Our beautiful boy is only 3. He became quiet and withdrawn and stopped eating/drinking on Tuesday. He was admitted with a high fever and put on IV fluids overnight. He brightened up enough to be discharged home on Wednesday, only to deteriorate rapidly within a few hours and be readmitted early on Thursday morning with new neuro symptoms on top of the fever.
We’re lucky he’s well insured, so everything has been painstakingly investigated. He’s had bloods, head/neck/abdo/chest CTs and a battery of other tests, including bloods and aspiration of a swollen lymph node in his neck. Middle ear infection and brain lesions have been ruled out. He’s been on IV antibiotics which treat toxoplasmosis for for >24hrs. He’s not improving but he’s not getting worse. The vets are gradually, through a process of elimination, narrowing down their areas for focus.
Current differential diagnosis is toxoplasmosis or FIP, though the FIP test they’ve taken may not give us a definitive answer. It’s also possible none of the tests will be positive & a clear diagnosis remains elusive. FIP sounds incredibly bleak. We were quoted £6-10k for specialist FIP referral, investigation and treatment, if we want to pursue this. It would take us way, way beyond our insurance limit and the new wonder drug would be an incredibly expensive, uninsured ongoing commitment with uncertain benefit. We can’t entertain it.
I am trying to stay hopeful that it’s toxoplasmosis or something else altogether and he might come good, but it’s really hard right now. All of us are broken-hearted. He’s such a wonderful cat and has brought us so much joy.
I’m not really sure what I’m looking for here. Mainly a handhold, but if anyone has experience of FIP I’d be interested to know what we are up against. How will we know when we’ve done enough for him?