GA Goodbye my lovely Meme

rawia

rawia

Member Since 2017
Hi everyone,
I was away for long time since my cat was well regulated.

My darling Meme passed away two days ago ( age 19), she was doing very well and nothing was wrong with her amd suddenly she stopped eating And i noticed that she was barely walking. Our clinic was closed necause of holidays so I took her to an emergency one and they did a blood test which showed a very high white cell that was an indication of sever infection, the vet said that he is 90% sure that this is FIP because her A:G ratio was 0.4 he said that i have to order the injection immediately as we do not have the treatment here. At the next day i took her immediately to her regular vet and he did some physical exam and he said that it is unlikely to be FIP, he admitted her and put her under fluids and antibiotics, in the next day he said that she is little anemic and the day next he called me and he said that her anemia is getting worse and she is not responding to anything. I went there immediately and i saw her in the way she was broke my heart, she was unable to move just her eyes was looking for my voice. I had to make the hardest decision in my live ang give her the injection.

I still feel guilty and confused, where this infection come from as she was very healthy two days ago and can aged cat got FIP virus, I am feeling more gulty knowing that she might survive if we gave her FIP injection treatment but her vet has doubts that this is not FIP and why she collapsed so fast.

I had a kitten that died from FIP but that was a months ago and he did not come near her totaly as she staying in my room and never shared other cats in any thing.

I am really feel gulty thinking that i might caused this to her in any way.

Can anyone tell me if aged cat really has chance to get FIP virus.

in the end i want to thank everyone her for their time to make ou diabetic journey much easier and less challenging, thank you from the heart
 
First and foremost, I am very sorry for your loss. We have had many kitties (9 currently), and we have had only three make it to the age of 19. She was obviously very well cared for and loved.

Second, never feel guilty and never second-guess yourself. Whatever decisions you made were made with love and in her best interests with the information you had available to you.

Ok, now. I unfortunately have experience on both ends of the spectrum with FIP.

Our 5 month old foster kitty developed the wet form of FIP. The rescue paid for his treatment with GI-441524, and my husband and I administered it. The treatment was expensive and the injections were very painful, but he got better within 2 or 3 injections, we completed the 84 days of treatment and the 84 days of observation (with blood tests at regular intervals) and he was deemed cured from FIP, which was almost a year ago. We adopted him at that time and named him Jake. Unfortunately, Jake developed a completely unrelated fast growing cancerous mass, and he passed away on 4/5/2023... But the FIP treatment really was a miracle.

Right after we started Jake's FIP treatment, our almost 14-year old boy Max passed away. Max had been ill for several months and under the care of a veterinary specialty hospital that is highly regarded in our area. Max was losing weight and anemic, and just looked like a "sickly elderly cat" -- which we have seen far too many times in our lives. He had all kinds of tests, took all kinds of medications, antibiotics, steroids, had ultrasounds, xrays, etc... but he just never got better. He was fading away no matter what we did. We had to have him euthanized. Because of the prolonged treatment with no improvement and not clear diagnosis, we had a necropsy. Max died of dry FIP. We had no idea. Our vets (both our regular vet and the specialty vet) had no idea. Dry is harder to spot than wet, and honestly, for older kitties FIP is just not on a vet's radar yet, until more people get necropsies I think we truly don't know how common it is. After Max passed, I found out that a veterinarian who is a foster parent for our rescue had her own elderly cat pass away and was diagnosed with FIP only by necropsy. She also had no idea it was FIP when her own cat was ill.

So, yes, it is absolutely possible that dear Meme had FIP, and there is nothing that you could have done to cause it. It is a mutation of a coronavirus that many cats already have, but it doesn't mutate. With an A:G ratio of 0.4, it definitely seems probable since a number that low is a very strong indicator. Some say that < 0.6 is suspicious of FIP, and < 0.4 is almost definitely FIP.

HOWEVER... Knowing how painful the injections were having done it first hand, I don't know that I would have put my cat through it if he was 19 years old. It BURNS. Our little Jake literally screamed when we injected him. The very first injection he turned around and bit my hand just because he was lashing out and trying to bite his own back where he was injected. I don't know that I would have done it for a 19 year old even if I was positive it was FIP. I'm just being honest. Would I have even put my 14 year old Max through the treatment? I think it depends. If we had found it out right away, months earlier and he was only slightly ill, then... maybe. But if we had discovered it right around the time we euthanized him, I would have been afraid to put him through 168 days worth and thinking that we were fighting an uphill battle because he was SO poorly then.

But I do want to say this here, since this post will be here forever: If *anyone* gets an FIP diagnosis, do know that the treatment is there, and it is miraculous. It is also not difficult to get, you just aren't allowed to get it through your vet. But your vet will need to be involved to do regular blood monitoring during the 84 day treatment and the 84 day observation period, so you need to make sure you can either get their support or find a vet who will. Here is the website that our rescue maintains, and it points you to FIP Warriors. I can vouch for them first hand. They are who you need to contact IMMEDIATELY upon diagnosis if you want to explore the treatment, and the rescue that I volunteer with has put many kittens through the treatment with extremely high success: https://www.purrpartners.org/fip/

Again, you have my sincere condolences on your loss. cat_wings>o
 
Last edited:
Sandi&Maxine&Whispy(GA) said:
First and foremost, I am very sorry for your loss. We have had many kitties (9 currently), and we have had only three make it to the age of 19. She was obviously very well cared for and loved.

Second, never feel guilty and never second-guess yourself. Whatever decisions you made were made with love and in her best interests with the information you had available to you.

Ok, now. I unfortunately have experience on both ends of the spectrum with FIP.

Our 5 month old foster kitty developed the wet form of FIP. The rescue paid for his treatment with GI-441524, and my husband and I administered it. The treatment was expensive and the injections were very painful, but he got better within 2 or 3 injections, we completed the 84 days of treatment and the 84 days of observation (with blood tests at regular intervals) and he was deemed cured from FIP, which was almost a year ago. We adopted him at that time and named him Jake. Unfortunately, Jake developed a completely unrelated fast growing cancerous mass, and he passed away on 4/5/2023... But the FIP treatment really was a miracle.

Right after we started Jake's FIP treatment, our almost 14-year old boy Max passed away. Max had been ill for several months and under the care of a veterinary specialty hospital that is highly regarded in our area. Max was losing weight and anemic, and just looked like a "sickly elderly cat" -- which we have seen far too many times in our lives. He had all kinds of tests, took all kinds of medications, antibiotics, steroids, had ultrasounds, xrays, etc... but he just never got better. He was fading away no matter what we did. We had to have him euthanized. Because of the prolonged treatment with no improvement and not clear diagnosis, we had a necropsy. Max died of dry FIP. We had no idea. Our vets (both our regular vet and the specialty vet) had no idea. Dry is harder to spot than wet, and honestly, for older kitties FIP is just not on a vet's radar yet, until more people get necropsies I think we truly don't know how common it is. After Max passed, I found out that a veterinarian who is a foster parent for our rescue had her own elderly cat pass away and was diagnosed with FIP only by necropsy. She also had no idea it was FIP when her own cat was ill.

So, yes, it is absolutely possible that dear Meme had FIP. And with that A:G ratio, it definitely seems probable since a number that low is a very strong indicator. Some say that < 0.6 is suspicious of FIP, and < 0.4 is almost definitely FIP. HOWEVER... Knowing how painful the injections were, I don't know that I would have put my cat through it if he was 19 years old. I'm just being honest. Would I have even put my 14 year old Max through the treatment? I think it depends. If we had found it out right away, months earlier and he was only slightly ill, then... maybe. But if we had discovered it right around the time we euthanized him, I would have been afraid to put him through 168 days worth and thinking that we were fighting an uphill battle because he was SO poorly then.

But I do want to say this here, since this post will be here forever: If *anyone* gets an FIP diagnosis, do know that the treatment is there, and it is miraculous. It is also not difficult to get, you just aren't allowed to get it through your vet. But your vet will need to be involved to do regular blood monitoring during the 84 day treatment and the 84 day observation period, so you need to make sure you can either get their support or find a vet who will. Here is the website that our rescue maintains, and it points you to FIP Warriors. I can vouch for them first hand. They are who you need to contact IMMEDIATELY upon diagnosis if you want to explore the treatment, and the rescue has put many kittens through the treatment: https://www.purrpartners.org/fip/

Again, you have my sincere condolences on your loss. cat_wings>o
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Thank you very much, I am little relief that I did not put her through this lo g painful treatment as she was very weak at that time and I just blame my self for not noticing the symptoms before, she has flue and sneezing for over amonth but vet thought it was normal flue and gave the only gave her antibiotics, I was wondering why this flue is not going away.

another question, is FIP contagious?

This will make me feel more guilty knowing that my FIP kitty gave her the virus

the vet said that get a diabetic cat to live until this age with more than 6 years with this disease is just a thing that i should be proud of but i still feel that i was not careful enough as i thought that she will not get it from the other little kitty.
 
I am so sorry you have had to say goodbye to your beautiful Meme.
What a wonderful age to get to with diabetes. You were obviously a wonderful mom.
Don’t blame yourself. You did everything you possibly could and then you helped her to cross the rainbow bridge.
We all wonder after we have lost a kitty and if we did the right thing…every one of us, and we shouldn’t.
:bighug::bighug::bighug:
:rb_icon:cat_wings>o
 
No, FIP is not contagious. My understanding is that the underlying feline coronavirus can be passed from cat to cat, but that doesn't ever mean that it will mutate into FIP. You should absolutely not feel guilty.

And yes, 6 years with well managed diabetes is absolutely something that you should be proud of and is a testament to your love and care!

p.s. I am not a veterinarian. I just happened to have two cats with FIP, and I researched it as much as I could when Jake got it (and then later found that Max had died of it). I am also the web admin that actually created that webpage for our cat rescue, so I was aware of it and FIP Warriors prior to either diagnosis...and yet neither I nor multiple vets suspected it in Max.
 
I am very sorry for your loss. Meme had a wonderful 19 years with you :bighug:
I know no matter how you try to tell yourself, it is painful. It hurts and hurts. Whenever I lose my sweet one, a part of me goes with the kitty. Never the same.
Sweet Meme, fly high and fry free :rb_icon:
 
rawia said:
Hi everyone,
I was away for long time since my cat was well regulated.

My darling Meme passed away two days ago ( age 19), she was doing very well and nothing was wrong with her amd suddenly she stopped eating And i noticed that she was barely walking. Our clinic was closed necause of holidays so I took her to an emergency one and they did a blood test which showed a very high white cell that was an indication of sever infection, the vet said that he is 90% sure that this is FIP because her A:G ratio was 0.4 he said that i have to order the injection immediately as we do not have the treatment here. At the next day i took her immediately to her regular vet and he did some physical exam and he said that it is unlikely to be FIP, he admitted her and put her under fluids and antibiotics, in the next day he said that she is little anemic and the day next he called me and he said that her anemia is getting worse and she is not responding to anything. I went there immediately and i saw her in the way she was broke my heart, she was unable to move just her eyes was looking for my voice. I had to make the hardest decision in my live ang give her the injection.

I still feel guilty and confused, where this infection come from as she was very healthy two days ago and can aged cat got FIP virus, I am feeling more gulty knowing that she might survive if we gave her FIP injection treatment but her vet has doubts that this is not FIP and why she collapsed so fast.

I had a kitten that died from FIP but that was a months ago and he did not come near her totaly as she staying in my room and never shared other cats in any thing.

I am really feel gulty thinking that i might caused this to her in any way.

Can anyone tell me if aged cat really has chance to get FIP virus.

in the end i want to thank everyone her for their time to make ou diabetic journey much easier and less challenging, thank you from the heart
Click to expand...


I agree. we all think we missed something when our furbabies get so sick. You are a good momma. she knew you were there and that is what counts.
feel better. know that she is not suffering anymore.
cat_wings>o:rb_icon::( lots of hugs
 
I’m so sorry for your loss. You did your best for Meme. 19 years says a lot about the care you gave her. She knew you loved her and didn’t want her to suffer. Thoughts and prayers go out for you.
 
I’m so sorry for your loss. I guess it’s part of love, to wish we could control everything that happens in our furbabies’ lives, but nature holds the last card no matter what we do. The same goes for our trusted vets. All we can do is love them to pieces while they are with us, and obviously, you did. :bighug::bighug::bighug:
 
Your beautiful kitty was very lucky to have you for her mom. Meme is at peace, and our GAs at the Rainbow Bridge have welcomed her with open arms. She is "in good paws".
In deepest sympathy,
Ella
 
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