Curative Drug for Often Deadly FIP Feline Virus. Meet Gridley.

Listen: Joy Smith, Founder of Fieldhaven Feline Center

Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP): A Cure In Collaboration

With UC Davis School of Medicine

Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP) is highly known in the cat community. For decades, it was 100% fatal. Kitten Gridley was blind and barely alive when he arrived at FieldHaven Feline Center..

“There is now a treatment that is often successful.”, said Joy Smith, co-founder, and executive director for FieldHaven Feline Center. “This treatment, while not without challenge, is becoming more mainstream. And we want to get the message out. We do not want to lose cats simply because cat owners or veterinarians do not know about the treatment, or skeptical of it. We are going to do something about it.”

FIP is caused by a mutated feline enteric coronavirus (FeCV). * This coronavirus is very common among cats and typically harmless. Most cats will eventually get better on their own, having only cold-like symptoms and will otherwise have normal, healthy lives. In a small percentage of cats, however, this coronavirus will mutate into FIP. It’s hard to diagnose and often strikes without warning devastating cat owners who until now had euthanasia as their only option

More reading on the subject:

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/05/remdesivir-cats/611341/