Zurik’s News

It’s been almost a week since Zurik was discovered to have fever, jaundice and pockets of fluids in his left lung cavity and abdominal cavity (which has caused a noticeable bulge).

These came unexpectedly and it took me some time to take it all in. I had thought that Zurik’s condition had stabilised but I did notice the sudden bulge in the abdomen last Monday itself, 6 days before his check-up. Although there were pockets of fluids, the vet thought it was too little to be drawn out, so we did not do any abdominocentesis (aspiration of the fluids from the abdominal cavity).

To address this setback, Zurik’s steroids dosage was increased back to 2.5mg once a day. This was the dosage he started with, then it was increased to 2.5mg twice a day when there was no improvement. When he became stable without the need to draw out the pleural effusion, it was decreased back to 2.5mg once a day and subsequently, reduced further to 2.5mg once in two days. We are “hoping” that the setback/deterioration (the new symptoms discovered last week) was due to this reduction in the steroids and that increasing it back will help. This dosage is still only an anti-inflammatory dosage and not an immuno-suppressant dosage.

It’s been 5 days now and the abdominal bulge is still there. With my naked eye, I cannot tell if there are new pockets of fluids in the abdomen. I can only hope there are none and that with time, the present fluids will be reabsorbed into the body.

Two days ago, the Biovalence team advised that we should increase the RetroMAD1 dosage to 1.5 times the present dosage, keeping it at three times a day.  It won’t be toxic because it needs to be 500 times to reach a toxic level. I was uncertain if we should increase it because we would like to know if the steroids are working.

It was my call to make, but the Biovalence team feels that since the FIP virus is still active, it should be increased to keep the virus from doing further harm, so I increased it today.

Tomorrow is Zurik’s check-up and we shall see if the increased steroids have done its job. I really, really hope it has.

Meanwhile, Zurik is eating well.

He is still able to jump up onto the piano.

The abdominal bulge still looks the same to me.

After a long break from Monge (where Zurik needed a change of taste and we went to Cindy’s and Solid Gold’s kibble), Zurik has a fresh pack of Monge again, which he likes. He’s fed-up of the other flavours for now.

He also eats Cubgrub on his own though only a teaspoon each time. He is still on his raw chicken fillet and he is force-fed AD to accompany his medicines.

He comes into the kitchen to ask for food a few times a day and I have to do the guessing game as to which food he wants. It’s a bit like Vincent’s “food games”, but with Zurik, it is much easier.

When Zurik was first diagnosed with FIP, I was told that the prognosis is extremely poor and that it is a fatal disease. He was only given weeks. After a month, it was a miracle that he started stabilising and there were no new fluids to be drawn out. This “miracle” persisted for one-and-a-half months. Hence, I was totally unprepared for the setback last week. That night, I went to bed hoping I’d wake up to find that it was just a nightmare. But it wasn’t. It was real. Every day since then I have been hoping for improvement, hoping that the steroids will do its job again.

I guess I have to start accepting that every day that Zurik is eating well and happy is a huge bonus.

Till tomorrow then.

Source: https://myanimalcare.org/2019/07/04/zuriks-news-2/

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