Please HELP our Daphne beat deadly FIP virus!

Hi, we’re Laura and James. For those of you who know us well, you know that our beautiful furbabies are our lives and they’re such a huge part of our family

For those who don’t here’s our back story… 4 years we decided to add to our family, we researched the British shorthair breed and fell in love. We found a reputable breeder and we brought Daphne along with her brother Niles home with us to join our family. (Yes we love Fraser and just like in the show they were the best of friends and completely inseparable) It was THE best day and a day we’ll never forget. Our little family was complete.

However around 7months after bringing them home we lost Niles extremely suddenly and our hearts were broken. Even more so as Daph lost her best mate, her Niles.

So we thought long and hard and decided to bring a new brother Eddie into our family and what a day that was…she instantly disliked him as he wasn’t Niles haha. Eddie was such a loving soul however started to deteriorate and unfortunately had to undergo surgery to have both of his femoral heads removed, each within the space of 6weeks. Thankfully it was a success and the boys muscles are the only things that hold his legs and hips together!

We thought that this has got to be it!!!

Surely we can’t go through anything else however that changed on Friday 10th Feb.

The tough cookie that’s Daph became really unwell. She was lethargic, she’d lost a lot of weight and had stopped being her usual beautiful self. We took her to the vets and she was admitted straight away and we couldn’t believe it.

We felt like history was repeating itself!!! For a THIRD time!!

We spent £4000 over the course of the weekend trying to figure out what was wrong and yesterday we were told that Daphne has FIP (feline infectious peritonitis) the wet version of Feline Coronavirus.

Please google it.

I did and I knew straight away it was a death sentence but not only that, that my other 2 might have it.

My world just started to collapse in front of me.

Feline infectious peritonitis (FIP) is the leading infectious cause of cat death. FIP occurs when the cat reacts inappropriately to feline coronavirus (FCoV) infection. Most cats simply become infected, shed FCoV for a month or two, mount an immune response, eliminate the virus and live happily ever after. However, for reasons that we don't yet fully understand, instead of clearing FCoV infection, an unfortunate few cats develop FIP and this is our Daph. The reality is that FIP has caused Daphs abdomen and chest to fill with fluid which will ultimately stop her from being able to breathe…as it will suffocate her.

The vets have given us some hope. However a year ago there none. There’s a new drug that’s been brought into the UK that can treat it HOWEVER it costs around £10-12,000 over the course of the treatment which lasts 16 weeks. Our hearts sank. This amount of money is huge. The vet immediately suggested she be put to sleep if we can’t afford it.

We’ve have insurance however as you can imagine it’s no where near enough to cover this plus we’ve already spent £4K and this is why we’re here…using the power of go fund me and social media to see if people can help us.

I can’t put her to sleep when she’s still bright eyed and bushy tailed despite this infection attacking her body.

We have enough to start the treatment tomorrow and she will start it but we need people’s help to see it through.

We need to give her a fighting chance and I’m hoping people can help me. I know times are so so tough and people are finding things hard however any amount will be greatly received and if you can’t just sharing this appeal might help us save Daphs life.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

Laura & James xx