The purpose of this post is to offer advise on how to inject a cat with anti-viral drugs for treating FIP.   

The first video shows Dr Pedersen giving Smokey an injection of GC376.   The second video shows Dr Kennedy giving Miss Bean an injection of GC376.   This method is valid for GS441524 as well.    During Smokey's 11 weeks of injections at home, we found it useful to wrap him in a towel (the vet tech called it the burrito method).   This let us hold him better and prevented him jumping away.    On a couple occasions he did jump away during the injection and we had to redo with a fresh syringe.

We also found using a smaller needle was less painful to Smokey, even though it took longer to push the drug in.   

Lastly, while the risk of Feline Injection Site Sarcoma (FISS) exists, getting the drug reliably into the cat is much more important considering the life and death issue being treated. Here is Dr Kennedy responding to this question:

Per Dr. Kennedy: It's true that it would be best to give injections in areas where any sarcoma that develops can more easily be treated. However, when training an overwhelmed lay-person to give an injection of a rather large volume of a viscous substance on his or her own, knowing that their ability to give the injection successfully can mean the difference between life and death, the most important thing is to make that caregiver comfortable. In these circumstances, it is easiest to give the injection between the shoulder blades. It's my opinion that the ability to treat successfully outweighs the very low risk of a feline injection-site sarcoma.

The next video is of Miss Bean.   While she did not survive the trial, she taught the researchers a lot and helped advance GC376.   The last video is of Smokey:), showing him in the beginning of his treatments at UC Davis and then as a healthy kitten (you can see a white scar on his upper shoulder from the repeated injections).   He also underwent surgery a year after completing treatment to remove scar tissue from all the shots.  

FIP is a horrific disease that continues to claim way too many kittens and cats.   These drugs offer hope and inspiration that a safe affordable treatment will become widely available in the not too distant future.   ZenByCat and many others continue to work towards that goal.

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