u/StarComradeMark

My cat Zorro (2 y/o neutered male) has been diagnosed with and tested positive for wet (effusive) FIP and subsequently started treatment on April 29th. He made a tremendous recovery these past 3 weeks with a full return to appetite and pretty much all of his fluid having been absorbed or pissed out (he peed a LOT) and it looked like all was going well. Suddenly we noticed for the past couple of days he started eating less of his food and was less energetic overall, which we thought may have just been because it was excrutiatingly hot over here in NYC - until we noticed yesterday that he had started to hide under the couch on and off for the better part of the day and moreover he started limping on his hind right leg.

I've been in touch with my admins on FIP Global and they immediately recommended we up him to the next level dose - he'd been taking 15 mg/kg of 50 mg/ml liquid suspension from Stokes (Bova) and were told to up it to 25 mg/kg - as it's possible he may have backslid and somehow started getting neurological symptoms. He seems a little lethargic but still otherwise attentive and mimics aspects of his usual routine but with significantly less energy, he struggles to hop onto the couch now but he hopped on to try to cuddle with me and instead of going on my lap he laid on the side.

I guess I'm making this post to kind of gather other people's experiences with this, has anyone had something similar and is there hope for recovery?

Zorro (nearly 2 y/o male, neutered, 14 lbs) is currently 48 hours into GS-441524 treatment (oral, liquid suspension) for Wet FIP at the time of writing. His appetite hasn't really shown any improvement beyond very briefly nibbling at his wet food in the early morning hours today. I know cats need 200 calories or more in order to thrive and fight this virus, especially for the treatment, but I'm at wits end as to how to do it in a way that doesn't overexhaust him nor myself and my mother who is helping me.

He is currently also on Mirataz and Cerenia.

We are force feed (syringing) Gerber chicken baby food and we barely managed a total of 160 calories today through the course of about 6 feedings, and he is VERY fussy and stressed with syringe feeding. He can only hold down about 20mL of the food in a sitting and I know it can be a while before their appetite gets back.

I suppose what I'm trying to ask is, how do I balance the feeding so that there is more calories and nutrition and have a reduction in amount of time spent syringe feeding?

Hi all,

I made a post a couple of days ago that my cat Zorro (2 y/o neutered male) got diagnosed with wet-FIP. Fluid in his abdomen but not yet in his chest. No apparent fever and he hasn't been retching nor vomiting, but his belly is swollen and his appetite is basically completely gone and it requires my mother and myself to syringe feed him Gerber chicken baby food.

We just got our GS-441524 oral liquid suspension and gave him his first dose a few hours ago prior to this post. How soon is the turnaround time? He is pretty lethargic but he still has some strength to fight back on syringe feeding and still (tried to) come up for cuddles just minutes prior to writing this post, but otherwise he is weakly loafing with his head kind of drooping down, conserving energy.

Would like to hear thoughts and opinions and experiences as we are struggling through this very difficult moment. I've heard some cats make some measurable recoveries in 12-24 hours and I'm praying that will be the case for my Zorro, but I'm also aware every case is different.

UPDATE 4/28/2026: The initial results finally came back as well as the fluid test and the vet again said while it's not definitively conclusive to be FIP, it's strongly pointing towards it. T Bilirubin levels are very high right now too and he is starting to yellow a bit because of poor nutrition. The vet finally prescribed us the GS oral fluid solution which we are trying to get overnight shipping for. I don't think he has more than a few days currently with how he's doing right now, so time is of the essence. We are doing palliative care for now while we wait for the meds to be delivered.

My cat Zorro, (Male, neutered) who's turning 2 years old in June, has been for the past several weeks getting a progressively diminished appetite and leaving more and more food in his bowl. At the time of writing, he has not eaten properly in about 5 days or so, just periodic small nibbling on his wet and/or dry food and for the past 48 hrs his appetite has gone down even further. He still responds to treats (we give him those lickable spoons) and he does drink some water, though since yesterday I've had to bring the bowl directly to him to encourage him to drink. He does not have fever and he does have a mild bloated appearance in his abdomen.

Today we took him to the vet not really knowing what to expect, and she drew some blood for liver function and etc, and did an ultrasound - he apparently has some fluid in his gut, and they drew a urine sample from his bladder as well as some of that effusion and that's going to be submitted for testing. The vet told us that given how young he is, and while not ruling it out entirely, she thinks its likely not cancer related or anything and that signs are pointing more towards FIP. The vet gave us some Cerenia tablets and Mirataz for a few days while we're waiting on results.

The initial bloodwork should come back in a couple of days or less but the FIP test results are gonna be a bit longer than that. Suffice it to say I'm scared for him and we don't even conclusively know if it's FIP or not, and we're hoping that it won't be too late by the time test results come in and we get meds for him.

I'm writing this post partially for awareness as well as to solicit peoples' experiences with this, as well as maybe get some opinions on what I can do in the interim. The wait for results is excruciating and I wish I could be doing more.

SYMPTOMS:

• Fluid accumulating in the abdomen, not currently impacting his chest or breathing
• Severely reduced appetite but responds decently well to easy to consume treats and water. Nibbles just a tiny bit on his wet food and leaves more than 80% of it. (Getting some gerber baby food to see if it helps)
• Stopped grooming a couple of days ago
• Lethargic but still somewhat alert, periodically retains his personality but visibly tired and loopy, half asleep fairly constantly right now
• No fever
• Urinates in the litterbox but no poop. Expected since he hasnt been eating much at all lately.