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- Mar 24, 2014
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I decided to start this page to help others with our problem. My mother (who does tireless work for Domino's House, a cat rescue league) insisted that I share my story so that others could possibly benefit from our story. So here it goes.
Jerry is our "son". He is approximately 10 years old and we adopted him from the humane society. In August, he came down with a severe gastro. problem. He was at the vet for several days, on multiple medications, underwent an ultrasound and ultimately discharged. From August to January he lost 6 pounds, which was 1/3 of his body weight. Due to diarrhea, we brought him back to our doctor in January. It has been downhill ever since. He has been on multiple antibiotics, too many to count and steroids, and nothing worked. He underwent another ultrasound and has pancreatitis. Bottom line is our doctors diagnosed him with FIP. He is no longer the same chatty, beautiful, wonderful cat we had a year ago, or even 6 months ago. Our doctor looked depleted. He knew this was a death sentence. His fevers can get as high as 105, which is why most cats with FIP die. At that point their organs shut down. Each time this happened we ran him to the vet and they kept the fever under control.
Then...looking on the internet I found something called Polyprenyl Immunostimulant (PI for short). My vet had never heard of it and consulted with an internist who expressed an interest in using the same thing. The problem..It cost about $400.00 every 2 1/2 weeks and is very new to the market. I believe it has only been on the market for about a year. My boyfriend and I are lucky and we can afford it so we are trying. He has had three doses and seems better now than last week. He is certainly not worse. I decided to blog on this subject to give people an understanding of this "medication". My understanding is that some cats have responded, but not all. It seems it only works with the Non-effusive type of FIP (there is wet and dry forms). Luckily we think Jerry has the dry form. This medication is actually not for the treatment of FIP (there is no clear cut treatment), but suggests it can help with the disease. This needs to be caught early, which we think it was. This seems similar to treatment for human AIDS, where their immune system needs to be boosted. So for now, he is tapering off his steroids, finishing up the last round of antibiotics and our hope is that this PI works. I will try and keep up with this site to let people know the outcome. We have had a hard 8 months with our "son". We have not yet felt it was time to put him to sleep as he does not appear to be in pain. We are in love with this cat and if my experience can help others or educate them, I want to do it. I'll keep everyone posted and thank you for listening to my story.
Jerry is our "son". He is approximately 10 years old and we adopted him from the humane society. In August, he came down with a severe gastro. problem. He was at the vet for several days, on multiple medications, underwent an ultrasound and ultimately discharged. From August to January he lost 6 pounds, which was 1/3 of his body weight. Due to diarrhea, we brought him back to our doctor in January. It has been downhill ever since. He has been on multiple antibiotics, too many to count and steroids, and nothing worked. He underwent another ultrasound and has pancreatitis. Bottom line is our doctors diagnosed him with FIP. He is no longer the same chatty, beautiful, wonderful cat we had a year ago, or even 6 months ago. Our doctor looked depleted. He knew this was a death sentence. His fevers can get as high as 105, which is why most cats with FIP die. At that point their organs shut down. Each time this happened we ran him to the vet and they kept the fever under control.
Then...looking on the internet I found something called Polyprenyl Immunostimulant (PI for short). My vet had never heard of it and consulted with an internist who expressed an interest in using the same thing. The problem..It cost about $400.00 every 2 1/2 weeks and is very new to the market. I believe it has only been on the market for about a year. My boyfriend and I are lucky and we can afford it so we are trying. He has had three doses and seems better now than last week. He is certainly not worse. I decided to blog on this subject to give people an understanding of this "medication". My understanding is that some cats have responded, but not all. It seems it only works with the Non-effusive type of FIP (there is wet and dry forms). Luckily we think Jerry has the dry form. This medication is actually not for the treatment of FIP (there is no clear cut treatment), but suggests it can help with the disease. This needs to be caught early, which we think it was. This seems similar to treatment for human AIDS, where their immune system needs to be boosted. So for now, he is tapering off his steroids, finishing up the last round of antibiotics and our hope is that this PI works. I will try and keep up with this site to let people know the outcome. We have had a hard 8 months with our "son". We have not yet felt it was time to put him to sleep as he does not appear to be in pain. We are in love with this cat and if my experience can help others or educate them, I want to do it. I'll keep everyone posted and thank you for listening to my story.
