FIP anyone have experience?

[AnywhereAnyoneAnyTime]

Cat been going downhill for the past week or so. First thought was that she had an upper respiratory infection so had antibiotics, took her back and the vet remarked that she is pale plus has lost weight.

They took blood and she’s anaemic, but doesn’t have Fiv or leukaemia, but thinks it may be FIP. She has to go back tomorrow for more tests.
Vet said there is a recent treatment which costs 4 grand.

Looking online though it’s typically terminal.

Anyone else been here?

I had an 18 month old cat with FIP 20 years ago and it was terminal then and sadly I lost him. I believe there is treatment now that prolongs their life for years though it is expensive. Is she insured?

No. I made the decision to put money aside rather than pay for insurance.

I would probably find the money if I thought there could be a positive outcome, but not if I’m just delaying the inevitable.

The treatment is still experimental and AFAIK it's not guaranteed to work. It's also quite long drawn out.

How is he with vet visits and medication in general? That would be the clincher for me.

She’s actually really good. In fact I was surprised when I took her to the vet.
compared to previous cats I’ve owned she’s good at taking medication as well which I was dreading.

I think if she would cope with lots of vet visits and medication, I would give it a go.

But that's easy for me to say as I'm insured, and 4k is a lot of money, and I don't think you should feel remotely bad if you decide not to

We lost a kitten to it last year, he had suspected dry FIP with in hindsight obvious symptoms by the end, and same thing went downhill over about 9 days. I thought it was a reaction to his second vaccination at first as he was sleeping a lot.

I took him to local vet who completely missed it, he had a seizure later that day so took him to emergency vet hospital as was out of hours and they diagnosed with a few minutes. Think he was suffering quite a lot by then so we took the decision to put him to sleep. Also not insured but I think it was the best for the kitten anyway unfortunately.
You know your cat best, very sorry it’s horrible situation but I believe some can recover with treatment. I think it’s more diagnosed on clinical signs than a test for it but may be wrong.

She’s spent the day at the vet. No fluid in abdomen but enlarged lymph nodes and inflamed gut has the vet sure that it’s dry FIP.
So I’ve taken out a 0% credit card 😱

Good luck, I really hope your cat will be ok if you go for the treatment option. I’d never heard of FIP before our kitten had it, it’s a bit of a shock 😢.

So she started treatment yesterday, but unfortunately she is continuing to deteriorate.

The vet said she could have a blood transfusion but that is another 6 grand with no guarantees.
The treatment is said to start to work after 24/36 hours, so I’ve brought her home to give her another day. If no improvement by Friday I’m going to have her pts 😢.

Hi, I hope you don’t mind me asking but what was the outcome for your kitty?

Hi Namma - saw your post and wanted to reply as I have some experience of this. My cat had FIP in October 2023. We did the treatment and he is still here, completely healthy to this day. It was expensive but totally worth it, the survival rates with treatment are very good now.

@Justthisonce123 Thankyou for your reply. I took him to the vets and thankfully it wasn’t FIP.
I’m so glad your cat is recovered and is healthy again now.

I know this is an old thread, but just wanted to reiterate the message above that FIP is really treatable now, you can get a bottle of the antivirals for around £250 and an average sized cat might only need 3 or 4 bottles across the 12 week treatment. Survival rate is around 85%.

One of ours had it, probably about 15 years or so ago. It was confirmed by a lab in Glasgow. He was in hospital for weeks & we eventually brought him home for palliative care. He had a PEG tube in & had lost loads of weight . He escaped from my daughter’s room and started eating again- the vet was gobsmacked. He lived & died at the ripe old age of twenty !!

We are taking our 2 year for tests this week due to unexplained high temperature, lack of appetite etc. They’ve run many tests last week and had to go to emergency vet for an overnight stay so we’re already 3k in. Tests will be £1k. Insurance used up. If it is FIP where can I get this bottle from?? My vets want to prescribe medicine for 3 months if it’s positive but I imagine that’s thousands of pounds. It’s ridiculous I have to consider putting her to sleep because of money but that’s where we are. I’m happy to pay some ourselves, put it on a credit card etc but I can’t pay thousands. Thank you.

It sounds like the vets are suggesting prescribing the FIP meds as it is a three month (84 day) course. I have copied this verbatim from the FIP Global cats (UK and ireland) Facebook group, I'd suggest joining it, they will link you up with an admin to get excellent personal advice.

'It’s natural to worry about the cost to treat, whether you have insurance or not. Some vets are still quoting scary amounts - in the thousands - and usually it’s because they haven’t checked prices recently.

The reality is that prices have fallen a lot in the 4 years since treatment became available. Vets have a choice of two suppliers, can prescribe GS 441524 in different forms (oral suspension or pills) and prices vary wildly from vet to vet.
So, what should you expect to pay?

Well, a 3kg cat with wet FIP can be treated for around £660 in total for 84 days - if they respond super fast and meet the criteria, this could even be reduced to around £440* if they only need 42 days of treatment.

A 4.5kg cat with neurological FIP (so higher dosage) can be treated for around £1320* in total for 84 days.

The critical thing to ask your vet is for a price per bottle of oral suspension and a price per 50mg pill - we can then advise if you are being charged more than the average.

Oral suspension is always more cost effective than pills

As of July 2025:-
A 30ml bottle of Summit oral suspension is around £220
A 30ml bottle of BOVA oral suspension is around £250 - £350
A 45ml bottle of BOVA oral suspension is around £280 - £380
A 50mg pill ranges from £19 - £25.

Here at FIP Global CATS ® UK/I we have a database of vets with FIP experience and we try to maintain a list of current charges. We will do our best to help identify well priced vets in your area so that you get the best priced treatment for your cat.
If you need to fundraise, we have a platform to help with that.

We believe that EVERY cat deserves a chance to beat FIP.

*example prices based on £220 per 30ml oral suspension

Edited to add. We can also help you to discuss with your vet what tests are most useful and help you to have an open conversation about what is affordable for you. In many cases a treatment trial is a sensible way forward to keep costs down. People who have spent a lot of money in the past have often spent that on unnecessary referrals to specialists and expensive diagnostics (like MRIs) that may not have been necessary.

Overnight hospital stays will always incur expense, but for the majority of cats diagnosis and treatment can be delivered by your regular vet and your kitty can stay home with you.'

@Alternativetolove omg this is excellent!! I’m at my wits end with the vets who, imo, have spent 3k and got nowhere so far! I have to have an ultrasound and then other tests on her so whereas I can go with that I did fear the treatment to be thousands too. If I can go armed with this more affordable approach it won’t just help me it will help them pass on this information to anyone else who finds themselves in this position. This is so valuable, I can’t thank you enough! Off to join the group!