Last Wednesday we found out our kitten has FIP, Feline Infectious Peritonitis. It's invariably fatal, usually within three weeks. He's home with us right now, but has already slowed down a lot. Today he's stopped moving around as often, and hasn't really eaten since this morning. He still wants to be beside us, and will purr from time to time, but I think we're seeing the end of the road coming fairly quickly now. I've lost pets before, and it always hurts. Somehow this is almost worse to me. He's only five months old, and I find myself wanting to stomp my foot and yell about how unfair this is. We've explained what's going on to our children. Our daughter understands, but I don't think it will be real to her until Sky is gone. Our son does understand, and I can see that it's taking a toll on him. He came up to me the other morning and told me that he doesn't want our baby to die. This morning he told Sky that he was so sorry, and that it was ok, as he was stroking him very gently.
I've never before been in the position of having to decide whether and when to euthanize my pet. I've gone through it, but it hasn't been my call until now. It's hard to figure out the difference between respecting life and prolonging beyond an acceptable quality of life - defining the latter is where I'm having trouble. It's hard not to get my hopes up when Sky is having an upswing and is a little more active. He's such a remarkable little guy.
These are pictures from over the past month. I'll post a current picture as soon as we replace the cable we need to load pictures from our camera, along with pictures of Collin and Willow.
2 comments:
Hi Keri Lynn
Such a gorgeous pussycat! It's so sad to think of him suffering from that hideous disease.
I wanted to refer you to a site on the internet that may help Sky.
You type into Alexandra Bastedo Animal Sanctuary into Google. When the page appears, click on Archives and then on March 2007. Then page down until you come to her entry for January 12,2007.
In this article she gives great detail about an alternative treatment she used for her cat Byron who was ill with FIP. He recovered. She deals with many vets both conventional and alternative and obviously gets excellent advice.
I had not seen this site myself until recently otherwise I would have tried the treatment on my three young kittens who all died from FIP over a five month period.
I tried various treatments, the last one being a combination of feline interferon and prednisone that a Scottish vet called Dr Diane Addie recommends. It certainly kept my final kitten, Marcus, alive longer (2 months)and kept him feeling better but he too finally succumbed.
It's a truly vicious disease as you and your children must know.
All the best in your fight to save Sky. I would certainly follow Alexandra Bastedo's treatment as it was so entirely successful for her cat.
Helen T
Keri, thank you for more recent photos. He's beautiful, and I'm so sorry you and your whole family (two footed and four) are going through this.
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