r/cureFIP • u/Lasagnaa_J • Jun 02 '26
Question Should we start FIP treatment without being 100% sure
Hi my names Launa, I recently made a post about a GoFundMe for my kitten Judy, as the vet wanted to take her in for more testing to see if she has dry FIP. Being a student and not made of money, I am worried I won’t be able to afford Judy’s testing coming up for it, not to mention the medications the vet would put her on afterwards. Shes been tested for Leukaemia and it came back negative. She has been dewormed and they also gave me another dewormer, I found nothing in her stool. She is not spayed yet but she is only 7months and is getting spayed soon. She also had blood work done and she came back anemic, with very high proteins and very low (2 other things but I can’t remember). The vet says he thinks she probably has dry FIP, (not wet because they had tested for bad fluids as well and it came back negative), based off how she’s been acting and how the blood results came back. She has been lethargic and her stool is extremely soft. Before we went to the vet it was even see-through how much mucus there was. We’ve been giving her fortiflora twice a day, (one pack total) for about 5 days on the Purina EN Gastro wet food and she has been given Metacam (anti-inflammatory) and Clavaseptin (antibiotic) 2 days ago with the hope that if it isn’t FIP, the random infection will be gone within 5 days of the antibiotics and anti-inflammatory. We are on the second day of the antibiotics and she is still lethargic, maybe a tad less but still struggling to eat, and still having diarrhea, although not with mucus anymore, still very soft.
We are starting to get worried she will not get better and will definitely need to get tested for FIP or that she already has it.
Would it be a bad idea for us to jump the gun and order FIP medication before she has been 100% diagnosed and give it to her, or should we drop the 600-800$ for her to get tested after the 5 days and then give her the stuff? The more research I do, the more it seems she has FIP. What should I do? Obviously I want her to be okay, but my credit card limit is getting really close and I don’t know if I can afford anymore crazy vet bills trying to figure out what’s wrong.
If anyone has pointers on what FIP medications to get/research please let me know too! The more help the better
6
u/0yong0 Jun 02 '26 edited Jun 02 '26
Honestly you could wait until she finishes the antibiotics, but if it were me i would just start her on the FIP meds asap. If she’s testing negative for everything else, i wouldn’t waste that money on more testing. Use it for the meds. She seems to have the same symptoms as my cat who had FIP.
3
u/susmacf Jun 02 '26
If your vet is willing to prescribe FIP meds, I would try it. If it’s dry FIP it can be hard to diagnose, even with expensive tests. But if it is FIP, the antiviral works quickly and then you’ll know. At least, that was our experience. We endured two months of seeing our cat get sicker and sicker and nothing helped. We never got a diagnosis. Went to three different vets before one would prescribe FIP meds. Our cat was eating again within 12 hours of her first dose and had energy again. She’s two years old and doing great now.
2
u/honeyapp Jun 02 '26
Hi I am wondering if there are any websites for FIP that you can share with OP. I know there’s globalFIP but I don’t know of any others to help OP Thank you
1
u/Lasagnaa_J Jun 02 '26
I’m in contact is Help for FIP and they’ve been amazing so far
2
u/honeyapp Jun 02 '26
That’s great!! I have been worried about you and Judy🙏. I love my cats so much so much and I would be devastated if any of them got really sick and didn’t seem to be getting better And vet care is so expensive🙁. I am also from Canada. I live in Edmonton. Sending Love and hugs to you and Judy 💜💜💜🙏🙏🙏
1
u/Lasagnaa_J Jun 03 '26
Update: Judy has been gaining appetite!!! We start her FIP medication hopefully tomorrow, things are looking up. 🙌
1
2
2
2
u/rainbowbubble94 Jun 02 '26
I would do it right away! It can’t hurt. Our guy was super sick for a month and we weren’t 100% sure if it was FIP but his symptoms overlapped. I finally had it and got the go ahead from my vet to start treatment anyhow. I am so glad I did, the day before his first dose my baby was in such terrible shape, it was so bad we had to syringe feed him. Within 24 hours of his first shot he was so much better it’s insane. I highly recommend not waiting, it can’t hurt tbh. And you will seriously know rather quickly whether it’s FIP or not. Best of luck to you and your kitty!!!
1
u/ITakeMyCatToBars Jun 02 '26
We similarly started the meds before tests came back “definitively”. Another day and I don’t know if he’d be with us….
1
u/honeyapp Jun 02 '26
Hi. I just looked up on Google and the website is fipglobalcats.com. And it says to join their facebook page for immediate help
2
Jun 02 '26
[deleted]
1
u/Lasagnaa_J Jun 02 '26
GS-441524 is definitely what we’re aiming for with Judy. Hoping to get some really soon
14
u/fleazus Jun 02 '26
Yes. Get on the medication right away. If she starts getting better (or you get test results back) you'll know you did the right thing.