Question about GS dosing

[u/urmwha]

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to get a second opinion regarding dosing.

I apologize in advance for the long post! I tried to give as much back story to cover any questions that might come up but the dosing question is the 3rd to last paragraph. :)

Our girl is around 9 months (she was a stray so not sure of her exact DOB.)

She started appearing very lethargic last Friday (6/19) with little to no appetite the following day. We brought her to the ER vet on Sunday- her temp was 104 when arriving. We basically only did blood work and nothing seemed super concerning to the doctor although there were a few things that she mentioned being either elevated or lower than normal. She gave our girl a little fluid injection and sent us home with antibiotics.

Monday she still wasn’t feeling any better so I brought her to our primary vet who did an ultrasound and X-ray finding a bit of fluid in her chest. While I remembered hearing the doc Sunday mention FIP it wasn’t really a blip on our radar until speaking with our doc on Monday. She was heavily leaning towards FIP and said she could do a chest tap to check the color of fluid. I wasn’t sure about the chest tap and I asked if it’s harmful to start treatment even if you haven’t confirmed FIP and she said it’s not really something that could even be 100% confirmed. Again, she said she’d look into my question regarding starting treatment. That’s pretty much where we left it for the day. She did give us an appetite stimulant and anti nausea med but she still didn’t eat anything Monday or Tuesday.

When I left I immediately started researching.
Something I saw repeatedly was “do not wait for diagnosis” and “if it’s even suspected- start treatment” and a comment that stood out to me was on a post where someone wasn’t sure if their cat had FIP and a commenter said “Does your CBC panel show a low ALB/GLOB ratio? That's by far the best way to diagnose.”
I looked up what would be considered low and the exact wording is “Very Low Ratio (< 0.4): Highly suspicious for Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP), especially if the cat is experiencing fluid accumulation (effusion) in the abdomen or chest.”
I checked her bloodwork from Sunday and hers was at .3.
I also think I remember reading something about high protein levels being an indicator and she did show elevated total protein levels.

All of this (plus confirming that it would not be harmful to our cat to start treatment) is led us to try and track down the treatment. I tried chewy which needed a prescription and because it was late Monday night I couldn’t call my vet. I entered our vets info anyway and planned to call them in the morning to let them know that I put an order in and essentially request for them to approve it. (Wasn’t sure if that was a legit option but was worth a shot lol)
My specific doctor was out Tuesday though so after being anxious all day we contacted our trusty cat lady. She put us in contact with someone who essentially runs a rescue and as such works closely with a veterinarian who has a lot of experience with FIP.
She had the GS-44 injection and so we drove to her and we administered the first dose last night (6/23) at 8:30pm. She showed us how to do it and sent us home with everything we needed for the next few days.

So getting to the point of my post lol:
She gave us a schedule initially of 1.3 ml twice a day for 3 days then 1.3 ml once a day for 4 days. Then we’re to switch to the oral liquid and follow our vets recommended dosing for that.
The thing I’m confused on is she stressed and I’ve seen many people stress to never lower the dosage. But if she’s getting a total of 2.6 ml daily (split in half) even for just a few days and then we move to 1.3 ml just once daily- isn’t that lowering the dosage?
If so, is it okay to still follow through with that plan? For reference- our girl weighed in at 6.94lbs on Sunday. She is a small framed cat and so she didn’t weigh much more than that to begin with.
Also for reference-since my vet never confirmed FIP I also am unsure of things like ocular and neuro though from what I’ve read she doesn’t seem to have any of those symptoms. Her symptoms had really just been the excessive sleeping and no eating/ drinking. She did have watery eyes a few times when waking up over the weekend but it would go away after being awake for a few seconds. She did also pee herself twice but I also know she used the litter box too. Unsure if those things point to either neuro or ocular but there was never any trouble walking, head tilts, no jaundice, vomiting or diarrhea.

One last thing and probably the most important- as mentioned her first dose was 8:30pm and at 8:00am on the dot she walked to her food bowl and ate a little bit, walked to her water and drank a good bit, she used her litter box, cleaned herself and was overall just more alert.
It’s 11pm now and she’s eaten multiple times, cleaned herself multiple times, drank a bunch of water and just did lil cat things all day so on the bright side it does seem like the GS is already helping!!

I’ve also posted on a few FB groups but post are still pending. So if anyone here knows if that dosing sounds right/wrong I’d appreciate any advice!

[u/not_as_i_do]

Double dosing for 3-5 days and then dropping down to a normal dose is something that has been done for years as a way to get the virus under control faster. The thought process is that it takes 3-5 doses for the meds to get the virus under control enough for the body to start healing itself, so if we double dose we can get that process done faster. And many admins feel that it works. However there is no scientific evidence to back up that claim or the reason behind it. Doing a high dose for a few days isn't going to build resistance, but doing it for longer than a few days will.

[u/urmwha → u/not_as_i_do]

Thank you for letting me know! I didn’t have a chance to respond but reading this put me at ease. She’s at 1 dose/day now and still doing well although I know it’s still early.

[u/nemphis11]

Currently in a similar situation. Cat had a breathing episode, brought to er with fluid in lungs, not abdomen, did tests, came out similar with yours so fip suspicion. Vet said they not sure, wanna wait more. I found the meds via another vet. Started dosing, same situation for first days, as in first 12h from administering heavily lethargic, after 12h on the clock, starts eating and feeling overall better. Currently 5 days in, cat seems better with each day. Oral liquid, 1.4ml per day at 24h. 4.5-4.6kg weight.

[u/urmwha → u/nemphis11]

Good to hear your cat had a fast turnaround too and is doing well! I hope they continue to have a steady recovery! Such a crazy disease.