Hello everyone,
Here is a glimpse of Pablo’s day!
I sleep in the same room as Pablo, because I like to know what is happening and as I am a light sleeper, if anything happens, I can be there immediately.
So every day, when I open my eyes and Pablo senses that I am awake, he starts chirping and asking for interactions. He is usually thirsty because he has urinary kibbles available at night, and they make him thirsty.
We start by presenting water to him and he drinks, sometimes a bit, sometimes he empties half the ramekin! Then there is his wet food given by hand (gourmet gold is his favourite) and the medical treatment that allows the pressure in his nervous system to not go too high, and the muscle relaxant. Depending on how he feels, we go to the bathroom before or after eating.
After the meal, the drink, the medicines and the brush, he goes into the living room with me and he usually watches the cats play (running around like crazies, especially his best friend Vulcain) and tries to join, either by chirping and meowing, or trying to catch Vulcain as he passes near him.
Then, between 11 and noon, it’s syringe feeding time. Pablo eats alone but not enough to maintain his weight, so he is syringe-fed three times per day. He is very cooperative but doesn’t enjoy it much! After this meal, it is nap time. Having of course changed sides to avoid any bedsores (and we are successful, not one bedsore in 9 months!), he starts to sleep and all my cats do the same.
After a good nap and with the muscle relaxant in full effect, it is physiotherapy time. Individual limb exercise, gentle spine stretching (he does the stretching, not me), and work on standing, and try to encourage him to do voluntary steps. He also spends some time in his physiotherapy chariot to have some “being upright” time. He gets lots of liquid snack during physio, to motivate him and associate physiotherapy, which is not always easy for him, with a positive event.
At 5 pm, it is his s
Pablo is progressing continuously and here, wants to get my scarf 😆. What a wonderful progress since the 26th of June ! Go Pablo 🥰🥰🥰
If you want to help him walk again, here is the link to the fundraising effort. https://www.facebook.com/donate/638428610735662/
This is the love moment of the day ❤❤❤
That was on the 26th of June 2021, the first time I thought Pablo could move his front paws, even if he needed to be stimulated for this. He is playing with Bastet. 😊
The first part of the story is here https://fb.watch/9EIoFbuT9Y/
After 10 months of FIP treatment we were wondering if FIP was beaten and what we were seeing were only neurological sequela so we tried to see a neurologist after stopping treatment.
It took six weeks to arrange to arrange to see top of their field specialists, at three hours of where we live. They redid an MRI (a dynamic one this time), and determined that the big problem was in the spine, not the head. But of course, reducing pressure of established lesions in the spine is one of the most difficult things to do! They had the crazy idea of finding a way to relieve pressure in the big lesion without opening the spine. Very simple on paper, incredible in reality!
The idea was to give some time to Pablo’s spinal cord to recover, combined with physiotherapy and medical treatment, to see how much improvement we could get. Then, in a month, do the surgery that would relieve the pressure permanently.
The wonderful news is that they also did a csf tap again, at day 73 of the observation period, and the csf was perfectly normal.
Today we are at day 98 post treatment. So Pablo is cured of FIP, he is a warrior now. He just needs help to walk again.
This is where we are. They managed to tap the big lesion in the spine, and relieve some pressure, 24 days ago. Medical treatment and physiotherapy have started. And he is improving!! In the last few days he has had movement of his frontlimbs that he never had since the 12th of May 2021 ever. He is more alert, more feisty and expresses himself more and more!
But money is running out.
I am not alone in this, there is an incredible team of dedicated people behind Pablo. His owners that made this difficult choice and are still taking news every day, his admin and volunteers that helped, and the meds suppliers that also helped us. Everything that was done had a cost of between 20000 and 25000 euros.
This is why I am speaking up now. We fought and fought and
The first publication started Pablo's story with a video of how he was moving in May. Here is a video of how one csf tap gave us hope that he could improve more ! 😍😍
Pablo's story starts 14 months ago, when he shows a bad uveitis and serious locomotion problems. The diagnosis is FIP. He starts GS treatment and steroids therapy on the 1st of October 2020. During one month, there is a very good response to treatment, he walks again and the uveitis disappears. Then there is an attempt to slowly wean him of steroids and his locomotion deteriorates very quickly. By December 2020, Pablo is unable to stand up or walk, despite several increases in his GS dosage. He can eat and drink, pee and poop, but barely moves his legs. A csf tap is done in January 2021, to understand if the virus is still there. At that time the results are clear, the liquid is inflammatory, the PCR is positive, FIP is still winning.
A first combo of GS plus an antiviral is tried, there is an improvement, but it is temporary. Meanwhile Pablo continues to live his life, he interacts, purrs, plays as he can, eats, while we are trying to save his life.
Three months later, his state is slowly deteriorating. We seem to be out of options, and quality of life questions start to be asked.
But this cat didn’t want to die!
At that point, I asked his very brave owners if they would do what is one of the most difficult thing to do when you love your cat: to trust me with his care, and give him to me. I knew he needed to be with a vet 24/7, to be able to assess his state permanently and give him all the fighting chances he needed.
So my darling Pablo came to live with me and my cats, on the 12th of May 2021. The first month was though, getting rid of all the little symptoms that make a cat uncomfortable, nausea, a bit of peeing problems, and getting to know him and his needs. At that time, we agreed that as long as Pablo wanted to live, we would do everything in our power to help him do just that.
I started a second combo of anti viral and he did improve, again mildly, but his frontlimbs were still very stiff. I did laser therapy, hydro therapy, a bit of physiothera
