It was a dark Friday 13 December 2019 when my wife and I received the news that our vet thought our beautiful little Maine Coon kitten Arlow had the "incurable cat disease" called Feline Infectious Peritonitis, or FIP. Before that day, we'd never even heard of it. The vet told us that there is no course of treatment currently available and offered palliative care and to consider euthanasia. We were devastated. The vet scheduled a scan for Monday to give a more definitive diagnosis and said to call if he got any worse over the weekend. 

On Sunday we did a bit of Googling around and found a website which spoke of a ground-breaking new drug codenamed GS-441524 that had been found to effectively purge cats of the mutated feline coronavirus that causes FIP. Although the clinical trials were carried out in a university veterinary hospital in California, a bit more Googling lead me to a Facebook group that put me in touch with a local UK supplier of Mutian.

We started to get some hope when we read through the group, seeing many success stories of other cat parents in our position. Monday's scan confirmed our worst fears. The vet drew a sample of Arlow's belly fluid and did a scan. She said she was 100% sure it was effusive or "wet" FIP, and gave him about a week to live. Arlow's belly was terribly swollen by this stage and had started to affect his breathing. My wife woke several times the night before to check on him, and to see if he was still breathing. He wasn't eating properly any more, could barely walk, and just sat still all day long on his cushion, only getting up to go to the toilet. It was heartbreaking to watch his steady decline. We decided we didn't have any time to lose, so I immediately drove 3 hours each way to collect 2 vials of Mutian.

We gave him his first dose of Mutian injectable at 8pm on Monday 16 December and watched and waited. We witnessed a miracle. Just before midnight, he started to perk up for the first time. He ate a meal and began to purr and chirp again. We hadn't heard his voice since before he got ill. It was an indescribable relief! Over the next few days, Arlow improved rapidly. His appetite returned with a vengeance, he began to play, and slowly returned to being a normal healthy little kitten. Within 10 days on Mutian, his belly had returned to normal, and he seemed apparently well again. We continued his treatment as recommended, doing weekly weigh-ins, upping his dosage when required, submitting successive blood test results, until on day 84, we completed his treatment. The periodic blood tests also confirmed he was responding well to the treatment, and all his levels were slowly returning to normal.

Then began the 84 day observation period, where we waited, watched, and hoped there would be no relapse. Sunday 31 May 2020 however marked his 84th day of observation and the next day Monday's blood test showed that the treatment had stuck. He had beaten FIP, and was declared FIP-free. It was especially apt that his 1 year birthday happened to be the next day - what a great birthday present! Arlow went from being just days away from death, to being a very large, healthy, happy kitten. He is now 7 months post-treatment and totally healthy.