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FIP now treatable for cats!

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  • 18-05-2024 6:33pm
    #1
    Faith
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 30,657 Mod ✭✭✭✭


    if you’ve never heard of Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP), count yourself lucky. Until recently, it has been a rare virus that cats get with a 100% fatality rate, often within mere hours to days of symptoms appearing. There has been no treatment available. But in about 2016, an antiviral medication was discovered that worked to cure FIP. The pharma company wouldn’t authorise its use in animals, but a black market sprung up quickly. If you want to read more about the fascinating story there, read this: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/05/remdesivir-cats/611341/

    In absolutely fantastic news, this drug is now available in Ireland, legally and through your vets!

    https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2024/0515/1449188-cats-drugs/

    I’m posting this to spread the word far and wide. Our cat was diagnosed with FIP in 2021 and we treated via the black market and an incredibly helpful group of volunteers. Our vet was totally on board but couldn’t help as it wasn’t legally prescribed. The treatment was long, hard and emotionally and financially awful, worsened because we couldn’t use insurance to cover the cost, and we had to go on blind faith at the start. I’m so, so glad this means others won’t have to go through what we went through because now you can legally get treatment!

    To also note, this drug can be used as a diagnostic tool. If there is any uncertainty about a diagnosis, as there often is with FIP, talk to your vet about starting the treatment anyway to see if it helps.



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    #2
    CelticRambler
    Registered Users Posts: 6,754 ✭✭✭CelticRambler


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058352206/fip-now-treatable-for-cats

     it has been a rare virus that cats get with a 100% fatality rate

    Easy on the scaremongering there. It is a very common virus that cats get, with a few rare cases becoming evident as the disease FIP, and has been well-known for at least thirty years. Any vet dealing with cats would have seen it several times over.

    Like all new-to-the-market treatments, this one has yet to prove its worth in real-life situations, and the early indications are … well, a bit "meh". Very much the same as when it's used for treating Covid in humans - some patients are dosed up to the eyeballs but die anyway within quite a short period. It's far from a miracle cure.



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    #3
    Faith
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 30,657 Mod ✭✭✭✭Faith


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122153960#Comment_122153960

    Feline Enteric Coronavirus, which is the precursor to FIP, is a very common virus that cats get and most recover without issue. In a small subsection, the initial virus mutates into the FIP virus, and when that happens, it had been incurable until recently. You are mixing up two different viruses.

    As for the data, it’s not “meh” at all, it’s very clear. There are literally thousands of cats whose lives have been saved by this treatment. I suspect you are looking at a very limited sample, and possibly only focusing on studies using Remdesivir in the UK, which has appeared slightly more limited in its efficacy than GS 441542. A big problem with the data is the majority of cats have been treated via the black market so there are no published studies about the cure rates on them. If you’d like to read some more, have a look at this paper from 2019 that formed the basis of the black market treatment program: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1098612X19825701

    I can also speak from personal experience as to the efficacy of the treatment, and I know of literally hundreds of other cats in the UK and Ireland who have been treated successfully.

    Finally, I have to wonder about why you read a post that can only be described as a good news story, and your first instinct was to shít on it 🫠



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    #4
    CelticRambler
    Registered Users Posts: 6,754 ✭✭✭CelticRambler


    https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122155978#Comment_122155978

    You are mixing up two different viruses.

    They're not two different viruses - you acknowledge yourself that the enteric form is (thought to be) the precursor to FIP. It's exactly the same situation as in humans who can test positive for "Covid" even though they don't have/will never get Covid, the disease. You can read Diane Addie's work on the topic for more on the subject.

    I have to wonder about why you read a post that can only be described as a good news story, and your first instinct was to shít on it

    Mainly because you opened with the statement a rare virus that cats get with a 100% fatality rate which is incorrect. As this is a public forum, I thought it worth pointing out that the information given should be treated with some caution, as (a) the drug is still not readily available, even if there's a legal route to acquire it (and one has the funds to pay for it); and (b) the reliable published research is very fresh - most of it less than 12 months old - and limited to relatively small studies, with a very approximate failure rate (i.e. death) of about 10-15% and follow-up investigations typically stopped at 6 months at the latest.



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