Help Magnus Texas Toast beat FIP

Hi my name is Twig though you may know me as Amadis. About a year into the pandemic my sister Tiffany and I started fostering kittens for our local humane society. Fostering was something she was passionate about, and also something she could arrange around her disability and fixed income. With our combined experience as former kennel attendants at a local veterinary office, we cared for a new litter every few months, for about two years.

In September of 2023 we received a large litter of nine dangerously underweight kittens we named the Bread Bowl, and they had their medical ups and downs but we did our best and got as many as we could through a very rough start, and they grew into beautiful healthy kittens ready to be adopted.

And then literally days before they were about to graduate from our house and go to their arranged forever homes one kitten named Texas Toast mysteriously got sick, and then another kitten got sick, and then all of them. We took them in for what we thought would be a routine vet appointment thinking they'd just need a little more care, and instead got the terrible news that they were positive for Panleukopenia, a very deadly illness that the humane society vets did not think was worth trying to treat. Some kittens were sicker than others and some barely ill at all, but they'd decided the entire group would have to be euthanized regardless because they'd all either tested positive or were showing symptoms. We were told it was only a matter of time. But while we'd never dealt with anything as serious as Panleuk we had plenty of experience treating all the symptoms and wanted the chance to try; These kittens had almost completed their vaccinations, they were almost all at their goal weight for spay & neuter, they were strong and vibrant and ready to grow up.

We weren't going to give up on them.

And so although the humane society was unwilling to continue offering support they gave us the option to 'claim' them and we accepted full legal and financial responsibility for the kittens, functionally adopting them ourselves, to pay for their care with our regular vet at full cost. With multiple ER visits and 24/7 treatment at home for several long weeks, keeping them warm and hydrated, administering medications and fluids multiple times daily, constant monitoring and constant cleaning, we were able to save five of the remaining seven.

My sister and I kept two of the kittens, and the dear friends of ours that came together to help us save them ended up adopting the others.

We've been closely involved in their lives as we all watched our miracle kittens grow.

Paying for numerous vet visits, the various medications, and then finishing up their kitten vaccinations and finally getting them spayed and neutered was no longer subsidized by the humane society as expected when we took them to foster, we were on our own for those costs and the unexpected medical bills have added up to several thousand dollars.

Which brings us to February 2024.

Magnus Texas Toast adopted by our close friend had recently recovered from his neuter surgery and was doing great, until suddenly he wasn't. He started to have disinterest and difficulty eating, seemed lethargic, and then feverish, and then developed a swollen belly. We hoped various tests and treatments would give us some answers but the symptoms piled up fast without much improvement and another vet visit today confirmed more terrible news: a diagnosis of FIP (Feline Infectious Peritonitis), a systemic infection that is nearly always fatal. Treatment for this disease in the US is very limited, but where FIP was once a death sentence there is now a treatment available that we can do at home. Magnus will require daily injections over the next three months. The medication itself is prohibitively expensive and will need to be paid for out of pocket, and will need supplies to administer as well as regular vet visits with bloodwork diagnostics to track his progress, and any additional medications he might need as any complications arise. We're expecting this to cost about $2000 if everything goes well.

This sudden development on top of the previous medical bills throughout our Bread kittens' journey has become more than we can manage and we would be grateful for your help.

He made it this far and we're not giving up on him now.

Donations will be prioritized for Magnus' FIP treatment in the coming months. When he's in the clear we then hope to pay off part of our medical debt, and anything in excess of that will be put to use helping other pet parents afford FIP treatment as we are able.