Gram Needs You!

Buy a Pill for Gram!

Gram is my special creature, born five years ago in the vacant silos of Buffalo’s Silo City. He was my boy the moment I held him in my palm and we locked eyes. He’s been nothing but an awesome, gentle, and loving companion.

Gram was recently diagnosed with FIP - a rare response to a common infection by feline coronavirus. (Generally, cats infected with feline coronavirus are asymptomatic and remain healthy. But occasionally, in a tiny percentage of cats, the virus mutates in such a way that it infects immune system cells, which disseminate and cause inflammation that is almost always deadly.)

Over the last two months, he has not been himself – no tucking me in at night, no appetite, over sleeping, and worst of all - his hefty 17 lb. fluffball of a bod has withered away to a frail and skeletal 9 lbs. I got the dreaded diagnosis last week when his x-ray showed an unusual buildup of fluid in the abdomen.

Once a cat develops FIP, the disease is aggressive and always fatal – that is, until 2019 when anti-viral therapy (remdesivir and GS-441524) started being studied and used in countries like Australia and the UK to successfully cure FIP cats.

The medication hasn’t been available in the US until VERY recently (like, June 2024 recently) – and it’s expensive AF right now. However, there are many, many published studies showing that this treatment has an 88% efficacy rate.

Gram will need 84 days of a drug called Bova/GS-441524. We start his treatment plan today.

If I can just find 84 animal lovers out there kind enough to buy one daily pill for Gram ($15), his medication can be covered while I catch up on the towering vet bills.

If there is one thing I refuse to do in my life, it’s to give up hope. Cures are out there, people do look out for one another, and science is invaluable.

Giving Gram a second chance also helps advance the treatment of thousands of other kitties. Vets in the US are finally learning that FIP does not have to be a death sentence and can start advocating for more affordable treatments.

If you have the means, please consider buying a pill for Gram by donating $15 and saying FU to FIP with me!