I am hoping if you can find the mental strength to look through these, you might find some additional information.

I also know that dry FIP takes a while longer to create enough havoc to cause a cat's demise - I am guessing that is the version that GreyBee has. I haven't specifically heard of FIP ocular.

Search Results for Query: fip | TheCatSite
 
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javannalynn

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FeebysOwner FeebysOwner From what I have read Ocular means it is affecting the brain and can cause blindness. you can tell because of the clouds in her eyes. that was what made us start thinking it was FIP. she had other symptoms but the cloudy eyes didn't fit anything else.
BlackCatOp BlackCatOp I feel the same way! I am worried someone would just give me rat poison instead of a helpful med. I wish they would just allow it for vet use and might look into options of helping change this for future cats. i mean i did have to jump lots of hoops just to get offered the meds but i am still worried about what could possibly be in the vial and if i spend all this money would it even help!? i feel like asking them they are all going to say yes it is the greatest thing ever! that's why i was looking for people not affiliated with them to give me a real opinion.
 

cat nap

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Just to add to the above, I've read a thread in the S.O.S section of this Site.
Perhaps you can PM the members involved...specifically the thread starter...even though her cat is much older...then you may get first hand experiences, too.
Financial Assistance for FIP Treatment

(From reading the thread, it seems that there are many different outcomes,...so I wouldn't know what the best option would be either.
Preferably the best is to find a Vet that will work with you, ...even if you obtain the injections. )

I, too, wish that this or any type of treatment would become available, and at least an option for cat guardians to try.

(Edit to add: ahh, I see that FeebysOwner FeebysOwner beat me to it.)
Definitely PM the thread starter...and she did say you could ask her questions, too.
 
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Meowmee

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So yesterday we got the blood test back and found out our foster (who was on the fast track to being our foster fail) has FIP ocular. I have zero knowledge of FIP at this point so I have spent the last few days reading everything in the world I could find and still feel like I've learned nothing. So has anyone treated their cats with the Injections? I have heard both good and bad things about it. Price-wise I think the injections would be our only option but I need some real-life people to let me know how their experience went with the injections? Any other advice is totally appreciated!

Her name is Greybee. She is about 5 months old now. Her brother died on Sept 27. Now we know that was likely also FIP because he had all the symptoms she does he just crashed much faster.
View attachment 364658
So sorry about Greybee, she is gorgeous. 💕 There is a facebook group called fip fighters, I recommend subscribing to that and to other fip specific groups where you will find info about new treatments and help. I just read about Mutian as well, but I haven’t read the posts there for a while.
 
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javannalynn

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Meowmee Meowmee I have already found these groups on Facebook and could have the meds in my hands in a matter of 30 minutes but i am worried about it being worth all this. The people in these groups all swear by the meds but I think if they were against it they wouldn't be in the group...
 

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Meowmee Meowmee I have already found these groups on Facebook and could have the meds in my hands in a matter of 30 minutes but i am worried about it being worth all this. The people in these groups all swear by the meds but I think if they were against it they wouldn't be in the group...
I don’t have first hand experience with a cat with fip so I can’t help you decide that. Maybe you can research what the success rates are with these various new treatments? I hope you find something that can help her💕
 

neely

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My heartfelt sympathies go out to you on Greybee's diagnosis. :hugs: We lost a young cat to FIP but it has been 9 years since he passed and some of the research may have changed. I can't offer you any advice regarding the injections but when our cat was diagnosed I did get a second opinion from a Feline Only Specialist affiliated with a University Veterinary Medical School. Unfortunately she confirmed what our vet had already told us but it gave me peace of mind. This may or may not be something you would want to consider. Once again, thinking of you and sending special thoughts to Greybee.🤗
 

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Hi javannalynn javannalynn ,
I'm sorry to read about your kitty with FIP. As you might have learned by now, FIP is a death sentence.
In the last months a few medicines, though unapproved, have been presented. The results from these medicine are contradictory. Some have their cats cured and saved, others didn't get the hoped result.
I belong to the second category. I followed the GS route, but after 14 weeks of treatment, when the cat was responding fine, things went downhill quickly as soon as the treatment ended. It cost a fortune, I have to warn you.

Lately the vet told me that some people had some good results with a medicine for malaria, but it is a medicine that has to be prescribed by the doctors, and it seems they can prescribe that only if you can prove you are going to travel to places where the malaria is endemic. Now, given that the world is locked down due to the coronavirus, it is hard to make the doctor believe it, but someone has managed to have it.
Unfortunately, I have no further details about this medicine, don't know the name or else...
Hopefully someone can help you about this.
 

kittenmittens84

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Poor greybee, I’m sorry. It’s a terrible diagnosis.

My cat Juan was diagnosed with wet FIP at 4 months old and we decided to try GS after reading the results of a trial done by vet researchers at UC Davis. I was skeptical but was able to meet up with someone close to me in person whose cat was doing great on GS which definitely swayed my opinion - originally we decided to buy two weeks’ worth of meds and see if there were any improvements. After literally the second dose he started to eat on his own again for the first time in weeks (I’d been feeding him off my finger) which was extremely encouraging, and after a week on the drug he’d lost his big potbelly almost entirely and was playing like a normal kitten so we finished out the treatment. Our vet hadn’t heard of GS but I brought the info from the UC Davis studies and he agreed to do bloodwork and such if we did decide to try it. When I brought Juan back in after a few weeks of the drug my vet almost cried.

Juan was diagnosed in fall 2019 and has now been healthy and FIP free for more than a year. Recently I brought him to the vet for a check up and he seems to be totally healthy, no lasting impacts from FIP or from taking GS that we could tell. It was expensive and scary and an experimental drug is obviously not for everyone but personally I have no regrets. Juan also was a pretty good candidate for treatment which impacted my decision to try it, he didn’t have any neurological symptoms which can be harder to treat (it requires a higher dose in order for the drug to cross the blood brain barrier) and he was diagnosed relatively soon after we noticed the symptoms. If he’d been sicker I wouldn’t have put him through it.

The most common side effect from the drug seems to be itchiness or skin lesions, more common with the sub Q form but it can happen with the oral one too. A few of the cats in Juan’s treatment group got bad skin sores and had to wear a sweater or shirt to cover them so they could heal, and other ones had no skin issues whatsoever.
 

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Poor greybee, I’m sorry. It’s a terrible diagnosis.

My cat Juan was diagnosed with wet FIP at 4 months old and we decided to try GS after reading the results of a trial done by vet researchers at UC Davis. I was skeptical but was able to meet up with someone close to me in person whose cat was doing great on GS which definitely swayed my opinion - originally we decided to buy two weeks’ worth of meds and see if there were any improvements. After literally the second dose he started to eat on his own again for the first time in weeks (I’d been feeding him off my finger) which was extremely encouraging, and after a week on the drug he’d lost his big potbelly almost entirely and was playing like a normal kitten so we finished out the treatment. Our vet hadn’t heard of GS but I brought the info from the UC Davis studies and he agreed to do bloodwork and such if we did decide to try it. When I brought Juan back in after a few weeks of the drug my vet almost cried.

Juan was diagnosed in fall 2019 and has now been healthy and FIP free for more than a year. Recently I brought him to the vet for a check up and he seems to be totally healthy, no lasting impacts from FIP or from taking GS that we could tell. It was expensive and scary and an experimental drug is obviously not for everyone but personally I have no regrets. Juan also was a pretty good candidate for treatment which impacted my decision to try it, he didn’t have any neurological symptoms which can be harder to treat (it requires a higher dose in order for the drug to cross the blood brain barrier) and he was diagnosed relatively soon after we noticed the symptoms. If he’d been sicker I wouldn’t have put him through it.

The most common side effect from the drug seems to be itchiness or skin lesions, more common with the sub Q form but it can happen with the oral one too. A few of the cats in Juan’s treatment group got bad skin sores and had to wear a sweater or shirt to cover them so they could heal, and other ones had no skin issues whatsoever.
I have a kitten almost 5 months old with possible FIP. I’ve been reading about GS and it gives me a lot of hope. if you don’t mind, which one did you buy and where? Mutian looks like the most expensive and looking at FIPtreatment.com,on the dose calculator there seem to be many brands now.she has a biopsy on Monday but trying to get out ahead of it so I can be prepared with action plan ASAP if it is indeed FIP.
 

kittenmittens84

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I have a kitten almost 5 months old with possible FIP. I’ve been reading about GS and it gives me a lot of hope. if you don’t mind, which one did you buy and where? Mutian looks like the most expensive and looking at FIPtreatment.com,on the dose calculator there seem to be many brands now.she has a biopsy on Monday but trying to get out ahead of it so I can be prepared with action plan ASAP if it is indeed FIP.
We used mutian for part of the time and another brand that I honestly can’t remember the name of now for the rest - mutian is way more expensive than the other options (and tbh I found them a little overbearing to deal with.) I’d go on facebook, search for the group fip warriors 5.0, and join there if you haven’t. They should be able to get you the info you need.
 
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javannalynn

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We decided to try the injections and I was extremely sceptical, to be honest. Tonight we did dose 11. Started on January 1st. She is really doing AMAZING! I am very hopeful that this will continue to go well. I would also recommend speaking to FIP warriors on Facebook that was the path I took and it is MUCH cheaper than going with Mutain. The injections aren't easy and Greybee whines when i inject her but the change is amazing!!! The studies that were done at UC Davis used the injections and that is why i decided to try it. The original picture was taken before we started treatment.

Taken on day 6
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Taken on day 10

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She has ocular FIP so she was completely blind when she started treatment. Today she was chasing a ball around and she could definitely see it. Maybe not clearly but she could TOTALLY see it!
 
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