Susie's Diary

Susie has been diagnosed with FIP (Dry form).
This diary notes her progress - a good way for me to
talk about how this makes me feel, and something that
might prove helpful to other people who have FIP cats.

This page talks about Susie's health over the years, and the later half of the document talks about how she was diagnosed with FIP.

A quick note about online support.
When the initial opinion was cancer I joined the Feline Cancer support group on yahoo. The people there were wonderful - got me through very difficult time, if you have a cat with cancer then I recommend joining this Yahoo Group as they are not only a wealth of knowledge and experience but also a very welcoming and supportive group of people.

I have also found a great deal of support on http://www.petloss.com/ adding Susie's name to the Monday candle ceremony on the special needs list. Visit the message board also, as I have found tremendous support from there in the last two weeks. There are alot of people there who have faced this, or other diseases and understand how it feels to care for a pet with a terminal illness.

Feeding
I have always fed Susie on half a tin of Felix (Jelly not Gravy) in the evening and portion of biscuits (usually brekkies) in the morning). I have on occasion switched dry brands to Whiskas but on the whole the diet has remained pretty much the same. She never liked cat treats and I don't allow her to have scraps. It's the cat food in her and nothing else!

History of her Health
Day two of Susie's arrival - a blue colour appeared in her eye. I took her to the vet who found an air gun pellet close by to it in her cheek. The blue colour was caused by a cyst which he assumed came from another pellet grazing her eye. The pellet was left in on the vets advice. Read the story about Susie's air gun injury at Park Vets.

Over the next three years apart from more than her fair share of hair balls, and a habit of eating biscuits too fast and being sick, she was fine. She's always been an indoor cat since her and her daughter have been with me. We moved in with my friend and her three cats. Susie, I discovered, sweet little friendly cat that she is, does NOT like other cats. So we had constant fighting. The other cats had all been outdoors frequently and Susie fought alot with one of them. Susie also got out of the flat on one occasion, she was missing for several hours but we found her nearby. A neighbours cat was quite nervous and timid and so we assume she also fought with him.

Nearly two years on bring us up to the present.
Two months ago I noticed blood in her motions and she also developed the habit of occasionally not using the litter tray (which cost me £95 in withheld deposit, but what can you do? If they're ill these things happen). The vet said she was ok in every other way and that it was probably a mild colon infection. After antibiotics it seemed to go away. Then we moved house. Now I've no doubt that she was unsettled, but we've moved around alot and she's always settled very quickly. This time there were other people in the flat, so she had an extra element to get used to -we've always lived in a flat with me as the only human. She was off her food from the start but that isn't unusual - I didn't expect her to eat normally for a day or two at least. However As she regained her appetite and settled in I noticed over a period of three weeks that she was eating smaller portions, and not finishing her food.

Three weeks ago I realised she wouldn't eat more than a few bites in one go and was disinterested in food. I was concerned she might be losing weight, but with my other cat so big (on a diet) she always does look smaller. That night however I found more blood in the litter tray. The next day at the vet he examined her and instantly found an abnormal mass in her intestine. He said it was probably a tumor and I should prepare for the worst. We were sent for an ultrasound and that came back (we got the results within 15 minutes) clear of a tumour. However there was infection present and a swollen lymph node. The vet was concerned for lymphoma and performed a laparoscopy and a biopsy on the node. During this he found an air gun pellet in her stomach. This was removed. However, as it had been there for some 5 or 6 years it could not have been the cause.

Further tests on he biopsy tissue revealed a pyrogramuloma. The cells were stained (excuse my limited knowledge of this area, but I'll relate it as best as I can). The vet warned me that it could be FIP. We had a blood test and this showed she had been exposed to a Coronavirus. The biopsy and blood test confirmed the diagnosis. By this time her appetite was up and down, and my vet spoke to a specialist hospital. I awaited their word before deciding on which of the two treatment options I had been offered. They were not encouraging and I decided that I would go with Prednisone - not suppressing her immune systems as far as the other method, but she'd not be as sick and I'm convinced she'd be happier.

Please follow her progress in her diary. If you have an adult cat who has developed FIP I'd be very interested to hear from you . As this disease effects so few adult cats I would welcome an exchange of information with those who have been through or are going through this with their cats. I could also use the emotional support.