Super Cooper
I have to share this story with you about my partner Eva and of our wonderful cats who become part of the family. Eva and the children were looking to adopt a cat, and when they went to the shelter she and the children fell in love with these two special cats. What makes these two cats special is that they are both handicapped. One cat lost both of her eyes and later most of her teeth due to a very bad Feline Herpes Virus (FHV-1). The other cat lost a hind leg to which the cause is unknown to us. There really wasn’t much history about them but they were both adopted right away and they were given the clever names Alice and Cooper and a warm and caring home to live and be loved. Alice is the blind cat and Cooper is the missing leg cat.
Eva brought Alice and Cooper to the Vet to get their vaccine shots and deworming, etc. About a week and a half or so later Cooper’s fur started to look bad, lost a lot of weight, and his belly was very bloated. The concerned mother that Eva is immediately brought Cooper to the Vet who told her that it is most likely the Feline Infectious Peritonitis virus otherwise known as FIPs. This disease’s prognosis is almost certain death. The Vet said that Cooper must be put down and told Eva that there is no treatment other than palliative care. Eva and the children were devastated. Cooper was part of the family and these felines displayed love and affection with their human family and each other. Eva and I spoke about it but the Vet had nearly convinced her that euthanizing Cooper was the only option and that there most certainly were not any treatments available. I told Eva that we should little deeper and search to see if there are any other treatments out there.
A quick Google search brought us to a support group in Germany named Gemeinsamgegenfip (Eng: United Against FIP) which was located not far from home in Bavaria. She contacted their administrator who replied right away that there were indeed treatments available with a very high and long term success rate. The treatment was in the trial phase and would be a lot of work not to mention very expensive. There was a medication that Dr. Niels Pedersen at the University of California, Davis was experimenting with to treat FIP’s called GS441524 which is a series of daily injections for ~84 consecutive days. Due to the nature of the medication the dose had to be adjusted to the weight of the cat and necessitated daily weigh-ins to insure the proper dose was being administered. This group had a whole treatment protocol ready to put into action. Within 24 hours they coordinated starting doses of this lifesaving medication to be made available to us. Blood tests needed to be done every 4 weeks to check liver function among other things. In addition to this medication, B-12 vitamins were given for liver protection, colloidal silver, and manuka honey were given as well. It was also suggested that chicken livers be given to eat to help Cooper’s health, however, he really didn’t like them.
There was an almost immediate improvement within a few days of administering the medication and it was a steady progression the whole length of the series. At the halfway mark Cooper no longer displayed any symptoms and was a very happy cat and purring all the time. His fur looked better and was eating voraciously. He would play and run around the house like an energetic kitten something he hadn’t done since before first getting sick. Cooper is now in complete remission.
It was only the diligence, innate, and maternal compassion of Eva along with her nursing skills and with the help of the United Against FIP group that saved Cooper’s life. The other group members coined Cooper as Super Cooper for being so strong through the treatments and pulling through. Today Cooper is as loving and happy as can be and one wouldn’t even know that he only has three legs the way he runs around. I truly believe that our pets love us and know that we love them. I also believe that Cooper knows what Eva did for him even though she had to give him daily injections for so long, he never held that against her. He just gives her attention and love every day.
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