05/12/2021
Meet Hades, the little guy who was diagnosed with FIP at 3 months of age. My husband and I were in town running errands when we saw Pet Supplies Plus. I suggested we go inside and look at the sweet little animals. Once inside I saw the cutest little black kitten and fell in love with her, only to discover she had a brother in the cage with her. I didn’t want to separate the two of them so I applied to adopt them both. The boy looked a little disheveled but they didn’t matter. So the day comes for the rescue service to bring them to their forever home (our home), the lady bringing them called me to tell me that the boy didn’t look quite right, his fur is scraggly and his belly is distended. She asked if I still wanted him and I said “of course I do!”. So she brought them and set up a vet visit for Hades for the next day. I feel totally in love with him that night, as did everyone who met him. He was the sweetest little boy from the start. As soon as she dropped him off, he was following me around the house, meowing and would jump right in my lap as soon as I sat down. As my family members began arriving home for the night, he’d greet them at the door with his little meows and would follow them around the house too. So the next morning his vet appointment takes place and after blood work and abdominal fluid collection, we received the bad news, he has FIP (feline infectious peritonitis). This disease has been a death sentence. However, there is an experimental drug out of China, that has shown great results with many cats beating the disease. However, this drug is very costly and it’s in injectable form. That’s an injection a day for 84 days with 84 days of observation following. The rescue company we adopted him from are wonderful and told us about the treatment and did a fundraiser to get the money for it. I was daunted at the fact of injecting this poor baby for 84 days. My husband and stepdaughter are very needle phobic and could not possibly bring themselves to inject him, so me being a nurse practitioner, they elected me to be the injector. This was a heartbreaking experience, it’s a painful injection and I felt terrible every time I had to do it. Keep in mind before he started the injections, he hardly ate or drank, he was literally skin and bones, he was anemic, patchy fur, he didn’t run and play like his sister did, he was lethargic, and had a fever. After 3 days of shots, he began playing more and he got a healthy appetite. A week in and he was running around with the zoomies, he began putting on weight. He’s now 46 days into his journey and I created this page to document his fight.
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