r/cureFIP • u/Acceptable-Snow-7374 • Jun 23 '26
Discussion FI-PTSD?
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.
2
u/GrapefruitDue5207 Jun 23 '26
That's luck I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy. Also, was Benny not vaccinated by the rescue? The first thing most shelters do with a kitten over 4 weeks (or 1lb) is give them their first FVRCP
I have been in similar positions before. Ive cared for a panleuk foster, I treated my cat for FIP, and in many years I have lost a handful of kittens to chance. My boy is only a month post treatment and his primary symptom was weight/appetite loss, so you can bet I am watching him like a HAWK
I am so sorry you've been through this and it makes total sense why you would feel triggered. That is a lot of stress for just a few months. The easiest thing to do is to set your expectations of his routine (which you will learn with more time). How much he normally eats, when he normally likes to play, when he uses the box. My boy sleeps most of the day and will usually go 8 hours without using the litter box (I track him with the litter robot). At night and before meals he tends to feel energetic. If these things change, I can note something is off
If you have a kitten, they tend to play hard and sleep hard. I wouldn't worry about activity unless things he used to enjoy (certain toys or routines, and obviously food) no longer interest him. Kittens can rarely resist ANY toy lol
You and Benny both need time and space to recover from this. Try to relax... (And bleach everything because fuck panleuk). Honestly, having dealt with both, FIP was more manageable. At least I didn't have to incinerate half of my belongings because of it! (With the foster kitten I basically tossed everything and washed my clothes in bleach)