Maui is a happy, playful, loving 3 year old cat. I fostered for a cat rescue group for a few years and he came to me with the rest of his litter when they were about 10 weeks old after being sprung from the local animal shelter by the rescue group. The rest of his litter was adopted out but Maui became a "foster failure," meaning I kept him because he was so silly and sweet! He was wonderful with other kittens I fostered after him, grooming them and playing very gently with them. He loves to snuggle with me and the other cats and dogs in the house. He loves to play and climb his cat tower.

In January 2021, he started losing weight. I took him to the vet and they did blood work and an oral exam but they didn't find anything. In February 2021, he rapidly started developing neurological symptoms, including stumbling, dragging his feet, problems jumping, a head tilt, problems swallowing, vision problems, and ocular ulcers. He went back to the vet and after thorough exams he was diagnosed with dry FIP with neurological and ocular symptoms. A vet tech at the clinic happened to be treating her own FIP positive cat with a new antiviral treatment that works wonders. She and the vet spoke to me at length about the treatment. It requires daily shots for 12 weeks, plus regular blood work to check his progress, and possibly other treatments along the way to respond to symptoms or an extension of the antiviral shots if he's still showing signs of FIP at the end of the 12 weeks. It's a long and rough treatment, but early trials had an 80% cure rate and later trials have been even more successful in fully curing cats! So many cats who have completed the treatments have been cured and are going strong more than a year after their treatments ended! I'm hopeful Maui will be another success story who can beat this awful disease.

Maui has already received four weeks of treatment and he's doing great so far. His vision has returned to normal. He's gained a pound and he's eating like it's going out of style. He plays with the other cats and zips up and down the cat tree. His one month blood work came back looking great on all counts! He's on a relatively high dose of the medication to treat his neuro symptoms and we just bumped it up more because after a month of treatment, he still has some coordination problems. All told, the estimated costs are around $4,000.00. I greatly appreciate any amount you can contribute to saving Maui and giving him a long, healthy, happy life! Thank you so much.

Update 081121: FIP Warrior Maui has completed his 84 day observation period and is now considered cured:)