Questions about GS-441 treatment for FIP

Antonio65

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I have a few question for all those who have gone down the route of GS-441 for treating FIP in cats.
  • As far as I know, the dosage of the drug must be adjusted according to the cat's weight, and because the therapy is very long, weighing regularly the cat is key to make sure the cat is receiving the right dose of drug. Is that true?
    If yes, is the formula to calculate the right dose this one? GS(ml) = 5mg x cat's weight(kg) / GS concentration(mg/ml) . In the case of the GS-441, the concentration is 15 mg/ml, is that right? For instance, a 3 kg cat needs 1ml of GS a day?
  • Has the time of the injection to be strictly observed, that is if I begin with the injections at noon, this time must be the same (more or less) till the end?
  • A new protocol seems to be in use lately. Instead of daily injections for at least 84 days in a row, the new protocol says 4 daily injections, then one day off, then injection, then two days off, then injection, then three days off, then injection, then four days off, and so on, for 81 or 94 days (15 or 16 shots). Is it right?
  • Someone says that the treatment is injections at the beginning, then the GS can be given orally, but I haven't found any article about this. Can you tell is this is true?
  • Where can the drug be purchased, and how can one be sure that the drug is the real thing and not just water? Are there "safe channels" for purchasing it? I have seen that there's a FB group called FIP Warriors, but to get access to those resources one needs to have FB, that I don't have.
  • The Curefip website has vials of different concentrations, but they are all 7 ml. I've been told there are 100ml vials available, but I can't find them. Does anybody know anything about this?
  • Are there different kinds of GS or other drugs for treating FIP?
  • Do you know Mutian? It's way more expensive. Does it follow the same new protocol?
Thanks, any comment or suggestion or experience are welcome!
 

kittenmittens84

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1. Dosage depends not only on the cat’s weight but also the type of FIP. If I were you I would join FIP Warriors 5.0 on FB and ask them about dosing questions.

2. The time should be about the same, but if you need to move the injections they recommend moving them earlier by a little each day. So if you want to switch to mornings, do noon one day, then 11 am, then 10 am, etc.

3. I have no idea. Again, see FIP Warriors 5.0

4. This is what we did,2 months of shots and one month of pills. It wasn’t a specific recommendation but we had to travel for a few days and I didn’t want someone else to have to give him shots.

5. Sign up for a FB account. You don’t have to use it for anything else, just sign up and join the group.

6. Not sure

7. There are different brands of GS made by different manufacturers, yes.

8. Yes mutian is by far the most expensive (it’s like 2-3 times more than other brands.) They offer a guarantee that if your cat isn’t cured the first time they will pay for the second round for you, but the “guarantee” is very restrictive and has a ton of rules and doesn’t cover a lot of cats. I’ve also heard of people having trouble actually getting them to honor it. Personally for me it wouldn’t be worth it because of how much more expensive it is, and the fact that other brands make pills now.
 
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Antonio65

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Have you at least looked at the FIP Warriors web site (FIP Warriors) to see if any of your questions might be answered there?
Yes FeebysOwner FeebysOwner , I had a look at that website prior to posting my message, and that's the reason why I asked here. I could get in touch with them, through the contact page, but I thought to ask TCS members in order to have more points of view.

Sorry, if this is a dumb question, but FB is not available to you to join?
Yes, it is available of course, but I do not have an account, and I wouldn't like to have one, I don't like FB at all :)
 
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Antonio65

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1. Dosage depends not only on the cat’s weight but also the type of FIP. If I were you I would join FIP Warriors 5.0 on FB and ask them about dosing questions.
Yes, it depends on the type of FIP, my example was for a wet FIP. I do not have a FB account, I don't like that thing.

3. I have no idea. Again, see FIP Warriors 5.0
I'm asking because a cat at the local shelter is being treated this way, she's halfway through the course, and it seems it's working. Previously we had treated another cat with daily injections, he was OK till the end of the therapy (95 days), but he got worse and died a month after the end of it.
I could create a FB account, of course, but I don't think I'm able to manage such a social media, I am far from this kind of things :lol:

4. This is what we did,2 months of shots and one month of pills. It wasn’t a specific recommendation but we had to travel for a few days and I didn’t want someone else to have to give him shots.
What we've been told is that the same fluid used for the injections can be used orally, the vet and other people who are helping this cat never mentioned the pills.

Another cat had started the therapy about ten days ago, he was given four shots in four days in a row, then the vet paused a day, and this was the day when he got seriously worse, and he died the next morning, though we don't think the FIP was the direct cause of the death.

Thanks!
 

gilmargl

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I can't answer your questions but ........ Although vets here in Germany are not allowed to use or sell these drugs there is nothing to stop them helping us use them and monitor the cat's progress. At the moment one of our members is treating (which simply means giving the injections to) one cat - but frequency, dosage and medical supervision is at the discetion of a vet.
Because of all the uncertainties, I would strongly advise you to find a vet willing to supervise treatment.
Good luck!
 
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Antonio65

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I can't answer your questions but ........ Although vets here in Germany are not allowed to use or sell these drugs there is nothing to stop them helping us use them and monitor the cat's progress. At the moment one of our members is treating (which simply means giving the injections to) one cat - but frequency, dosage and medical supervision is at the discetion of a vet.
Because of all the uncertainties, I would strongly advise you to find a vet willing to supervise treatment.
Good luck!
Same here.
Vets are not allowed to use or sell these drugs, they can't even have it in their pockets during business hour.
The cat we are treating is receiving her GS meds through a network of volunteers who are able to purchase some vials in bundle through crowdfunding.
The vet is supervising/giving the therapy (out of the practice), but most of the info come from people who are using it on several cats in different shelters or homes, so it seems that the volunteers have more experience than the vets have. As a matter of fact, the trials for these drugs are being made "on the field".
The first cat we treated had daily injections, as per other volunteers/vet's advice.
This second cat is receiving the med under a different protocol, which I haven't found anything about on the web.
 

kittenmittens84

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Wait what? No, definitely do not give the liquid medication meant for subcutaneous injections to a cat orally. It’s not made for that, and it’s also very acidic. If you want an oral form of GS you’ll need to purchase it in pill form.
I get that you don’t have or want a Facebook account but if you’re truly curious about some of these answers that people here can’t help you with I’m sorry to say that FB is basically the only place all of that information is collected in one place. Like you said it’s currently much more of a tribal knowledge gained through experience thing rather than official protocols, so for now you have to go to the source to get accurate information.

Please don’t give your cat subQ medications by mouth or do modified medication regimes involving skipping or doubling days. The whole reason for giving the medication at the same time every day is to keep the level’s of GS in the cat’s body as consistent as possible - skipping a day defeats that goal and could lead to drug resistance.
 
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Antonio65

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Wait what? No, definitely do not give the liquid medication meant for subcutaneous injections to a cat orally. It’s not made for that, and it’s also very acidic. If you want an oral form of GS you’ll need to purchase it in pill form.
[...]
Please don’t give your cat subQ medications by mouth or do modified medication regimes involving skipping or doubling days. The whole reason for giving the medication at the same time every day is to keep the level’s of GS in the cat’s body as consistent as possible - skipping a day defeats that goal and could lead to drug resistance.
Both of the above have been advised by the vet who is following a sick cat at the shelter. That cat isn't under my direct control, that is she's under the responsibility of the shelter people and the vet. The cat is receiving the GS on distant days (the gap increases by one day after each injection, which I found weird), and she's more than halfway her course. She's very fine and has gained much weight.

I learned about these weird procedures from the vet, and these sounded very strange to me, but the vet said all the info were coming from the rescue group who is providing the medicine and are in regular touch with the FIP Warriors Group and the manufacturer.
If all of the above is true and certified/approved I don't know, that's why I was asking here.
The only two cats under my responsibility were the two cats who died. One was Matisse, who died last August after 95 days of continuous subQ therapy, the other was his brother Leo, who died on day 6 from the beginning of the therapy, though the causes of the death aren't clearly known.

I get that you don’t have or want a Facebook account but if you’re truly curious about some of these answers that people here can’t help you with I’m sorry to say that FB is basically the only place all of that information is collected in one place. Like you said it’s currently much more of a tribal knowledge gained through experience thing rather than official protocols, so for now you have to go to the source to get accurate information.
So I guess that getting info from the manufacturer is the best way, though one may also think that are biased and would tell me that daily injections are the only recommended protocol because this way they can make more money.

Fortunately, at the moment I do not have cats who need this therapy, but it would be helpful to know more just in case.
 
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