This is Mieko, a rescued stray cat who lives with us as our family member.

2022 has been a bad year for our little boy Mieko. The first half of the year he fought off bacterial infection, ear mites and fungal infection that he contracted from another rescue.

Just as he recovered from those, within a month we saw him loosing weight drastically. We realised that when we could feel his bones when we carried him.

Our boy was seeming very dull, inactive, and low on weight. Slowly he started running high fever, stopped eating food completely and was anaemic. After some tests we knew he was positive for Mycoplasma. We were still ok as Mycoplasma is absolutely treatable with the right kind of care. However, even after Mieko was put on the treatment for Mycoplasma, his fever never subsided, and he refused to eat which was alarming for us.

That's when the docs gave us a heads up on the possibility of the potentially fatal viral Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP). On further check-up, our worst nightmare came true. Mieko was FIP positive. 💔🙁

It was as if we were hit by an iceberg and suddenly we felt we didn’t have much time with Mieko in our lives.😢

While not much is known about the disease, we do know that it is an auto-immune mutation of the common feline coronavirus and can be triggered by high levels of stress. 95% cats get infected with feline corona virus and they can fight it off easily. However, 1-2% cats have a bad immune system that backfires resulting in mutation of the virus and becoming FIP. Mieko is one of the unfortunate 1-2%.

FIP is a fatal disease and till as recent as 2019 death was certain for all the cats who were FIP positive. The only result was either the cat succumbing to the disease or being euthanized.

But now, thankfully FIP has medication available. However, the medication is not easily available and very expensive. The total expenses of his tests, medication and injections for the 84 days course is expected to be around 1.50 Lakhs. After fighting other disease right before being diagnosed of FIP we feel financially drained, and we are running short of Rs. 70,000

While Mieko is still positive for FIP, he is now stable and gradually putting on weight and has had no signs of fever for a while. At this point, we seek help from fellow pet-parents and animal lovers to help us save our child and provide further treatment to Mieko so he can live a healthy and happy life after this nightmare.