Help Cheems Overcome FIP

Hello! My name is Sam & my partner’s name is Gil and we have an adorable little kitten by the name of Cheems. He is an orange and white American shorthair with the cutest orange mustache and matching toe.

We adopted Cheems around a month and a half ago from a local and amazing no-kill along with his sister Brie. They’ve both fit into our household perfectly with our other animals, namely our other two boy cats named Napkin and Beignet, and have become the perfect little family. Ever since we got our little boy Cheems, we noticed his energy levels have always been low and always scrunches himself up, fondly nicknaming him “Kitten Scrunch” at times. After the third week mark of having our boy, we had noticed that while his sister Brie was growing as she should, that he had remained as tiny and small as the day we got him. We then reached out to the adoption center who gratefully supplied us with some calorie dense additives to specialize into his food, which he ate but.. he still wasn’t gaining weight.

Two weeks after routinely giving him wet food, loading him with treats, and of course lots of cuddles, Cheems seems to not be getting better. We noticed that his energy levels seemed to drop more, his hind legs weren’t working properly, and he wasn’t eating as much as he was needing to for a grown kitten. The adoption center gratefully set us up with a vet clinic that took some labs and after some discussion with a team of experts, Cheems has been diagnosed with what is called FIP.

Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) is a viral disease of cats caused by certain strains of a virus called the feline coronavirus, and Cheems has what we call the “dry” neuro version of this. This disease is always fatal without treatment and often very progressive. Me and Gil were lucky to have caught this while it is still in the early stages and are able to treat it. GS Treatment has been successful according to our adoption agency and cats who recover from FIP can lead happy, full, and healthy lives.

This leads us into setting up this GoFundMe. Currently, we are in the middle of planning a move in June and our funds are very tied in preparation for this, as the current place we reside is too expensive to do long term and we need to downsize. We don’t want to wait until after the move to treat Cheems as we want to catch this early and give him the best shot possible.

An estimate of the treatment for FIP (which include daily injections for him for about 3 months, as well as bloodwork every month) is estimated to be around $403.20 just for the injections alone based on his weight, which is most likely going to go up in price as treatment continues. Bloodwork is suppose to be done every month for 3 months during treatment and 3 months after which is currently $120 each round unless we find another vet that has cheaper rates. Overall, for bloodwork alone it is around $720 dollars alone and the medication is $403 at his current weight. This doesnt include the travel cost of visiting the vet, shipping cost of the medicine, supplements to help him gain weight, and any extra supplies that will be apart of treatment. The final price isn’t firm but we’re looking at least a $1,100 dollar expense either way, but we made the goal flexible enough to adapt to the possibility of weight gain which will make his medication more expensive.

My partner and I work full time jobs but having to bear the brunt of this cost will definitely make things in this economy harder on us if we have to accumulate more debt so we’re asking for help especially at such a hectic time in our lives. Please help us save our boy for our family. All funds will go towards Cheems’ health and anything extra in the end will be used for spoiling our babies with treats, toys, and other cat supplies to enrich their life further. Thank you for reading, sharing, and donating.