Help Carolina the Kitten Beat FIP
Meet our foster kitten, Carolina. She came to stay with us in May after she, her 2 brothers and their mother were found as strays and brought to the local animal shelter. Young kittens often go to foster homes until they are weaned and healthy enough to be placed up for adoption.
Initially, Carolina seemed like a happy, healthy kitten. She was steadily gaining weight and loved causing trouble with her brothers. One morning however, we woke up to find that Carolina had developed a cataract in one of her eyes. The cataract literally developed overnight! We took Carolina to the shelter vet for a checkup where they gave us the devastating news; Carolina had developed a virus called FIP. The vet informed us that FIP is incurable and almost always fatal. We took Carolina home and began to research if there were any options for treating FIP.
We called several vets. Each one told us that there was no cure and that Carolina should be euthanized. By sheer luck we learned about a group called FIP Warriors (https://FIPwarriors.com ). They informed us that, thanks to the studies of a professor at UC Davis, thousands of cats have reportedly been cured of FIP by an antiviral drug known as GS441.
This drug has yet to be approved by the FDA and therefore is not available in the US. However, many manufacturers of GS441 exist outside of the US. Currently, there are several hundred cats that have been cured of FIP. The amazing people at FIP Warriors have been able to safely obtain GS441 and are helping desperate cat owners to treat this awful disease.
Sadly, the shelter Carolina is fostered through is not allowed to use non-FDA approved treatments. All they could offer Carolina was euthanasia. They offered us the option of adopting Carolina and treating her ourselves but we would be responsible for all expenses associated with treatment.
This is where we need your help. FIP Warriors has helped us obtain the initial dose of this medication and Carolina is responding very well! However, the full treatment consists of 12 weeks of medication with blood tests done every 4 weeks to check her progress. The price of the medication varies by brand but we were told a conservative estimate for the medication and blood tests would be around $3,000.
Our hope is not only to cure Carolina, but also to use her success story (fingers crossed) as a catalyst to lobby for this drug to become FDA approved.
Any help would be appreciated!
Thank you for taking the time to read Carolina’s story.
You can learn more about FIP and the newly developed treatment here: https://fiptreatment.com/
