Sunday 19 May 2013

Bella

The optimist sees the rose and not its thorns; the pessimist stares at the thorns, oblivious of the rose – Kahlil Gibran

Is this cat very unlucky or very lucky? She's got wet FIP but it's been found early and treated with PI and she remains well. 
Bella ticks some typical boxes for FIP - she's young, she's Birman, a breed predisposed through inbreeding depression to FIP, she got sick after a major stress - neutering. Interestingly she had false positive testing for FeLV before this which turned negative some months later. After spaying her omentum had balled up on her bladder and had to be removed. Abnormal looking lymphnodes biopsied at that time were reported as FIP "confirmed with immunohistochemical stains – which is about as solid a diagnosis as we ever get for this disease."
Bella's facebook page - alive and well feb 2017 long may she purr!


Fortunately her vet Dr. Tracey Gillespie, internist at Indianapolis Veterinary Referral, knew of the Polyprenyl trial. She wrote to Dr. Legendre and Bella was allowed to start treatment in mid-March 2012 although she didn't qualify to be a formal study cat, her young age and lack of clinical signs of the wet form of the disease made her a good candidate for treatment. Mishka was knocked back when I originally asked a few weeks after diagnosis - should I be cross about that since she responded later when the drug went on sale? I guess they had some regulatory problems prohibiting sales, and limited funds but I would have made a donation.  
 "She adores clucking at birds, chewing all manner of plastic and paper, fishing for pellets out of the dog food bag, and of course flaunting her natural beauty." Although she remains largely asymptomatic her Mum Sue is guarded about the prognosis (and somewhat worried the chewing obsession is another genetic oddity):

" She is doing well right now but we know this is simply remission or suppression of the disease which has no cure. We focus on letting her enjoy every moment of being a cat. Her alternative was being put down by the breeder if we returned her. We noticed that she does have more energy and seems perkier after PI treatment. Not that she needs much more energy leaping for feather wands."

There's a bit of question mark about the chewing fetish Bella has for fuzzy things being a genetic problem as well.
I can only pray since FIP was caught early she follows Miracle's outcome. Miracle was not positively diagnosed but she was sicker, and is alive and well. Another Birmilla I am following in Australia has a similar early diagnosis from exploratory surgery; Leo is on feline interferon and a low dose of PI. 

Update feb 2017 Bella is still kicking on! please see her facebook page which was created sometime after i first wrote this post.

4 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Bella is mostly well - you can follow her on facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bella-Birman/616120025079853

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  2. On her website she is said to have dry fip not wet.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. sorry for slow reply- technically it is so so early she was diagnosed by biopsy at surgery when it is still dry so i wrote 'lack of clinical sgns of the wet form' but it would have progressed to ascites. this of course is her luck. she is still doing well.

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