FIP

[EATmum]

Our lovely boy has been diagnosed, reasonably confidently, with FIP. It's the dry form, and he has one increasingly bloodshot eye, weight loss, high levels of whatever they test for for the coronavirus and is wobbly sometimes when he is sitting down/moving around.
Since his diagnosis, we've obviously been making lots of fuss of him and trying to make sure that his time remaining with us is as good as it can be.
He eats ALL the time - probably six sachets of kitten food (advised by vet though he's nearly four) a day. He drinks water, which he never used to do.
In the last couple of weeks, he has taken to pooing in the house - bless him, he does it in the bath or the shower, but it's still pretty unpleasant. We've set up a litter tray in our shower room for him - as I think he finds it hard to get down to go out when he needs to now - I'm not sure he's using the cat flap either, though he still asks to go out the front door.
I'm not sure why I'm posting really, except for ideas from anyone about how to make his time with us as positive and pain free as possible. Despite eating a massive amount he is very thin. The vet doesn't think he's in pain, but it's hard to know.
I'd also be very interested to hear from anyone who has cared for a cat with FIP about its progression - particularly the dry form which seems to have a longer time span.
Thank you anyone still reading.

No experience or knowledge here but wanted to say how, sounds awful for you, & leave hugs if you like them x

Thanks for your kind words. It's very hard - esp as his sister got run over a couple of months ago. Seems very unfair on them - they were/are too young!

Oh bugger you poor thing what rotten luck

So sorry to hear this.

Thank you - appreciate it. It's very frustrating when there's nothing that can be done to help. Any advice would be really welcome.

Sorry to hear that, bad news. I thought the wet form was supposed to be more deadly than the dry form?

There was a poster very recently who lost her cat to FIP, thread here. Afraid she had to have the cat put to sleep when things got too critical.

To repeat what I said on that thread, we know that our cat has tested positive for the corona virus, and I told myself at that point that if he ever got diagnosed definitely with FIP I would get him PTS sooner rather than later to save him suffering for something that's got no chance of recovery - but who knows what we'd do in practice when faced with a terrible decision.

But if the vet is reasonably confident your cat isn't suffering, that's reason enough to hold on another week or two, perhaps.

It's so hard to know but he doesn't seem to be in pain. Before Christmas he seemed like he was fading in a matter of days, but he's rallied since then and is clearly trying to fight it, however pointless the battle. We'll try to watch him closely to decide when enough is enough. He's such a lovely boy.