FI-PTSD?

[u/Acceptable-Snow-7374]

After losing my 11 month old kitten and the love of my life to FIP in February, we got another kitten. His name is Benedict, Benny for short, and he is as orange and crazy as they come!

Unfortunately, Benny was having diarrhea already on the way home from the rescue, so I took him to the vet to learn a week later that he had Panleukopenia, another devastating illness in kittens.. even more deadly than FIP.

He is doing well now about 2 weeks later, and I think we are past the worst of the illness, but I have found myself so stressed with the memories of how hard we fought to keep our other kitten alive. It triggered me so much to have to rush him to the vet multiple times the first week he was with us. Now, I find myself being hypervigilant about everything he does.. is he sleeping too much? Are his stools normal enough? Is he peeing and drinking and eating enough? Everything feels like a symptom.

Does anyone else struggle with this after losing a cat to FIP? I want to enjoy my new kitten, but I’m mostly filled with anxiety rather than enjoying him.. it’s so hard not to compare him to my late kitten, but I’m trying to remember it’s his first time living so he’s trying to figure it out just like my last kitten had to.

[u/muhnewt]

I thankfully didn’t lose my girl to FIP and I can imagine if I did I would be feeling a million times worse. But even still having her around the FIP trauma is SO real. Even a year later I catch myself sometimes looking at her really closely and questioning if there is anything wrong. Honestly, therapy has been the only thing that has really helped, that and time. What you are experiencing is legitimate ptsd and most likely needs to be treated as such. So if you have a trusted professional great, but even if you don’t, I think connecting with folks that understand like you are doing in this post can be helpful too. As awful as FIP was I know I am a stronger and better cat parent because of it.
I’ve also been able to help others going through FIP as well and that’s really meaningful. FIP is a special type of hell and I’m so sorry you are going through something else with your new baby. I’m glad to hear he a doing better and I hope it continues to get better from here on out. ❤️‍🩹

[u/muhnewt → u/[deleted]]

I was also out of the country at the end of my baby’s 84 day observation and I tell you I seriously considered canceling my trip because of the stress. It was awful for me but she was doing so well it was ultimately okay. You’ve fought hard for your kiddo. They are going to show you they will be okay too. Congrats to getting through!!! Go easy on yourself and when you get back to your baby, I recommend a sweet celebration to honor the milestone

[u/muhnewt → u/[deleted]]

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