Meet Posey

Age: 5.5 months

Breed: Ragdoll x DSH

Diagnosis: Non-effusive (dry) form

Posey, two of her siblings and some other kittens came to me for foster at around four months old. There were seven kittens in total that had shared a space and most had an intermittently upset stomach I had trouble treating.

She first developed symptoms at 24 weeks of age, just two days after we distressingly lost another foster to FIP (Wet). She was not herself and I took her to be checked out through our rescue and she was given some antibiotics. This gave her a boost for a couple of days before she started to decline.

She wasn’t as active and had begun resting a lot more than usual and her appetite had dropped off with some slight, but noticeable weight loss. We had noticed this very quickly over the period of a day or so of antibiotics wearing off and hoped we were just being paranoid in light of our devastation over losing our foster boy to wet FIP.

Our inner voices were telling us she was sick – we just knew. Still, we took her to my own vet for a blood test hoping for a clear result and looking for some peace of mind that a good blood test result could provide. Unfortunately, it showed that she probably had FIP, so off we went to the specialty cat clinic that had treated our last foster.

Due to the recent circumstances with him passing as an inpatient, they admitted Posey immediately to get on top of her FIP. She was anaemic and her A:G ratio was 0.3. Posey had three days of fluids and injections. She had started to improve in demeanour and I was told she had trashed her cage and was very vocal about her accommodation – she yelled the whole trip home but we never heard another peep out of her once we hit the driveway!

She started putting on weight right away and was back to playing within less than a week of being home. We continued with tablet treatment at home for the scheduled time, plus a few extra weeks as her blood tests indicated she needed a bit more.

To our great relief, Posey was given the all clear just before Christmas Eve! At 16 and a half months old, Posey is still a tiny cat about the size of a 8-9 month old kitten. She’s a ball of fun who loves a few quirky things like playing “shut the door and lock yourself in” (then cries) and thinks the baby scale is hers alone. We are very grateful to all of the people who supported us through both kittens with advice, a shoulder and help with medication and medical questions. Posey is just one beautiful baby helped by these amazing medications