Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Today Effie is 9 months old. I celebrated by boiling her a chicken thigh. Well really it was to get her to eat something, and she had a few bites, so that's good. She's lost over a pound in a little over a month. It was my first time cooking meat and I managed to not touch it at any point.

We're still waiting on the results. If it is FIP there are some options that could extend her life a little, maybe (like in rare cases cats have lived for a year) but one of them that is supposed to work the best has to be imported from the UK because for whatever reason the FDA hasn't approved it, and that can be a long process, and it is usually a fast disease. We're waiting for the official results to have the real options talk but I've been doing a lot of reading. This sucks so much.

I'm so sorry strawberryrock, such a horrible time for you all <3

hiya, strawberryrock. i had been away from the boards for a bit and read up on everything; i wanted to say that i'm sorry things suck right now.

that was super awesome of you to cook up something special for Effie. a few bites is good! our pup julie finished going through 4 rounds of chemotherapy a few weeks ago and i would cook chicken for her too, even though there were days when she didn't want to eat anything. you are also awesome for doing what you're doing. people thought we were nuts for treating julie's thyroid cancer like we did (surgery, chemotherapy, specialists, etc.), and it makes me happyfaced knowing there are other people in the world who do what everyone should do for their companion animals.

i chipped in a bit to help you all out a little and i just wanted you and Effie to know that i'm sending you both lots of positive, healing thoughts.

big hugs to you and Effie. <3

Urgh, this is so horrible. I am so so sorry you are going through this.

Mat.

Thanks everyone for the emotional and financial support! You guys are so amazing.

By the way, if anyone else has a sick cat they are trying to get to eat, I recommend Fancy Feast Appetizers. Stupid name, stupid brand (Effie's first taste of anything from a grocery store), technically an unfortified wet treat and not a food, stupid expensive for a tiny amount, but they are apparently delicious and don't have any scary byproducts or vague "animal" ingredients.

Yeah, when my father-in-law's cat was dying from a liver mass, we gave him whole cans of wet cat food (Avoderm, which is just meat chunks).

She likes the Avoderm chunky grain-free cans ok (she'll lick them for a bit, anyway), but won't eat pate foods at all. Those Fancy Feast appetizers are like crack, though. I guess by that I mean that she'll actually spend a few minutes eating them, though they come in 2 oz containers and it's not like she's been coming close to finishing that off. At least she's eating something though.

She still has a fever, is down to 6.8 pounds (she was 8.1 6 weeks ago), and we're still waiting on test results. Basically I hate everything. Also I'm really glad the PPK is a safe place to rant about this stuff since I am trying at some points to be able to talk to my friends about other things.

I'm glad you found something that she is excited about eating. I hope you get a phone call soon, and I hope moreso that it is good news accompanied with a treatment plan. And most of all I hope she gains weight and her fever goes down.

I'm so sorry, strawberryrock. My thoughts are with you and Effie, this can't be even remotely easy for you.

I was just thinking of you and Effie today. Hope you're both holding up okay and enjoying your time together.

So we are still waiting on official test results (and we have no idea why they are taking so long--my vet is calling the lab every day), but Effie started on prednisolone yesterday and it seems like it has helped her appetite a little bit, and hopefully it will pick up more. I've brought her to the vet for subcutaneous fluids twice in the past few days because she hasn't been drinking or eating enough wet food to be properly hydrated. Today I bought a water fountain and she actually drank some water, so that's exciting. If she's still not getting hydrated enough I guess I'm learning how to administer subcutaneous fluids myself which terrifies me, but the other option is spending $45 every other day to have a nurse do it. I'm looking into an experimental medicine called Polyprenyl Immunostimulant but we need to get the biopsy results back first. I need to do some strict budgeting because that is going to be $200 for a five week dose, but if it can improve her quality of life and keep her around longer I think it's worth it. Right now she seems pretty depressed, but hopefully the prednisolone will help and the Polyprenyl Immunostimulant will help even more.

Oh and her weight was up .1 pound today from Saturday, so basically we are glad she hasn't lost any more weight in that time.

Steroids are like the cat miracle drug... it wouldn't surprise me at all if you really see them make a difference for her in the next week. And water fountains are great, too... there's something about that splishy-splashy sound that seems to remind cats that they're thirsty. Hopefully between the two you won't have to administer fluids at home, but if you do, you'll do just fine because you'll be doing it for Effie.

Huge hugs to you both. I'm glad you're seeing some improvements, even if they are tiny, and I hope things continue to get better.

My cats are pretty big fans of our water fountain- I'm so glad Effie is liking hers, and big hooray for some weight gain and increased appetite! I'm completely confident you could administer those fluids to Effie, but another option may be to post an ad on craigslist asking if a vet tech would do it for you for $20 each time or something.

So the water fountain has lost its novelty, she's barely eaten today, she seems like she's in pain, and I'm waiting for the vet to call me back. Roller coaster of emotion basically!

I am so sorry strawberryrock. I hope things get better soon.

Effie is sooooooo lucky she's found someone so dedicated to helping her! I hope that she can get a bit of an upswing again. I've done subcu fluids on mammals before and it's pretty easy once you know how. In the meantime, have you tried getting fluids into her with a syringe in her mouth. If you can get the syringe into the corner of her mouth and just gently push it so that a few drops get in there, her swallow reflex should be activated.

Good luck to you and hugs to both of you.

Today Effie and I played outside for the first time. I figure that should be on her bucket list. She has new pain meds and is feeling a lot better, and she explored and chased bugs.







Her coat isn't looking its best (and her butt hair is trimmed off!) but I still think she's cute.

Effie is beautiful. She looks like she had fun. Poor sweetie.

Just got the biopsy results. It's officially FIP. I would have been really surprised if it wasn't though.

Words cannot convey. I'm sorry.

She looks like she had fun outside- those are wonderful pics.

She looks so happy. I'm glad she got to play in the grass. : )

Yikes, I am so sorry strawberryrock. Poor Effie and poor you. It looks like she had a good day, and I hope you have many more.

(((hugs)))) I wish there were words for how rotten this is and how sorry i am that you have to go through this.

You probably have already scoured the internet and read everything, but I thought this article was good:
http://www.2ndchance.info/fip.htm#heading1
I liked this part:
"Learning that your cat has FIP is simply horrible and it devastates most cat owners.

I do not want you to feel guilty because the truth really is that there was absolutely nothing you or your veterinarian could have done to prevent it or predict that it would occur. Letting you know that was my main reason for writing this article.

If you are a typical cat owner, your pet was carrying coronavirus long before he came to you. By the time you saw the first signs of his illness, the battle was already lost and nothing anyone can currently do will prevent its imminent departure from this World. Dealing with sadness like that is hard without a loving support group. Go look for one among people who have had to deal with this or similar tragedies in their lives."

Thanks guys. It sucks so much.

She's starting an appetite stimulant tomorrow, and I'm learning how to do the subcutaneous fluids, and then in a few days we should have experimental Polyprenyl Immunostimulant, so we'll see if that helps.