Mila’s story begins in the middle of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Our little Russian Blue kitten, Mila had finally made it to her new home.
In her first week she had leaky stool (yellow discharge) and was very underweight.
Around week 3 we noticed she began sleeping a lot more all of a sudden. And she wasn't reacting or playing with her favorite toys anymore.
At first we thought, "cats can have days where they are just not as affectioniate".
But then the sluggishness got worse, and her eyes started squinting. She couldnt keep them fully open.
At this point we noticed her belly was swollen. We thought she just might be gaining weight, but we were far from wrong.
So we took her the next day to our regular vet that had seen her the past couple of times. Upon taking a look at her they said she could have Feline coronavirus or FIP. They then said, if she does have FIP, then the best thing we could do is euthanize her because she would likely pass away within a week.
But they needed to be sure so they did some blood work. This was Friday afternoon and the results were supposed to come in by Monday. So we had hope that everything would be ok despite the devastating news from our vet.
They injected her with some fluid and sent her home.
We immediately noticed when she got home that her whole body and especially her stomach had ballooned to twice its normal size. We figured it was just the fluids.
Deadly Diagnosis (FIP)
We waited a couple days and our little Mila kept getting worse and worse. Now its Sunday night and Mila can barely move, shes just sleeping next to us. We were going to wait to Monday for the results, but in that momement we made the critical life saving decision to take her to the ER.
They ran a quick ultrasound and saw her stomach was FULL of this straw colored fluid. The emergency doctor walked up to our car and told its she can confirm that what Mila had is FIP and that is almost 100% fatal.
The following conversation changed the course of our and Mila's life.
The courageos vet told us, "This may seem weird, but there is an 'Black market' cure for FIP. You can join this Facebook group called FIP Warriors, and someone will help you find medicine Mila needs to live".
A Pet Angel Arrives
So its now 1 am on a Sunday night before work and we are an hour away from home. We logged into Facebook and had to request to join the Facebook group. We went back home with Mila and went to sleep.
The next morning we saw our request to join had been approved, and so we created a introductory post describing our situation. Within the hours we were contacted by an admin of the page who began the process of trying to help us find someone locally who had a vial of GS-4331. GS-4331 is the medicine developed by ____________ that has proven to cure FIP with an 80% success rate.
The FIP support community and network is truly awe inspiring. Tens of thousands of other cat parents all supporting each other in the fight against this horrible virus.
Here's the Treatment Plan:
84 Days of Treatment (injection or pill format)
84 Days of Observation
Treatment Begins
Less than 12 hours after receiving the news from the emergency vet, we were on our way to a local who had 1 extra vial of GS that we could buy from her. The local lady and her husband helped us administer our first injection.
Mila screamed and scratched and bit but the injection was successful.
Now the next scariest part was thinking about how we were going to inject Mila ourselves in exactyl 24 hours. We had zero experience with using needles and we were so nervous that we would do it wrong, poke her in a muscle or bone, not adminsiter the treatment correctly, etc.
The first 2 days of injections alone were hell.
On the first try, while extracting the GS with the syringe, the cap fell off and we lost 50% of the treatment.
In order to successfully administer the treatment, we had 1 person holding her body by her head and butt area. Then a second person pulls up the skin on her back and forms a tent. We used a 22 Gauge needle and insert carefully parallel to the body to ensure we dont hit a muscle or anything. We also had to be sure not to poke in too much because the needle could end up on the other side of the "tent" and when you push the syringe its just not going in at all.
Once in, you also want to tilt the needle 45 degrees down so that the medicine can run along her subcutaneous area more easily.
Another thing is we always had her favorite wet food available immediately after. Instead of biting or scratching us, she would basically just stress eat. After 30 seconds she would be back to normal.
So this was our life for the next 7 days. It was painful for her and stressful for us. It was the one thing that was on our mind the entire day. Like always counting down how many hours left to the injection. Then once we finished, it was thinking about the next 24 hours.
Here's how our first 7 days went:
Day 1. We had the local expert help us - easy peasy
Day 2. First day alone - lose 50% of vial but injection successful
Day 3. Injection successful
Day 4. First day trying gapapentin (pain reducer). Injection pokes through, missed her subcutaneous area. We have to repoke but are not sure how much was lost so we only did half a dosage. This time she didnt cry or try to bite or scratch
Day 5 - Successful injection
Day 6 - We thought it another sucessful injection but it seemed a small amount of the fluid was on her back.
Day 7 - Successful Injection
From this point from we decided to switch to the pill form of the medication using a brand called Mutian.
We are now able to give her the treatment she needs is less than a couple minutes and its painless for her. It's also way less traumatizing for us.
She's a Warrior - The Journey Continues!
We are currently on the 6th week of treatment and Mila is so playing and acting 100% like a healthy cat should!
We will update this story as we progress!
We hope our story and that of hundreds of other Pet Mom's can inspire you and give you hope whenever your furry baby's life is on the line.
