Christmas Wish for Mishka

"Has The Cat been a good The Cat? That is the question...." ~ Tummymountain 

Oh I so think she has! Do visit the Tummymountain link - i didn't want to steal their picture of cat's wishes - it is heartmeltingly cute and accurate.

Cats live in the moment so Mishka's not counting sleeps to Christmas and neither is she stressed out waiting for the latest wonder drug that might help her win out over FIP ... but I am! We are waiting on PI - the Polyprenyl  immunostimulant (which we were told doesn't work for wet FIP) we now know has apparently cured one cat named Miracle, and an enzyme preparation called Serapeptase. Pray customs have some xmas spirit though they are not noted for it :(

and we have reached the end of the financial tether - actually i think we passed that redflag months ago but apparently cats are colour blind. If you were thinking of sending me a christmas card save a tree, if you were going to take me out for a cup or coffee and cake, save my aching joints by hitting the donate button below instead - paypal doesn't take much off it and they are secure.

Just by donating $5 you can help Mishka pave the path for other FIP cats with experimental treatment. Dr Norris Associate Professor in Veterinary Microbiology SYdney University says PI is definitely worth a try in Mishka - 3 months survival is a very good result so far. Mishka has the rarest and most advanced sort of fip affecting both lungs and abdomen. PI is only available in america and its use for FIP is considered 'off label'. We can raise a few extra hundred to also set up a stockpile of PI for rapid response for australian cats. The drug's price is quadrupled by taxes and customs forms which have to be purchased each time the PI is ordered so if can spread this out it over one big order this helps and importantly avoids delays in treatment which are fatal for FIP cats. If you are going to treat FIP do it early. Viruses multiply by doubling - do the scary math. Dr Norris is importing two boxes with her own money.

Once protocols for treatment are established through trial and error the survival rate goes up - it's not just all about double blind research studies. Sick cats like Mishka also just have to do the hard yards of the learning curve in the early days.

Lessons from Dr. Lipkin

"SARS was contained not because of a drug or vaccine but because we identified people who were infected or at risk, and we isolated them." ~ Prof Ian Lipkin MD

"When DISCOVER features editor Pamela Weintraub interviewed Lipkin last year, his dog, Koprowski was desperately sick. Lipkin had a treatment plan: not an antiviral drug or chemotherapy, but red meat. “It has antibiotics, it has growth hormone, it has everything"
Ian Lipkin is a virus hunter who was instrumental in helping China get control of SARS beginning with easy low tech things like soap and water for handwashing. He treated one of the first cases of AIDS successfully for a while with the new but existing technique of plasmapharesis to remove the antibody complexes that were causing his patients neurological symptoms.

Let's follow Lipkins lead and treat FIP with these things. Raw meat Mishka wont eat so until i can get hold of raw goats milk shes happily eating a kitty powershake - undenatured whey and colostrum powders, a teaspoon of each mixed with a teasoon of water daily, and raw egg yolk - yum!

FIP shares some similarities with SARS they are both corona viruses, and AIDS a disease of marked immune dysfunction.

Here's Mishka - Half the cat she was. She's leaking about 100 mls of fluid and protein a day into her peritoneum from damaged blood vessels - if we opened her belly up we would see little lumps called granulomas everwhere as the body tries unsuccessfully to destroy diseased cells that are nestled in the tissues like splinters. Collateral damage inflames the blood vessels - so far everything we have tried has not stopped this.
I have to wonder if plasmapharesis would have any success - UC Davis uses it for dogs with myesthenia gravis just as it is used in humans with this disease which inspired Lipkins AIDS treatment.

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