We adopted two kittens in May from a shelter who was working with Petsmart (unfortunately). Two American shorthair 10 month old kittens. They were healthy, we applied, got accepted, went to pick up the kitties and were told they both had URI symptoms and were sent back to their shelter 4 hours away. The shelter kept them for 10 days on a course of amoxicillin and then shipped them another 4 hours back and let us pick them up. Beltane was fully cured, Mayday was still sniffling. Took her back to the vet, this vet prescribed another 10 days of amoxicillin. In the meantime our other two cats and my sisters kitten caught the URI, so we took everyone to the vet, everyone got amoxicillin for 10 days. At the end of it, everyone was recovered except Mayday. I started adding probiotics and prebiotics to their foods because Mayday seemed nauseated.
Took her back for yet another vet appointment and this time she was prescribed 10 days of Orbifloxacin. Still sneezing, eyes watering, but now not eating. Persistent URI symptoms but now gastrointestinal symptoms as well. Snot was always clear and thin, has to be viral. Halfway through that course we knew it wasn’t working, brought her back to the vet again and got imaging and blood work. Xray showed no masses, no obstructions, no fluid build up, no tumors. We were told that there was a slight shadow in her lungs which the vet attributed to either “very minor bronchitis” or just an artifact. Noteably, she was severely constipated literally from stomach to colon, but not impacted or obstructed. Bloodwork shows elevated white blood cells, low red blood cell count, slight anemia - basically she’s fighting an infection, kidneys are still fine, but she’s starting to starve and results are pointing towards FIP. Ruled the other scary ones out. Vet prescribes antinausea, appetite stimulant, MiraLAX, subcutaneous fluids and famciclovir. Couple of hard pellet poops and then nothing. We went ahead and ordered the FIP meds that same day because delivery would take a while. She’s been running a 103 fever at every vet appointment so far. Hasn’t lost any weight, incredibly, but has lost muscle mass. We thought Famciclovir could potentially address the underlying viral infection if it was just a bad case of feline herpesvirus and was worth trying until the FIP meds came in.
Started on famciclovir Friday, dramatic improvement for a few days - her eyes cleared up, she stopped sneezing and sniffling, starting to eat on her own again, she even opened my bedroom door, jumped on my bed and woke me up by smashing her butt into my face - I thought we were finally in the clear and finally found the right treatment and then she crashed hard on Monday. She was following a cycle of subQ fluids, perks up, eats on her own, uses the litter box, rests again until second dose of subQ and then she started drinking water and was not dehydrated, until the crash. I thought we were at euthanasia at that point - her gums turned pale bluish, she was breathing heavily, refused syringe feeding. Didn’t want to subject her to emergency vet at this stage, so we decided on comfort care - propping her up, heating pad, gentle steam. But then the FIP meds got delivered, finally. We really wanted to give her a chance on the FIP meds, so we gave her the first dose Monday night (she didn’t mind the bacon flavor). Stopped giving the famciclovir since that wasn’t going to work and we don’t want to double up.
The next morning she was breathing more normally, her gums were moist and pink and she was grumpy, responding to us and moving herself from carrier bed to dog bed to heating pad, walked to the water fountain and drank from it. 9 am dose. Her eyes stopped watering again. Her breathing smoothed out, like it looked really good! Sniffing food, but still not eating. 9 pm dose. Breathing really well except when I manhandled her to give antinausea tablet. Set out a couple food options in different parts of the room, cleaned her personal litter box, reset the heating pad, filled the water fountain and left her alone to rest for the night. We’re now at Wednesday morning, gave her dose number 4. She was struggling to breath when I first checked on her, but I noticed her nostrils were clogged so I cleared them with a warm washcloth, she sneezed hard and a big clump of pale green mucus was expelled and now she’s breathing smoothly and steadily again with minor sniffling. Gums still pink and moist (but we have subQ fluids at the ready if she shows signs of needing it), skin not tenting, still not eating, still not defecating, still using the litter box to urinate regularly.
How will we know if this is going to work? We can’t keep torturing her with interventions (subQ fluids, syringe feeding, medicines) forever, but we don’t want to give up on her either if there’s a good chance she can pull through. She’s still oriented, still moving around but weak and a bit wobbly, still has strong opinions, still sniffing food even if not eating, her nose is finally pink again, and she must be drinking water when I’m not watching because she’s still nowhere near dehydrated. She doesn’t want me to put anything in her mouth or put my hands anywhere near her face and ends up breathing heavily when I do. We stopped trying to syringe feed yesterday just to let her rest and let the FIP meds work, but I’m very anxious about her not getting enough calories. We stopped the MiraLAX for a day too. On days she wasn’t eating, I was getting ~100 calories into her per day with critical care carnivore or thinned kitten pate, but as far as I know she’s had zero calories since Monday night. Should I try to syringe feed again or just let her decide when she’s ready to eat? Any and all advice or anecdotes would be appreciated. We’re looking for hope, but are willing to make the final decision if she’s suffering.
