Cat Day

Last week, our new cat, Tater, was diagnosed with Feline Infectious Peritonitis. Almost all cats are exposed to the feline coronavirus (essentially a "cat cold") over time, but only a few (often young male kittens) have the genetic makeup and immune system peculiarities that allow it to mutate into FIP.

At first we noticed his lethargy and fluid-heavy abdomen, which is when we took him to the vet to get tested. In hindsight, he had gone from being the more playful cat after adoption to spending most of his time sleeping. While waiting for lab tests to come back, he deteriorated dramatically, not wanting to move and spending a day sleeping in the litter box.

FIP is always fatal without treatment, but thankfully there is a drug that just became legally available in the US 6 months ago. It's comparable to the use of Remdesivir to treat COVID-19. After wading through an insane amount of misinformation on the Internet (from foreign purveyors of low-quality drug replacements and the various online forums that get kickbacks for pushing those drugs on worried cat owners), we were able to get a vet prescription for the legal version and had it overnighted from New Jersey.

After just 2 days (of 84), Tater was noticeably improved, following us around, sleeping on our bed, and purring again. Last night, he played with toys and tried to meow (he's been mute the whole time we've had him). We have to take him in weekly to weigh him and adjust his dosage, and then we'll probably need to get his fluid drained at some point. However, if the FIP doesn't reoccur after 84 days, he'll go on to live a perfectly normal life.

I've been taking daily pictures of Tater to get a feel for whether the fluid is continuing to accumulate (letter opener for scale). Here he looks like Booty during her FAT stage(s), even though he's just 9 months old and 7 pounds.

So far, so good!