Kitten sick for over 2 weeks, no definitive answers from vets

Update: The vet suggested that we give her some vitamins that will strengthen her and put some weight on her, then in one week we will do another round of blood tests. As of right now, she is too weak and small for us to take more blood.
Her condition remains the same, she still has a consistent fever and she is mostly sleeping during the day. However, she still has an appetite and has put on 0.5lbs in the past week. We are very happy that she has put some weight on and we hope she can continue to do so, even though her progress is slow. 

Again, thank you everyone for your responses, they keep me in good spirits. You all have no idea what it means to me to have this support. 

Omega interferon is an expensive treatment but there seems to be great progress being made with this drug. Showing good results for kitties with the dry form. Early administration is best. http://www.catvirus.com/treatment.htm
Get as many answers as possible to save your baby. I read vit C & B complex is good. Please keep us informed.

V C & B complex very good for immune system. Keep her stress levels down as this makes the mutation duplicate faster. Do research on Omega interferon it's a new treatment starting to get traction and great results for the dry form but you can't wait till she's too sick. I hope you can save her, my Olive didn't have a chance with the wet form.

INMEMORYOFOLIVE said:

V C & B complex very good for immune system. Keep her stress levels down as this makes the mutation duplicate faster. Do research on Omega interferon it's a new treatment starting to get traction and great results for the dry form but you can't wait till she's too sick. I hope you can save her, my Olive didn't have a chance with the wet form.

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Thank you, I will look into it right away!

Red Top Rescue said:

 
I had one rescue cat with a sealed inner eyelid like that, and she DID regain vsion when the eyelid was surgically opened.  It was a minr producedure and the vet said the sooner it is done, the more likely shewould be to have sight in the eye.  If you leave it too long, they can be blind just because the eye has not learned to see. 

You mentioned a blood test for FIP, but there is no definitive blood test for it.   There is a blood test for FIV but not FIP.  FIP is a disease caused by mutation of the feline corona virus. 

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Interesting, thanks for your insight. When we first got her we wanted to operate on her eye right away, but the vets suggested to wait till she was "full grown". At the time she was filled with energy and probably would have made a recovery, but right now I don't think operating on her is the best option right now. Nonetheless I will ask my new vet what he says. 

Solomonar said:

 
Some more lines. Sorry for posting again - My time is segmented in small bits.

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It looks to me that the vet adopted a conservative approach, to first address what is causing the most problematic impact and then look for things like FIP. 

Small or big? That is very subjective. My tomcat is perceived by my vet as being "big" (at 8 months old) but for me looks ... small. I guess that I still have in mind his picture from the moment I brought him home, as kitten.

Body Temperature? You said "high consistent fever" - there are loooots of factor influencing the meaurements: I have one termometer which is set to 35.5 degrees as a normal temperature. So, anytime I get 36.7 I have to add 1 and start worrying.

Once I measured the temperature of my cat twice in a minute - I got some 0.2 degrees difference. 

When I measure my blood pressure I use to take series of 10 measurements and compute average value (sometimes after eliminating the lowest and the highest value). Sill, this is not entirely consistent, since I would have compute the mediane and not the average. 

In brief, while body temperature is an useful guide concerning infections and inflamatory processes, myself I am not so confident in the relevance of my values, unless most error origins are spotted and the difference is high enough, compared to error margins.

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How is your kitty doing now?

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I've updated her status below, she is more or less doing the same. I agree it can be difficult to measure the temperature, I always check twice to make sure. Oftentimes the temperature does change .2 up or down.  Right now we have resorted to making sure she stays in cool areas, because her temperature always rises when she cuddles up next to us (which she has been doing a lot lately, which we are happy about). 

Best wishes for the kitty!

An informed man is a powerful man and you are very careful. 

Keep going! 

Great news! Hopefully she just gets better and better! 

How is your Beautiful baby girl doing? We are all praying for her full recovery!

Hey everyone, another update. I hope these updates help when other people experience unexplained illnesses, which is why I will keep posting.

Leia started hiding again and stopped eating, so we took her back to the vet. The vet checked her vitals: she no longer has a fever! She also was not dehydrated anymore. He told us to stop giving her tonic, which we have been giving her for the past 10 days and had all the vitamins she needed to stay alive. He told us to encourage her to eat normal food.  He believes that her body started to rely too much on the tonic, which is why she is refusing real food. The tonic is really fantastic but has no calories, which is the first thing we need to focus on from now on. He believes her recent weakness is because she is still struggling to gain weight. 
He gave her a shot to stimulate her appetite, and we took her home. She ate right away! 
The rest of the night, she also seemed to be doing much better.
She even played with her favourite toy: a ping pong ball she likes to chase around the living room. That was the first time I have seen her run in a long time!

It's been like this for the past week, ups and downs. Some days she is exploring and plays, some days she is weak and sick. After yesterday, however, I'm hopeful she will pull through.
 

Here is the most recent picture of her, taken a couple days ago. She is about 7 1/2 months old, almost 8 months. She still looks like a 2-month old kitten, but has a full set of adult-sized teeth. We often hear them rubbing together when she eats..and I wonder sometimes if that bothers her. 

Thanks for the update.  Glad the appetite stimulant worked. 

So happy to hear she is fighting this! She's such a strong girl and a trooper. Thank you for the update, it puts my heart at ease knowing she's gaining ground. Can you tell me what the tonic is and how you came about it?

INMEMORYOFOLIVE said:

So happy to hear she is fighting this! She's such a strong girl and a trooper. Thank you for the update, it puts my heart at ease knowing she's gaining ground. Can you tell me what the tonic is and how you came about it?

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I'm not sure what it is called in English, but this is the tonic's website (it is in German):
https://www.vetena.de/ReConvales-Tonicum-Hund-und-Katze.html?&gclid=CNPGmtj4lNICFaeT7QodXm4Ozw

As far as I know, I think the company that produces this is called 'Alfavet', and it is a German company. 

How is sweet Leia doing now?

nevroth said:

 
How is sweet Leia doing now?

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Hey, thanks for asking
Another update:

We took Leia back to the vet on Monday. Although she's been much better the past two weeks (running around and playing, no fever), she has slowly stopped eating. We assume it is because we had to sprinkle some medicine in her food that makes her body absorb food better (which is why she is having trouble gaining weight). She absolutely hates it, and I don't blame her. It has a very strong flavour and it smells awful. We stopped putting it on her food but she still doesn't want to eat. I have literally tried every single great-quality cat food for her [that exists in Germany], wet and dry. She seems to nibble at it, then walks away and never eats more than a teaspoon.  

I'm going to the store later today to grab some cheap cat food-- I've read some picky cats actually prefer that, so lets see if she likes it. I've also placed expensive international orders to get some freeze-dried cat food from the USA, because Germany does not have that many options. Unfortunately I'll have to wait a week or two until it arrives.

For those wondering what I ordered internationally: I went through a "picky cat" situation with my older cat, he rejected everything just like Leia. At the time I was living in San Francisco and had access to Primal Freeze Dried, Honest Kitchen and Stella & Chewy cat food. Those brands saved his life -- he goes crazy for freeze dried. I wish they sold their products in Germany

INMEMORYOFOLIVE said:

Google information on FIP, there are some great researches going on and they are getting closer to having better treatments. Seems like there are more treatment options for dry FIP then wet.

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We are on FIP Fighters on Facebook.  My 7 month old Leonard has FIP. We are trying Polyprenyl Immunostimulant.  It is ultra pricey with limted  success but at least we are trying. Aelu, do have any labs you can post? And go over to FIP Fighters. A lot of good info and good people.  

How is Leia doing?

aelu
I'm so very sorry for your loss. Allowing Leia to leave you is one of the most difficult decisions we have to make.

Please know she did not fear the end. She knew she was loved. Her pain is gone, and yours is just beginning.

She has left her paw prints on your heart, but will live on in your memories. Take the time you need to grieve this loss.

I allowed my Kiki to cross the bridge only 10 weeks ago, and I still have moments I look for her to come to me.