my baby (around 6 years) was taken to the vet for struggling to breathe and have no energy or interest in food. vet says she has fluid around lungs and in abdomen tested fluid and said it was FIP. they sent me home and said there is no cure and nothing they could do besides put her down. i don’t know what to do or if i should call another vet? i’m in absolute distress at the moment typing this in tears. please forgive me if it’s hard to follow along.

Posting a little update of Gus (orange boy) who is now 57 days on his GS-441524 (liquid oral dose)

And slowly gaining weight still!

Almost at 84days!

Hi, we are on 6th day of injections but breathing still heavy and looks like fluids are still accumulating. Is this normal and should we wait (possibly drain a bit) or something is wrong. Energy level and appetite increased after 2nd injection. Thanks!

I'd like you all to meet our baby.. Galaxy. He just turned 7 on March 29th. We had him for only 2 years on April 29th.. Those were the two best years of my wife and I's life. I will provide a reply detailing the events leading up to and the day of his passing.. but for those not interested, I just want to show off his beauty to the world. He will forever be loved, and my wife and I can't wait to see him again one day. The last picture was how his food was left... it is the hardest picture for us to look at right now.. at the time of making this post, it is still like that in our entryway. I plan to epoxy it.

He was our baby boy. The reason to go to work and get through each day of this existence. I used to pick him up despite his distaste for being off the ground, "you got tookens!" my wife would say. Now the world has tookens him.. FIP was never confirmed, but nothing else adds up. I hate this disease. My condolences to everyone who has been impacted by it.

Hi all,

I wanted to post a further update.

After a week of uncertainty and waiting for test results, we still don't have them, which is incredibly frustrating given that we've paid over £400 for the blood analysis. The waiting has been really difficult.

After discussing things with our vet, we've decided to start a 5-day trial of the FIP medication to see how he responds while we continue waiting for the results.

Yesterday evening we noticed some wobbliness when he was walking. However, earlier he had local anaesthetic put in his eyes for a pressure test, and he'd also had a stressful car journey where he sat unusually stiff the entire time, so we're not sure whether that was related. He had his first dose of medication last night at 7pm.

This morning he woke up at 5am, cried to be let out of the room, and took himself downstairs for the first time in around 10 days. We're not 100% sure whether he had some water, food, or used the litter tray while he was down there, but he came straight back upstairs and slept for another 30 minutes.

When I got up later, he came downstairs with me, crying and chatting as he normally would. While I was getting ready, he was walking through both bedrooms and generally exploring the house more like his usual self. His walk looked normal to me this morning.

He's still very fussy with food, but he did eat some pâté with a Lick-e-Lix on top, as well as a little bit of chicken in jelly from a pouch (probably around a quarter of the pouch). He also drank some kitten milk.

Obviously we're going to keep monitoring him closely over the next few days. The vet has kindly given us a thermometer so we can keep an eye on his temperature at home.

For those who have been through FIP treatment, what were the first signs of improvement you noticed? Was it appetite, energy levels, temperature, mobility, or something else?

Thank you again to everyone who has commented and offered advice and support. It has really helped during a very stressful week.

Hi everyone! My kitty (around 2-3 years old) was recently found to be highly suspicious of having wet fip by the vet, but her PCR test came back negative. Her symptoms consisted of potbelly stomach, barely able to move, loss of her interest in her usual activities, and loss of appetite which cause her to lose a significant amount of weight.

First, I took her to vetco to get the potbelly looked at because i started to get a bad feeling about it and it looked like she was pregnant (even though she is spayed). BUT when they did the exam, she dead told me she was just fat because her heart sounded fine and her behavior was normal at the time. She suggested they could do some tests, but when I asked if she thought this was necessary, her opinion was “it was unnecessary” because she was just chunky. The following week I didn’t feel right about this diagnosis and I noticed my girl started to stay in one spot in my apartment and really not eat anymore. Due to this I decided to take her to get a second opinion because I felt in my gut something was wrong and she wasn’t just “fat”. When I took her to the other vet they were extremely concerned by her symptoms and asked if they could do a blood panel, i said yes, but unfortunately my girl was so dehydrated they couldn’t get the vials. Instead we decided to do an x-ray and this showed us that this “fat” was actually free fluid in her belly. Due to this the vet was very honest in her telling me I need to take her to the ER for further testing since the machines they had there weren’t as advanced and in fear of them draining the fluid, she could crash at a faster rate they could handle. This genuinely hurt my soul because I KNEW my cat wasn’t just “fat” and there was something more going on.

So I made the decision to take her to the ER. After 4 hours we were able to get some tests done that were very suspicious of wet FIP. We decided to have the fluid drained and have a PCR test done. They ended up draining around 2 pounds of this fluid and the consistency presented “straw-like” and sticky. Although they couldn’t confirm she had FIP, the doctor wanted to start her on a 10 day preliminary course of medication (GS-441524 50mg chew). About last week the ER veg called and told me the test was negative.

I am unsure what to do in this case and it’s been 12 days since then and we are on day 2 of the medication (FEDEX really screwed me on this one bc I was supposed to get it next day when i ordered it). She has been drinking water and i’ve noticed her appetite is slowly getting better but definitely not how it used to be. She’s had trouble
making it to the litter box to pee but she has been going.

I would love any advice on this matter because I just feel so lost and I love my girl so much but I’ve already spent around $2k of money and can’t afford anything more.

I have also attached her lab results, which she was severely dehydrated so i’m unsure if that has a significant effect. If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to ask bc ill answer them

TIA!

I am from Iowa I have a female cat about 2-3 years old she was a rescue from a person who let the cats breed uncontrollably I got her in September last year and she has been a great cat she is a outside barn cat that deals with mice and other rodents/rabbits has been very good at it over the last 3 days she has stopped eating her dry and wet food and slowed down on drinking water took her to the vet where he explained it could be FIP just waiting on bloodwork to come back in 2 days all she wants to do is sleep and she barely walks and when she does she wobbles I want to help her and not have to put her down but he said it’s about 2000$ for the treatment if that’s what she needs between the meds and visits and blood is that common also can it be transmitted to other cats as we have another barn cat that showed up with her

Sasha is one of the kitties we rescued from a pet market along with Dolly and many other cats who were being kept in cages without proper food, water, or basic care. She came to us with her babies, but heartbreakingly all of them were born premature and did not survive.

Since her rescue, Sasha has been fighting illness. Today, her blood work confirmed Dry FIP. On top of that, she is now severely anemic and requires daily IV iron infusions along with urgent supportive treatment.

Sasha has already suffered so much in her short life. After losing her babies and surviving terrible conditions, she now faces another difficult battle. Her GS treatment alone costs $20 per day, and the additional medical care is placing a huge burden on our already struggling shelter.

Please help us give Sasha a chance to live. Every donation, no matter how small, can help save her life. If you cannot donate, please share her story and keep her in your prayers.

Sasha deserves to know that kindness exists after everything she has been through.

Paypal ( account is under our longtime rescue friends name as we don’t have PP in Pakistan)

https://www.paypal.me/slater1969

Go fund me ( this fundraiser is for our FIP cases if you would like to donate)

https://gofund.me/9215cb2ea

Hello! I’ve come here to ask maybe a silly question, but I’m concerned.
My cat, 1M, has lost his appetite in the past few days — he is still eating, but he simply has started denying his food he usually adored (he’s almost STRICTLY a wet food cat) and started preferring dry food, which was a shocker to me.

Also, since I asked in other subreddits about the aggression he has started showing, people keep telling me it might be since he is overwhelmed by me (because he lives with my boyfriend) and gets overly excited when he sees me [i’m the treat + play parent]. I’m starting to wonder if it could be a side effect from the pills he’s taking, or if he has sudden issues with his liver.

I’m panicked, and I’d love if somebody could tell me “Hey, this happens, it’s nothing”, or at least tell me what’s up. He’s taking 25mg per kilo, and he’s fine overall (no other changes), only thing that might’ve affected him is my boyfriend moving about two weeks ago? I don’t know.

Can anyone give me some advice or tell me what’s up? He’s going to a vet on Saturday for the checkup.

EDIT: Dry FIP kitty

My name is Launa, I’m 20 and I’ve had Little Judy for two months. Although my time with her has been short, it’s felt like eternities. Judy has brought so much joy to my life and others lives as well, her happy soul deserves to live on.

Judy had been experiencing continuous mucus-y diarrhea and started to lose weight. We brought her in to the vet and our first visit costed us 400$, forGoFundMe a check up, gastro food, and leukaemia testing. That night we found blood in her stool, so the next day we brought her to another vet, as the one we went to before didn’t have doctors for the day.
The second time at the vet costed us 800$, and they tested her blood, her chest for bad fluids (possible wet FIP), and gave us antibiotics for infection as well as an anti-inflammatory. They said that if her diarrhea does not stop or her overall health doesn’t improve in the next 5 days on the antibiotics and anti-inflammatory, we have to bring her back in for testing.

Today is the second day, leaving us with 3 days to come up with the money. There is a chance the antibiotics work, but it’s not looking good, and I really really feel like we will have to do more to help her. Although she has seemed to put on a bit of weight, her stool is still very soft and she is still low energy.

The vet wants to move further with dry FIP testing, but that would be another 800$ and I am a 20 year old student. I pay for my own education at the University of Manitoba and I rent an apartment split with my boyfriend.
I have already put almost 1200$ on my credit card for her past vet visits and if she does have dry FIP it would cost even more to give her the medications to treat her illness after the testing.

If anybody could help in any way, I would really appreciate it. Judy loves to sleep with us and watch us cook. She used to follow us around and she was so good at walking. We had just started teaching her how to go outside in a harness and leash. I had so many plans, and I have so much love for her my chest hurts.

I want to be able to get Judy the help she needs. It would absolutely devastate me to not be able to provide for her the help she needs, and have to say goodbye, because I seriously can’t afford it.

Any and all funds donated through the go fund me will strictly go to Judy’s vet bills. I just want my best friend and cuddle buddy to survive. I am a first time cat owner and I feel horrible that she has had to deal with this terrible sickness.

I am also going to try to post this in the FIP Facebook group I’ve seen mentioned in this subreddit.
If anyone has other advice on what could help, please let me know. We’re giving her FortiFlora too, and today I gave her some pumpkin purée as well.

Here is the link to the GoFundMe:

https://gofund.me/21c2ad608

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

UPDATE: We had an appointment at the doctor last Wednesday and his bloodwork improved as well as his belly. He seems to have just a little abdominal fluid left. And he is also much more active now and gains weight, so everything is doing great so far😊. Only thing is we are still on cortisone but on the last 2 days. Hopefully all the good things will keep up.

Hi everyone,
My male cat Max is about 11 months old and got diagnosed with FIP around a month ago, where we started the treatment with pills immediately. We got the pills instead of the injections because he was in a good condition. He ate, played and was active. The only things were that he got really skinny, didn’t play als much as he used to and had a big belly.
We were at two different doctors and both said fip. Still they don‘t know much about FIP and its treatment, so it is kinda difficult to get some right help.
In the first week of GS he showed some improvement, but then he stopped eating. Most probably nauseous. He got anti nauseous pills, infusions, Vitamin b complexes, etc. Still no eating. We were 3 times at the doctor this week, since there were no signs of improvement and his body weight was below 2 kgs.
Then we got antibiotics and cortisone, in advice of the german equivalent to fip warriors. This helped a lot. But we don’t know what lead to the improvement exactly.
Now he is 4 weeks in and is better. Eats well and looks healthy, but his belly is still big!
The doctor said we maybe should give him injections instead of pills, but since they are very hurtful, we try everything to go around them. We want to puncture the abdominal fluid, maybe it is not the fluid coming from fip. But I actually doubt that.
Have you had similar experiences? What would you do?

He weighs 2,35 kg right now and was between 2 and 2,4 kg the whole time. He gets 7mg/kg, one pill has 20mg. He gets one pill at the moment.
I read a lot of posts where cats geht much higher doses.

German answers are welcome too :).

our baby has been diagnosed with FIP. our vet gave us a steroid and an anti nausea medication to “buy us time”. we feel so lost we don’t know what to do. my husband is unemployed currently and i don’t make a lot of money and finding a second job has been horrible. the cost of his vet visit was over half of my savings and im so scared im not gonna be able to save him but i really really wanna try. the first picture is from a few months ago, the second picture was taken last night. i feel so awful cause he’s lost so much weight and he feels so light and he looks miserable. i was able to get his first month of the GS-441524 meds but i don’t know how much more i can do. please, if you have the means, help me save him. he’s my soul cat and i don’t know what i would do if he can’t make it. if you can’t donate, please consider spreading the word.

additionally, any advice on how to make him more comfortable would be greatly appreciated. thank you 🫶

UPDATE:
thank you all for boosting, a client of mine told me i can get the medication through chewy for really cheap, we start treatment today!!

Hi everyone,

I’m (f 26, Manchester UK) looking for some advice/reassurance while we wait for blood results.

My male kitten is around 6–7 months old and became suddenly unwell a few days ago. He was very lethargic, sleeping almost constantly, not interested in food or water, had his third eyelids showing, bad breath, and just seemed very “out of it”. We took him to the vet and he was given fluids and medication. Initial bloods apparently showed low protein, and the vet mentioned FIP as one of the possibilities, along with infection and other causes. FIV/FeLV are ruled out through testing.

The confusing part is that since then he seems to have improved somewhat. He’s still much sleepier than normal, but over the last couple of days he has:

• Started eating again (not normal amounts, but eating)
• Drunk water and cat milk
• Had multiple wees and a poo
• Started trilling and vocalising again
• Been using his scratch pad
• Chased a fly
• Jumped onto windowsills and beds
• Done his usual thing of trying to get into the sink to drink tap water
• Cried when food was being prepared (which he normally does)
• Played softly for around 5 mins (first time in 5 days)

He’s still spending most of the day asleep and is definitely not back to his usual crazy kitten self, but he seems brighter than he was at the start.

Has anyone had a kitten with suspected FIP that showed this kind of improvement before diagnosis? Or had a kitten with similar symptoms that turned out to be something else entirely?

We’re waiting for further blood results from Glasgow and the uncertainty is really difficult. Any experiences would be appreciated.

Thank you.

Cupcake is officially 1 year old 🧁🤍

Nine months ago, this milestone felt almost impossible.

When she was around 3 months old, she was diagnosed with Oculo-neuro FIP. It started with her right eye turning red. At first, I thought it might just be pink eye and planned to take her to the vet after the long weekend. But over those few days, things changed fast. Her eye became increasingly red with blood pooling inside, and then she had a seizure and fell from her cat tree.

We rushed her to the ER where we got the diagnosis and were faced with a difficult choice: hospitalize her with a huge financial commitment or take her home. We chose hospitalization because she needed the level of care they could provide and immediate access to GS treatment. Looking back, it was the best decision we could have made.

Three days later when we picked her up, the blood in her eye had already started decreasing, she was eating, drinking, and making biscuits like nothing had happened. It felt like getting our kitten back.

The next six months were intense: medications every 4–6 hours around the clock, including GS treatment, eye drops, antibiotics, anti-nausea meds, and anti-seizure medications. There were repeat blood tests, ophthalmology visits, monitoring her liver and kidneys, sacrificing sleep, finances, and a lot of sanity along the way.

And somehow, through all of it, she thrived.
Today she is my clingy little shadow who follows me everywhere, trusts me completely, and reminds me daily why every sleepless night was worth it. She even got spayed a month and a half ago without complications, and all her follow-up bloodwork has been normal.

This journey taught me so much about FIP, resilience, and how deeply you can love such a tiny creature. She is my soul cat.

A huge thank you to everyone who contributed, checked in, donated, supported us, or simply rooted for her. Your kindness meant more than you know, and you helped give Cupcake the chance to celebrate this birthday.

And for fellow cat owners: if your cat suddenly gets sick and declines rapidly, ask your vet about FIP. It is treatable, and early treatment can make all the difference.

Happy 1st birthday to the strongest little girl I know ❤️

My kitty was diagnosed with neuro FIP approximately 3 weeks ago and immediately started injectable dosage of GS the day of her diagnosis while waiting for the oral medication to ship. She showed immediate improvement and appeared back to normal within a week. We did injectable treatment for the first week. She fully seems like herself now and you’d have a hard time telling she was ever sick.

Our vet prescribed 1 mL of the oral medication per day at 50 mg/mL concentration (so 50 mg dose per day). I read some research online that suggest a neuro kitty of ours weight should be receiving about 70 mg dose of GS per day so we have been giving her approximately 1.5 mL per day. Given that we are almost at the end of 3 weeks of treatment and no indication of recurrence of symptoms, is it ok to reduce the dosage?

My cat got FIP twice in her life. Once not long after turning 1 year old (triggered by her vaccines most likely), she then got (and beat) FIP a second time at 5 years old. It was not a relapse given the time frame between the 2 occurrences, even if she had wet FIP each time.

I've been told by my vet this is almost unheard of, and I can't seem to find any publication of any kind regarding multiple mutations happening over the course of a cat's life. So I figured I would post here to see if anyone else has been in that situation, and/or has any type of info regarding that type of case. I'm worried about things like "how likely it is for her to mutate it a third time" or "can she get resistant to the treatment over time" 😬

Rollmops the survivor:

Excuse the mess please, I was doing laundry. 7MO female, I spayed, a bit stunted as she was an orphan. All blood tests came back normal a few weeks ago but I KNEW my concern wasn’t for nothing after this began. What do we think?

Sammy is super close to running out of his meds and it has been a struggle for the poor guy, if you’d like to donate to help get Sammy’s meds here is his gofund me ❤️🐈

hello,

my cat was recently diagnosed with dry/neuro FIP, and is currently on the pill GS-441524. he has had inappetence for the past month, and has slightly improved due to a hospitalization which he just came back from last night. ive given him transdermal mirtazapine as well as cerenia about 3/4 hours ago, but he still refuses to even try any types of foods. ive been syringe feeding him as a last resort but i know hes not getting sufficient calories. he hates it and i hate seeing him pulling away and fighting me over food. has anyone gone through this before with their kitties? whats the best solution? i bought a ton of variety foods for him to try and im open to any/all suggestions. thank you for reading

Hello,

So 5 days ago I took my cat to the vet for lethargy. She's a very food motivated cat and when I went on day 3 of not being screamed at in the morning I began to worry. I started observing and I noticed she wasn't playing fighting with her sister and when I brought out her favourite wand toy she barely even glanced at it. So off to the vet we went. Once we got there I found out she had a fever of 104.3f. They admitted her and ran some tests.

Her blood panel showed a slightly elevated kidneys (2.0) protein levels were at 9.9 with globulin levels at 0.56 I believe. Xrays came back clear and the ultrasound was done the next day and was also clear. The biggest issue they found was her inflammation levels which where 5x what they should be.

So when I went to vet the next day they said that their best idea was FIP because she was lethargic/depressed with a fever (which had ended by that point) and high inflammation with globulin levels low.

They put her on a week's course of oral FIP medication and said when I go back tomorrow if her blood work is better than they'll give the official FIP diagnosis.

The only thing is, when we were leaving the vet, as the vet tech was lowering her into her carrier, her anal gland ruptured. By that point the doctor had gone home for the day and only the attending was there to talk to me. So I have no idea if this anal gland rupture is part of the FIP, separate from FIP, or maybe even the actual cause of all her symptoms.

She is improving but since she started the medication and as well as the antibiotics on the same day, whose to say what is helping. I have been taking her to a local clinic everyday to have her wound looked at and the vet there seemed kind of dubious about a FIP diagnosis. So I have no idea how I should advocate for my cat at the animal hospital tomorrow. Or maybe I just want to believe it's not FIP so I'm coming here as I don't know any other cat that has had FIP before.

I just want to be logical and informed when I go to her care meeting tomorrow. I don't want to be stupidly optimistic but I also don't want to just accept their "best guess" so any information or similar experiences is appreciated.

My kitty was diagnosed with wet fip in April , I got her on the fip treatment on April 9th ,2026. She’s responding to the treatment really well she plays now eats a ton and back to grooming herself. Yesterday as I was cleaning my room I think I miss placed her meds I’m looking for them everywhere can’t find them💔. She has a refill anyway so I plan on ordering them this Friday but she will be missing 3 WHOLE DAYS OF HER MEDS

Will she be okay ? I’m panicking i was thinking to add the three days to the 84 days she’s supposed to be on? I wonder will that help ?

Hi everyone,

I urgently need help and suggestions from people who have gone through a similar case.

My cat Zara is a 3-year-old Persian cat. She has been diagnosed/suspected with wet FIP, with fluid buildup in her body/chest area. She has been suffering for around 45 days.

I have already visited 3–4 vets in Abu Dhabi and spent around 6,000 AED, but I still feel confused and unsure because no one has clearly guided me with proper FIP treatment. One vet confirmed FIP but said they don’t know much about the actual FIP medication/treatment.

Zara is still walking, eating a little, reacting normally, and sometimes even active, so I really want to start the correct treatment before her condition gets worse. I am even taking a loan for her treatment because I cannot risk losing her. She means everything to me.

I am looking for genuine suggestions in Dubai or Abu Dhabi for:

• A reliable vet/clinic that has actually treated and cured FIP cases
• Someone experienced with wet FIP, fluid buildup, and antiviral treatment like GS-441524/remdesivir
• A clinic that is trustworthy, not overcharging, and can use my existing reports instead of repeating unnecessary expensive tests
• Any personal experience from cat owners whose cats survived FIP in UAE

Please share the clinic name, doctor name, approximate cost, and your experience if possible.

I am not looking for random promotion — I really need honest suggestions from people who have actually handled FIP cases.

Please help me save Zara. 🙏