i resently found out that my cat has FIP (feline infectious peritonitis virus). vet pulled out fluid from both sides of her lung and recommended to put her to sleep. but i am not about to give up on her. after i brought her back home she is doing better. i need help, please....

[ 18. January 2003, 06:01: Message edited by: gigi7 ]

COuld you give us all her symptoms? General appearance and general sympotms about how she is as well as specific sympotms due to the virus involving her lungs.
We could try and look for a remedy.
doctorleela

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she has discharge in the nose (little bit yellowish mucus), lose of appitite, foggy unfocused eyes, loss of weight, breathing heavier than normal, and very weak. she has been eating a little bit at a time. it took me all night for her to finish one meal. but she is getting better each day. i really appriciate your reply. thank you.

Right you are : do not give up !

A piece of information that I mailed to a desperate dog owner asking on another forum short before Christmas if there was any chance homoeopathy could cure her pet who had developed cancer, grown large like an orange:

That is a serious case,
you have no time to waste,
you need an expert,
and there is no guarantee:
But do not give up !

I then mailed her summaries of two impressive cancer cases from the literature which I had prepared for yet another forum:
One was about a European 1840es homoeo-doc curing a top rank military guy already blinded by that thing that grew behind his eye, after the Emperor himself had ordered the conventional top experts of the day to help him, who had given up, and the homoeopath restored him to full health; in those days already, which is a real shame that standarts like that are so rare...
The other was about an elderly women with stomach Ca given up by the allopaths after they had spent all their "ammunition" on her with no success, and the homoeo-specialist got the case right, over months; that was from this century.

Which shows there are chances; but of course it is not easy.

Unless tissue is definitely destroyed I would not be willing to accept that homoeopathy cannot work.

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Now there are precisely two things for you to do:

A) Get a good homoeopath to treat your pet.

B) Becoming as well informed as possible yourself.

A) is what you have to concentrate on first; then B) should be taken care of as well.

A) You either
1) try to find a good homoeo-vet in your area, or
2) present the case in full on this forum,
or try both at the same time, and when you definitely know whom to deal with, say good-bye to the other option and stick with your choice.

1) Unless someone from the USA drops in here, we can not recommend such one.

2) If you wish someone here to advice you, that will probably be Dr Leela; she is a well trained homoeopath, with own website to consult. Was trained for humans, but I understand often advises on animal cases here as well; in many countries there is no strict legal seperation in that regard anyway.

-> If you want detailed advice here, you need to present the case IN FULL.
No serious homoeopath can prescribe on a mere diagnosis / disease name; that is a starting point, not more; they need to know every detail, especially when advising on description only, when they cannot add their own observations; otherwise it is like "shooting from the hip", i.e. not sincere, rather gambling.

- Case details: if you read around a bit, previous cases, you will get an idea what is necesary to know. If you present it in one chunk, no time is wasted on asking back etc..

- The more complete,
- the more precise, clear and understandable,
- and the sooner posted your description is,

=> the better the chances are that you/r pet can be helped. It is that simple.

You have to calculate realistically that it takes several hours to present the case in full, and dig out everything from your memory. You can start posting, and then add supplements, or edit your post in several steps to make it more complete / readable / systematic etc.

You can no doubt find "healers" somewhere who will claim they can do it quicker;
you can find those who are happy to throw their "combination remedies" at you/r cat,
you can find those who love to "fire remedies 'till the barrel is glowing", i.e. high dose every day, frequent change, or several at a time etc and give all sorts of reason, their experience etc.
But there are more enjoyable ways to waste your money than that. Plus it can be an outright torture for the poor beast.
Go for a strictly classical homoeopath, with one very carefully chosen remedy at a time, wait and watch, carefull observation, frequent feed-back consultations etc.
I am being blunt, but for good reason.
Homoeopathy can NEVER work like "I hurriedly buy something from the shop and throw it into the suffering one".

Now if I would take a case, I would also ask that

- the description is well structured, to make it easy to read, come back and regfer to;
e.g. systematically list a) current symptoms ( what-where-when-how-influenced by what factors ? )
b) whatever else can be observed in the cat NOW, habits, ways of reacting etc etc, no matter how little they may seem related to the "disease".
c) -> very important to me: past history of diseases, ailments, complaints, with chronology, and how it was treated; and what changes in whatever field were noticed after such treatments.
d) vaccinations the cat has had, again plus reactions and what may have changed after them.

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B) Getting informed yourself: which matters not only for understanding what is going on with your beloved pet now, but also for being able to do the right things in time for whatever animal you will ever care for in the future.

1) You have to devour everything you find
a) first from Don Hamilton
- book ( "Homeopathic care for cats and dogs", Nov. 1999, 450 pages )is on online b.seller's site; read sample pages, get it, read it, re-read it, re-read it again etc, work through and absorb as much as possible over time; because that is simply the best you can find in North America at least;
b) then also Dr Pitcairn
- 'think he has also published ( addendum: yes, is "Dr. Pitcairns complete guide to natural health for dogs and cats", july 1995, 383 pages, also free sample pages to read ), and has a website of his own ( find via search machine ). Absorb equally thoroughly over time.
-> Note especially also what they write on vaccinations and food ! ( both for long-term insight and for putting into action soon.
If you study these, you need no others; )
if you start with them right from the beginning, you don't waste resources and valuable time.
I urgently recommend also following their advice on food, as soon and strictly as possible. You wrote that your poor pet is weak; junk food ( from a health point of view,going by what nature has designed animal organisms for / not necessarily related to money spent on it ...), however well-meaningly given, is a thing then which reliably keeps it weak. That's how it is.

2) On homeopathy in general:
- this site HH has a special section "getting started" with resources for the beginning student
- add to that, if you like, the book by Dana Ullman ( same sources, highly recommended for starting to learn about H. in general, both readable and reliable/serious )
- read on previous animal cases here from the forum, -->> including past years, from the archives, because there are many interesting ones.

Summary: the more well informed you are now and in future, the less helpless you will ever feel.

-->> and give your pet all encouragement and "support from soul to soul" you can manage !!

Good luck and kind regards, Panthera

[ 20. January 2003, 12:15: Message edited by: panthera-non-onca ]

Hi PAnthera,
Wow, that's quite a good bit of advise!!
doctorleela

PS; I like the length of your lines! Also you've spaced between them.

[ 19. January 2003, 07:14: Message edited by: doctorleela ]

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HI Gigi,
I'd like Kkrista or GPM to come in with a bit of details so that we may more focussed in deciding on a remedy. SO could you wait a little while? thanks,
doctorleela

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Dear Gigi,

Panthera-non-onca has offered some very good advice which I advise you follow as quickly as possible.

I believe Dr. Pitcairn is no longer taking cases and I can't find Don Hamilton's address at the moment but have listed a few homeopathic vets below that that phone consultations and I know are exceptional vets. The last address is for the Academy of Homeopathic Vets which has a listing of all who have completed the course, indicates percentage of practice is homeopathic and if they will do phone consultations, if they aren't within travel distance.

Other than that approach, if you decide to post on the open forum or privately with Dr. Leela or whom ever you choose, you will have to supply the total picture of your kitty as Panthera-non-onca mentioned.

Is the kitty feverish now? (Solid food definitely not a good idea if running temp. Liquids only until temp is down to 101.5 for a few days.) When were fluids drawn from? If very recently, she will feel temporary relief but the condition will likely return, causing difficulty breathing. Did vet prescribe Lazix or sub-q fluid? You have to let us know (or the person you choose to take her case) where she is right now.

Along with the reading as suggested above, you might want to get Anitra Frazier's The New Natural Cat which has a nice write up about how this dis-ease can be defeated and is not always fatal.

http://www.theavh.org/members/avh_book-24.htm#P416_4160

http://www.theavh.org/members/avh_book-30.htm#P518_5169

http://www.theavh.org/members/avh_book-35.htm#P603_6036

http://www.theavh.org/members/avh_book-48.htm#P824_8254

http://www.therightremedy.com/

http://www.theavh.org/refcover.htm

Dr. Leela, wish Krista was here for she is more qualified about these things than I. In the meantime, this is what I know regarding FIP: affects mainly young cats or over 12 years old, incubation period up to 14 days or longer, may present showing initial temp up to 106 F. Main symptom is abdominal distention due to fluid resulting from a fibrinous peritonitis, jaundice may be present suggesting liver involvement, general abdominal discomfort. Pleura may become affected leading to production of fibrinous fluid in pleural sac.....difficulty breathing.

Macleod (unfortunately) comments that treatment is rarely satisfactory mainly because the condition is terminal when presented. In milder cases, supportive treatment may ease discomfort. He had used remedies such as Canth (peritoneal cases) and Card Mar for it's action on the liver leading to the production of abdominal fluid....and Tub Bov is mentioned because of the similarity clinically to abdominal tuberculosis of the cow which produced a peritonitis clinically resembling FIP in cats.

There is a "wet" and a "dry" FIP, is sometimes difficult to diagnose because the early symptoms, lethargy and upper respiratory infection can look like symptoms of many other diseases. (This sounds like the "wet".)

Krista will be able to advise better but I believe it is hard to get a conclusive blood test for FIP, it's one of several corona viruses.

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HI Gigi,
This could give you some dies about the details we need.
Doctorleela

1. Describe your chief complaint in detail. The following are some of the relevant details required.

i) If this is a physical problem, which part of the body is affected? Please specify the location. When did this problem begin? Is it periodic or recurrent? If yes, then how often? For how long do the symptoms last?

ii) Describe the symptom(s) you are experiencing. Explain this with the area of distribution and the sensation experienced. (Please describe this in as much detail as possible, giving comparitive description, eg. The pain is sharp like a knife stabbing my flesh.)

iii) What are the modalities that cause the trouble to worsen or improve? Give details with regard to time, temperature, climate/weather, food items, applications, movement, rest, and any emotional changes which occur.

iv) Add any other symptom that you find related to your chief complaint that is not mentioned above, including how you feel in general while the complaint is present.

v) What circumstances preceded or were occurring around the time that your problem began to occur?

2. Give us some idea about her nature.

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Sorry I haven't been on all weekend. Unfortunately I would have to agree with Macload's assessment given my past experience with the disease. However dependent on the age and history of the cat; misdiagnosis can always be a hope. I foolishly put to sleep a beautiful male a few years ago on suspected FIP which necropsy revealed was pancreatitus. Unfortunately once the symptoms of FIP are present, the body has already sustained major system damage which is unlikely to repair.
Dr. Leela; I've found with many of our cases, kidney and especially LIVER involvement in the end. Off the top of my head, I know I was thinking about Lyc for future cases.
I don't think there is any harm in trying to beat this disease gigi, but in my experiences I would recommend you don't get your hopes up. Apparently there is 1% of cases out there there will go into remission (although I have no actutal accounts to share with you, this is a "textbook" figure). Keep the cat as comfortable as possible; however be preparred to let go if you are unable to keep the fluid in the chest under control or if the cat goes septic.
Hopefully Dr. Leela can confirm or come up with something better than Lyc
Dr. Leela:
To recap the disease it is initially caused by a particular corona virus (actual strain has still to be determined). Initial infection usually is 2 weeks to 2 months before full blown FIP. Initial infection presents with shortterm diarrhea and/or ocular infection that resolves in a few days (possible fever). Full blown presents with low grade constant fever, not wanting to eat; In the wet form: vasclitus causing fluid leakage into the abdomin or chest cavities; lesions along the spine which can only be determined post mortum and in fact are the basis for ultimate diagnosis after death. The fluid leaked it high in protien content. supportive care (ie: draining of fluids, feeding, hydration etc.) will maintain the cat until system failure usually of the kidneys or liver. Allopathic treatment consists of steriods to combat the fever and sometimes antibiotics. In my experience steriodal use will hurry the process and ultimate death.
Gigi (I have a cat named that!) keep supporting the cat and if the disease is progressing slowly, you may want to check pancreatic funtion. This is not included in the normal blood work for cats. I'm pulling for success as I have had way too many loosing battles with FIP. Best wished to you!