it's gonna be an excruciatingly long course of antivirals but Kiriona is getting better. She went from vet hospital admission 'just in case' on Wednesday, to circling the drain on thursday, to receiving an emergency infusion Thursday night of medication that only just arrived in time. On Friday she was responding to my voice and purring, on Saturday she was engulfing cat gogurts like her life depended on it (it did) and on Sunday I got to bring her home.
She has many more vet checks, tests and pills ahead of her, and she walks like a drunk sailor in a high wind, but I am so damn grateful that my wee girl survived. Thankyou so much to anyone who commissioned, reblogged or checked in at this time. I know that the world out there sucks and that a cat's life can't be held up against the tidal wave of human misery that looms over us, but saving Kiri made a world of difference to me, and I hope to pay it forward.
Feline Infectious Peritonitis, or FIP, used to be universally deadly and incurable. Thankfully, in the wake of Covid-19, an antiviral treatment was discovered with a 90% success rate - and for once, Australia was at the head of the queue for this treatment, so we could access it.
FIP develops from a mutated strain of feline coronavirus aka cat flu. If your cat comes from a colony, a breeder or is in a multi-cat household, there's a high chance your cat has been exposed to cat flu. FIP is thankfully rare, but it can kill fast and is difficult to accurately diagnose. I was extremely lucky that my vet noticed an abnormality in Kiri's bloodwork after her bout of flu, and asked me to come in for testing. A blood test for FIP doesn't yet exist - the most accurate diagnosis is to biopsy the fluid that collects around vital organs in the 'wet' form of the disease, but which may be minimal in the 'dry' form - BUT you can test for the mutated coronavirus.
Given that Kiri was a) declining quickly and b) displaying symptoms of the 'dry' form of FIP, we decided not to wait for her blood test results or do a biopsy and go straight for the treatment. A starting run of the antiviral infusions was $500 AUD, about the same as a fluid biopsy, and we were extremely lucky that we started when we did.
The whole course of medication will set me back several K. But I'm lucky - I live at home, have a steady part time job and can pay it off in instalments. It's worth it to give Kiri back her kittenhood.
I wanted to share our experience because I want cat-folk to be aware of FIP - of its serious nature, but also of the fact that it IS curable and no longer a death sentence. If your cat displays flu symptoms along with abdominal bloating, bleeding in the eyes, fits, wobbliness or weakness in the hind legs; GET THEM CHECKED. This bastard virus moves fast but the antivirals only take 5-7 days to show a drastic improvement. You still have to do the whole course, but it's worth it. I'm watching Kiri eeping and hunting bugs when a week ago she couldn't stand. I'll never not be grateful for that.
Probably should have known better than to name her after a Locked Tomb character if I didn't want her to try and shuffle off the mortal coil in the most dramatic manner possible...
