Gus - pentoxifylline success part 1

Gus is the kitten of a pregnant shelter cat who was kept by hs mother's foster carer Nicole after she rehomed his mom and siblings. He was a more mature cat, and physically strong when he started getting sick. He never got very dehydrated or stopped eating so he stood a much better chance when Nicole went in to bat for him with Prednisone and Pentoxyfilline. These anti inflamatory drugs are easy to get and relatively cheap. pentoxifylline was an early choice for treating wet FIP that didn't pass trials - we still tried it, as have others on the facebook group.

Gus was a big cat- at 2 yrs old, he was 13 lbs! At one point, I sensed something wasn't right with him. He seemed lethargic (wouldn't interact with new kittens, in the past we had called him "Uncle Gus" because he always took the foster kittens under his wing, grooming and playing with them). He also felt bony along his spine- and his belly was bloated. I will admit, I wasn't too concerned at first. I thought worst case scenario, maybe he had gotten worms from one of the foster kittens he loved to groom. After a few weeks when he was still wasn't being his usual self, I took him to the vet.

October 26, 2103 The day my world crumbled.

I went in expecting a Dx of Giardia or a tapeworm... relatively easy fixes. Instead, I was told Gus had wet FIP. The vet actually withdrew fluid on the spot from his belly and showed it to me - thick, yellow, protein filled fluid. And he weighed 10.5 lbs. Still hate myself for not noticing the huge weight loss.All his lab values were abnormal , and he had a fever to boot. 

Initial lab work

I cried ( that is an understatement) in the exam room for about half an hour before i was gently escorted out.The only hope the dr. could offer me was palliative prednisone to improve appetite and the kind offer to come to my house to do the euthanasia when the time came.

I immediately started him on pred, and frantically searched for a second opinion/treatment options. A friend of mine worked for a local vet, and she told him my story. I reached out to him, and after a lengthy phone consultation he mentioned a drug called Pentoxifylene. He said it might help prolong his life. It's a drug normally prescribed for humans, for autoimmune disorders. A pharmacy in Arizona (Diamodback Drugs http://www.diamondbackdrugs.com/contact-us/) compounds it into animal dosages. I brought Gus to see him in the hopes that he would disagree with the original Dx. He broke my heart when he said all signs pointed to wet FIP and he couldn't go against my primary vet's Dx. BUT - he suggested the Pentoxifylene, saying it could potentially help prolong his life.

After 9 months on prednisone and pentoxifyllene Gus visited this vet again. His A/G ratio which had been very low, was back up and the other values that had been abnormal were all good.

New lab work

All lab values were normal, and the ultrasound showed NO fluid in his abdomen. His old chart had a WBC of 30,000 and very abnormal liver/kidney functions. And a fever. His WBC is now 9,000, within normal limits. He is also back to his playful mischievous self, a very happy cat. The difference between the two was amazing. The vet said if he did not know Gus's history he would say he was a perfectly healthy cat.

I am grateful for every day I have with him, and I don't mean to offer false hope. I know FIP is a terminal illness. All I know is that he is seemingly happy healthy and no longer shows any signs of the disease. Part of me hopes he was misdiagnosed, but another part of me hopes that maybe he did (does?) have this dreadful disease and there is in fact, hope. I am slowly weaning him off the meds while monitoring him constantly for any signs of a relapse. My heart goes out to everyone who is dealing or has dealt with this terrible disease. I'm fully aware Gus may be (probably is) living on borrowed time. I just feel like I need to share this in the hopes that it can help another.

 Gus part 2 http://onecatlife.blogspot.com/2015/05/gus-pentoxyfylline-success-part-2.html

Gus - Pentoxyfylline success part 2

Continued from part 1 http://onecatlife.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/gus-pentoxifylline-for-fip.html
Gus's foster carer Nicole kindly answered my questions in detail - texting on a phone! That's dedication for you.

Diet- no special diet. Gus always ate just Purina dry indoor formula. Once he got his Dx, he was spoiled rotten and I added canned friskies plus whatever protein I happened to be having for dinner- shrimp, ham, turkey, ect. Whatever he wanted. He was never put on an antibiotic that I can recall. When Dr. Ciance of Allenwood veterinarian hospital (in Allenwood NJ 732-528-7444) Dx'd  him she put him on 2 ml of pred a day to stimulate appetite and make him feel better. She also prescribed doxy ( doxycycline? a  broad spectrum antibiotic ) in pill form but I couldn't get him to take it, and her opinion was to not force it on him, let him enjoy his remaining time. We may have tried liquid, I can't recall. But he was never on antibiotics for an extended period of time.

Uncle Gus

Then I took him to Dr. Falk (Ocean County Veterinarian Hospital Lakewood NJ ). He was so kind and compassionate, even recommended a support group for me. He looked at the initial bloodwork and agreed that it looked like FIP. (see Gus's labs in previous post) He suggested adding pentox in addition to the pred. So, he was on 2ml of pred and 1 ml of pentox daily. This went on for about 5 months, the whole time Gus very slowly lost his belly bloat, gained muscle tone, and became more energetic. The two meds combined cost about $90/m from Diamondback, including shipping. (60 ml bottle of chicken flavored prednisolone and a 30 ml bottle of chicken flavored Pentoxifylene.) Always got the meds in about 3-4 days flat rate mail but I do believe they offer offer expedited shipping as well. They were great and very easy to deal with.

Gus tolerated the pred well, he did NOT tolerate the pentox. I would say on average he would vomit 7/10 times after I gave it to him. Broke my heart. I tried mixing 1ml of pred with 1/2 ml of pentox 2x daily, that was a little better but he would still throw it up occasionally. I played around with the timing and what seemed to work best was giving it to him about an hour after he ate. 

( Note: when we tried Mishka on pentox we follwed the advice to use a cream - she had no upset other than she didn't exactly like cream smeared on her ears ) Please note how careful they were about not taking Gus off any meds until he was definitely better on bloodwork and they wean slowly.

He isn't on any meds at all now, hasn't been since October 2014. When Dr Falk did new bloodwork and declared him either misdiagnosed or "cured", we decided to ween him off all meds. I stopped the pentox almost immediately since he hated it so much- did every other day for about a week and that was it. I went much slower with the pred, as u know u can't just stop it cold turkey. I slowly decreased his dose over a month, down to 1ml, then did 1ml every other day for about 2 weeks, then 1/2 ml every other day for about a week, and that was it.

the Fab4 including Gus

I Have fostered about 75-100 kittens over close to 3 years... as far as I know none of them have ever been Dx'd with either form of FIP. I did have 2 pass away from dehydration and Giardia (they passed away 2 days after I had them, they were in very bad shape when I took them in). Every other cat/kitten has been a success story as far as I know. I have 3 other cats and none of them have ever had any major ailments -unless u count my 12 yr old Oscar just having 5 teeth pulled Poor guy.

Yes, I stopped fostering. I actually had 12 wk old brother and sister kittens in my house when Gus was diagnosed, I immediately had the rescue take them back (a friend's mother has since adopted them both)!

Gus is strictly and indoor cat. I live on a busy street. I fostered his pregnant mother and he has been with me every day since birth. My mother kept his mother and his sister, and I keep in touch with the woman who adopted his brother and other sister. As far as I know none of them have had any major health issues to date.

Murphy - misdiagnosis of wet FIP

Mischievous Murphy from Germany is a kitten successfully treated for bacterial peritonitis which was initially mis-diagnosed as FIP in April 2013 when he was 8 months old. Fortunately Jennifer did not give up. She found a second opinion from another vet, who although she could not rule out FIP even though his abdominal fluid tested negative for coronavirus, committed to save him and went for treating the treatable in the face of uncertainty. Murphy was given Suanatem (Metronidazole and Spiramycin) and recovered quickly.

This continues the series on misdiagnosis. Please make sure you check out Dr Addies's diagnostic algorithm's for FIP on treatment page before losing hope. And donate to FIP research which is working towards a fast and reliable diagnostic tool. In australia this is University of Sydney with Jaqui Norris.

Tam

Tam is a beautiful "Neva Masquerade" or "Colour Point Siberian" who is currently in remission from possible wet FIP (lung) living in France with Virginie. At the end of January 2013  6 month old Tam was diagnosed by her regular vets with wet FIP.  FIP specialist Dr Addie is in France and she is also consulting on the case.
Tam had trouble breathing and a high fever up fever up to 40°C. Her lungs were full of filthy lemon yellow liquid drained twice in 3 days. Amazingly she responded rapidly to antibiotics and prednisone, looking quite well by day 5, and perfectly healthy by day 18.  As you can see Tam is still a picture of health and beauty in April.

Happy May 1st ("Lily-of-the-valley" day for us in France) from Tam!

As usual poor Virginie went through the terrible agony of despair and uncertainty of how to proceed surrounding a diagnosis of FIP which I hope to help ease by chronicling some cases. There are some differences in Tam's presentation to Mishka's which I'll list later.

The Siberian is one of the 3 forest cat breeds that were originally wild breeds from Russia. From Tam's case I have also learned of the new Russian drug Skulachev ions (Visomitin, SkQ1)and eventually also found exemplary breeders Forest Wind who provide a 10 year genetic health guarantee including for FIP! (See breeders database for contact details.) Tam had four and a half shots of Feline Omega Interferon,  a lot of raw beef and is on two drops daily of "Skulachev ions" which are a targeted mitochondrial antioxidant currently used for human eye diseases in Russia. (A similar item Mitoquinone is more frivolously applied to the face to cure wrinkles by the New Zealanders. The lower regulatory hurdles for cosmetics allow the fast tracking i suppose.) Her latest blood tests show significant drop of the AGP level ( a non-specific marker of inflammation raised with infection) compared to 3 months ago.

Virginie tells her story:

Tam, a female 6 months-old kitten is healthy, but little bit more tired as usual. Breath seems heavy. 10 pm, we're trying to think this could wait open hours, but no, something is not right, we went to vet emergency : fever is there, and liquid in chest too.
the day after (saturday), x-rays confirmed the pleural effusion. On Monday (day + 3), we sent blood and pleural liquid to the Vet. University of Glasgow for a FIP profile.
Results are "clear" : for my vets, FIP is confirmed. So prednisolone + antibiotics in routine treatment for supporting the kitten.

Last week X-rays (day + 10) shown improvement : liquid is still there, but far reduced.
At day+18, Tam is as healthy as a kitten could be, ... running in the garden, purring on our laps, eating a lot, fighting with our 6 others cats (all have been coronavirus tested, and are negative to mild-loaded).

We are waiting to start feline interferon treatment (the bottle is ordered)
Or is it something else as FIP-cats are not likely to run the way she is (according to other breeders I asked for advices) ???

There was no bacterial culture of the effusion sample sent to Glasgow University for a FIP profile as suggested in the comments of the lab report so some question marks remain as to whether she had a bacterial infection since there was a high white cell count seen. Dr. Diane Addie has slight reservations about the diagnosis of wet FIP (perhaps based on Tam's speedy response to antibiotics and prednisone?) Tam's own vets are sure what they saw in January was a kitten with wet FIP.  "at that time, we were convinced it was FIP and no hope left, we didn't ask [for the culture]. Later when Tam was so well, it was too late : no more liquid remained (no more in Glasgow, and no more in Tam's lungs !)" The vets nicked a vein when drawing off the effusion, so Virginie says a little bit of blood may be the cause of the high cell count but personally I have reservations about the logic. Looking at it the white cell count seems too high compared to the red to be from simple contamination. Also really if they were so sure it was FIP then why send off an effusion sample all the way to another country for an expensive test? and furthermore especially  on a tight budget wouldn't it make more sense to go for the bacterial culture because you'd have a fighting chance of a good outcome if you treated for it? They gave Tam antibiotics for FIP - I'd think they'd want to be sure it was the right one, or is that just the standard response for a cat with a fever? Mishka had the high fever and mild cold like illness months before she got fluid in the lung (and belly.) At that stage there was nothing to culture except perhaps a straight blood sample. She spent a night at the vet's and was given a shot of a long acting antibiotic.  Months later when she presented like Tam with a day's worth of extreme difficulty breathing the vet drained the chest urgently - it was a transparent fluid amber tinged with blood from the needle. She analysed Mishka's effusion sample in house for cells and protein. Based on that excluded infection - she didn't request the sample be sent for further testing.

From what I can gather Tam only had 4 and a half doses of interferon beginning mid February spaced a week apart starting before being pronounced "in remission". Although Virginie says her vet is following the Isheda protocol it doesn't sound like it to me as that protocol begins with second daily injections. She wrote: 

March 16 Thanks. By now, Tam is still perfectly well. She received her 4th weekly interferon injection last saturday. Dr Addie adviced to continue interferons once a week ; but my vets told the published use of interferon is only 4 injections, and preferred to stop the interferons, to re-do a series in few months if needed. I really don't know what to do !!!

nothing has been published yet on the use of interferons in FIP cases : the manager knows about Dr Addie and Dr Jacqui's work, but as nothing has been validated, and against the lab commercial interests, she advised my vet not to continue interferon (because Tam is asymptomatic ; she is "completely OK", no sign at all of any FIP matter), and to re-do if needed later.

March 20 I was in touch with Diane Addie (I'm currently trying to translate the fip-book in French) ; the problem is that cases of remission already happened in the past without any interferons - and failures with interferons too : so it is difficult to affirm that interferons are really the key.
I read about Ishida and german study. I guess interferons may help, but just help, not cure. I also have to take in account that going to the vet weekly is a trial for Tam : this will not help her, for sure (as soon as she sees the crate Tam is hiding deeply, running into a rush - she really suffers to go to the vet, I think she had a bad experience during her transport from her board cattery to my home, and it is not the time to re-educate her right now).

Money is not really the problem: I want to be sure this would be really useful.

She is doing well for 2 months now, there is no difference before/after these 4.5 (she received what remained in the bottle last saturday - just half a dose) injections of interferons. I even don't know if these made her good or not : there has been no improvement, as there was nothing to improve (she already looked like she was healthy five days after the first "FIP-day").

I'm not that convinced interferons are key in FIP case. Tam is eating a lot of raw beef, I wonder if this is not better.
We did 4 interferons injections (once a week) current march (she was still "healthy" before we started - actually, she was ill only few days, she soon got better, and better, despite her results at FIP-profile ).

On Dr Addie advice and with her help, we've just started to give Tam some "Skulachev ions" ; we asked for FIP-profile at Glasgow vet university just before we started, so maybe we could see a difference between before/after.

Yes there was a big difference,

• from Alpha-1 AGP  2240 in Jan 
• to 540 before SkQ1 
• then 500 which is normal on april 22nd (after 15 days of skulachev ions) and Albumine/Globuline is 0.84

Even though AGP is not a specific FIP marker ( it is raised with other infections ) it is great news consistant with recovery - way to go Tam! Virginie says "Champagne!" Take home message may be that we are in danger of giving up too easily once the idea of FIP is on the table; repeated drainage and at a pinch it seems prednisone, antibiotics and don't forget the raw beef, are potentially able to cure something + they are cheap. Even interferon added to the mix did no harm to Tam. "I cannot affirm interferons, or skulachev ions have cured her; my opinion is that Tam has recovered on her own, we've just helped her. I cannot affirm either Tam is cured ; she is still here 4 months later, growing, eating, playing and her results are very encouraging, that's all"

 Update March 2014 A year later Tam is still alive and well.

Her photo also reminded me of FIP's link to another lovely spring flower, the snowdrop, Galanthus Nivalis which may hold a cure for both FIP and cancer. see 'treatment' page.

Dorothy - Somewhere over the rainbow

Today I got the news that Marcelo's cat Dorothy has also lost her 8 month fight with wet FIP.  Marcelo is in Brazil, not a native english speaker so it was hard to piece together her story. From what I gather Dorothy had a litter of kittens and developed wet FIP of the abdomen last year around the same time as Mishka. The effusion resolved on corticosteroids and human interferon by late october 2012 when Marcelo wrote to the facebook group for advice:

"Hello everyone, news on Dorothy condition. She is still doing fine, playing and eating, but she is not gaining any weight, is there anything I can give her as a supplement to food? Thanks for any help you can share."

Members reccomended Nutrical and a change from her kibble diet to something like Hill's a/d. John Robbie's mum reccomended colostrum powder (which I then started to give to Mishka who was not a fan of Nutrical as JR has been doing fantastic on PI) 

 "I've used Colostrum powder mixed wither with some water (force feed if they won't drink it) or added to wet food. I have used it on John Robie since he's eating well, but I used to give it to my FIV+ cat when he started declining as well as to unhealthy rescue dogs and cats. It really helps with weight gain and overall health and builds a healthy immune system."

Dorothy was given Nutrical twice daily. On November 22 it seems she was also started on PI and the steroids were weaned. In december 2012 she was on 1.0 ml Interferon and reduced from 2 ml to 1.5 ml of PI. but Marcelo did not say  how often she was taking these. In January the dose was further reduced to 1ml of PI and still 1ml of Interferon. In february after Mishka died Dorothy was still alive and very well. "Dory is better than ever, she is still on PI and Interferon, also on Nutri-cal. She seems to be in normal health now."  

Alas she suddenly crashed - like Mishka. Perhaps this is the best that PI can do for wet FIP, perhaps it's better to just leave it out and use the steroids early with interferon.

"My friends, yesterday was a very sad day for me and my wife, Dory health was downhill since last week, it was fast and cruel, so we had to put her to sleep. It seem that even miracle cats ends like this with this terrible disease."
Goodbye Dorothy dear ... if anyone deserves to wake up in heaven FIP cats do.

"Someday I'll wish upon a star And wake up where the clouds are far behind me."

 

Leap of Faith

"Healing takes courage, and we all have courage, even if we have to dig a little to find it." - Tori Amos

I wrote this just before Mishka died on Feb 1st but I've decided to post it unchanged. Update: a few edits and see the comment from Dusty's mum below!
--------------------------------------------
Dusty is the reason we are treating Mishka. Dusty survived wet FIP of the lungs in part thanks to injections of feline interferon and oral prednisone in 2007. I first wrote about him in a post about Hope http://onecatlife.blogspot.com/2012/10/hope-is-black-swan.html

Virbac sent me the case history and amazingly here was a cat I could believe in because I knew the vet practice in Sydney (I think my mum even took our old cat there on occasion. Chloe was a stray my brother took in who lived to be 17 on a commercial diet without ever getting regular vaccinations btw)  so I phoned the vet, Simon Craig who verified the cat was still kicking and had made it off the interferon. Based on Dusty's outcome we did the math and decided we could afford the treatment on the basis of expecting a dead cat or a cure in a little over two weeks - but there you have it, each case is unique and Mishka has not progressed as well - but she's not dead either, so the budget is completely blown by five months worth of extra drugs. We have apparently converted an acute illness into a chronic one - as allopathic medicine does so well.

Possibly due to her more advanced disease ( she has abdominal FIP as well) her own genetic challenges (she is a Birman, Dusty is a Scottish Fold) or that two week delay or not using the steroids first up. Dr Addie does mention in her wet fip case study, which I only recently read, that the wet FIP response to FOI is higher for cats with FIP of the lungs, and doesn't seem to work as well on abdominal FIP.

My suspicion is this is because abdominal FIP can be cryptic for longer in that area without causing distress. Mishka had abdominal fluid for a few weeks to a month perhaps before we knew she was sick.

It wasn't until her lungs really filled up that we rushed to the vet. Perhaps she was also dehydrated somewhat and thirstier than usual. Here she is the night before, mucking about and looking ok:

She may have been sick for much longer as the earliest signs are so hard to detect as abnormal, if indeed they were - she started being more sleepy (thought that was natural as a cat growing older and not being a kitten any longer), more cuddly and purry - well she got to know us and that's a nice thing, she was very hungry and insisted on 4 am snacks - well she's a growing cat. She got so chubby she was stuck in her cat door - that was cute (ok my son had at that stage twigged something was up. "mum Mishka is not a cat anymore" ? "Definition of a cat - fits anywhere the head fits" ??!!! )

Definition of a cat - fits anywhere the head fits

 Mishka's Leap of Faith

 
and so we followed the example of Dusty. I feel like a cartoon character that's headed over the cliff - can't stop running to look down now or gravity will reassert itself. Hoping to make it to the other side on pure momentum. Courage kitty - leap!

Madiera

“Some people don't really know enough to make a pronouncement of doom” ― Norman Cousins, Anatomy Of An Illness

Madiera is a year old kitty who had spontaneous resolution of ascites. She was diagnosed with wet fip end of march 2012 around 12 weeks of age.

It is lovely to read about a genuine recovery that demonstrates the bodies natural healing compared to healing that is often termed 'spontaneous' but where the patient has worked jolly hard at repelling the problem. I am reminded of Remarkable recoveries - a speech by Ian Gawler - he recovered from osteogenic sarcoma and his story kickstarted a holistic cancer cure movement in Australia. i think i read in Ian Gawler's biography "the dragon's blessing" something like spontaneous remission - there was nothing spontaneous about it!

She lives with Nicole Griffin-MacKenzie who sent this picture in to the FIP fighters Facebook group (our correspondance copied with permission)

August 19 2012

This is a pic from now, 5 months later and the fluid is still completely gone. ( she loves showers ) we are very blessed. Just wanted to share because I feel there is hope

NICOLE: She's not on anything just takes pedialyte 3x a day for her stools to stay normal. The first time she was tested by the veterinarian it was with a sample from the fluid in her abdomen, then dr Legendre requested a second test to be done ( due to the fluid disappearing ) and again the tests pointed to FIP , we were going to do the PI and that's why we were speaking to Dr. L but he stated to let it be if she is doing so well
Still doing great ( knock on wood) October 8 2012

• 

  NICOLE: We got her in February, at 8 weeks so she will be a year next month. We didn't change her diet at all. We stuck with the same kitten food that she was on. The only thing we changed was giving her pedialyte. When we thought she had weeks to live I we were giving her a tablespoon of vanilla ice cream at night but that changed as soon as we noticed her abdomen going down. She was urinating a lot during this time ... Which I'm sure has nothing to do with it

  November 27, 2012
• ME: wow what brand vanilla icecream! who knows you may have stumbled onto THE CURE. i'm only half kidding. the urine was the fluid going out. what breed is she? there is 'spontaneous resolution' ie her immune system kicked in on its own; thymus gland is still there i think at 8 weeks, it is not so active in older cats. when did she get sick?

  November 28, 2012 at 12:09pm
   
• ME: i better explain my self about the vanilla icecream - if you read the anatomy of an illness as perceived by the patient by norman cousins and see what he did. i have been searching for the equivalent of funny things for a cat. icecream may be the thing.

  November 28, 2012 at 12:11pm
   
• 

  NICOLE: I think it was hood Boston vanilla bean

  November 28, 2012 at 1:03pm
  
  Madiera was still well and taking her 3xdaily pedialyte when Nicole sent me copies of the tests in December 2012.

• 

  open in a new window and use the zoom function of your browser

  otherwise download from here - Madiera's blood tests

  
  

and here is Madiera all grown up in Jan 2013 - a sleek young lady

UPDATE MAY 2015 - Madiera is still a happy healthy cat!

Hope is a Black Swan

"Rara avis in terris nigroque simillima cygno" (a rare bird in the lands, very much like a black swan) ~ Juvenal

The first thing you will likely hear after the diagnosis of FIP is that 'there is no cure'. Utter bunkum - there are cured cats - not a sure thing, not easy and not cheap but just one survivor proves that it is possible. Black swans did exist unbeknownst to Juvenal writing in 1st century Rome. If your cat has wet FIP the cure is Feline Omega Interferon (FOI); if your cat has dry FIP the cure is Polyprenyl Immunostimulant (PI). UPDATE: PI has also possibly cured a kitten with wet FIP. The sooner you start the more likely the cat will do well.

Wet FIP Cases

Miracle 6 week old F6 Savanah http://onecatlife.blogspot.com/2012/11/a-miracle-kitten.html

Dusty 3yo scottish fold - survived wet fip with pleural effusion in 2007. Still alive and well October 2012 and on no meds. Diagnosis confirmed by Jaqui Norris, University of Sydney direct immunoflourescence of pleural aspirate. This is the feline omega interferon (FOI) 'poster case' for the manufacturers Virbac.

Click here for full case history

I talked directly to the vet responsible for Dusty's case - Simon Craig in Sydney Australia; his practice is up the road from where I used to live and I have followed their pioneering work in autologous bonemarrow stemcell treatment for hip arthitis in dogs which we can now use in humans too, thanks to their collaboration with a local doc. Be aware Simon Craig says it is no miracle cure and did not help most of his patients and he has not used it in years.

Dry FIP Case

The Hucaby cats live in Nashville Tennesee. Gringo (white cat in centre photo) was 2 years old and Natasha was 15 when they contracted dry FIP in 2006. Both were successfully treated with PI and Natasha reached the grand old age of 20 in 2010. (Update: at autopsy Natasha was found not to have FIP "Natasha passed last year of natural causes at the age of 21. Dr. Legendre has not included her data on his paper since he doubted that she had FIP (he had no doubts about Gringo). Natasha's necropsy revealed no FIP, as I recall. Dr. Legendre was correct as always." Oct 2012)

Click here to read their story

Polyprenyl Immunostimuant (PI ) survivors - reprinted with permission