I've fostered over 100 bottle baby kittens so have seen a lot. But Fleur brought me a first. FIP. When I first got her and her 3 siblings at around 3 1/2 weeks old, she was dealing with aspiration pneumonia and weighed a lot less than her siblings. Nursed her through that and got her gaining weight after two rounds of meds for coccidia. Got her to what I thought was the safe age of 3 months. Dropped her off in the morning at the spay clinic and when I pulled up to pick her up that afternoon, they called and said that she had FIP and asked if I wanted her euthanized. That when they went to spay her, they found fluid in her belly and drained it all and used a Rivalta test which came up positive for FIP. She had seemed so healthy and happy that I was in shock. I said no, don't euthanize and that I'd take her to our own vet. I bawled my eyes out that day. It seemed so unfair that this spicy tortie baby had survived so much so far in her 3 months of life only to have FIP take her out. Notes on the paperwork said to separate immediately from siblings and other cats so we put her in boarding at our vet until we could find a hospice foster. When we posted on social media for a foster, someone reached out about a new experimental treatment they were using for their cat and it was working. Could this be?! FIP is supposed to be 100% fatal!!! We discussed and it was a quick decision. We wanted to give her this chance. We decided to wait for fluid to come back to do a PCR test to be sure. After a week of no fluid and learning that she didn't need to be separated from her siblings since FIP itself is not contagious, I brought her home to monitor. For the next 6 weeks, she was perfect and repeated ultrasounds showed no fluid. Normally fluid comes back quick so she was a mystery! Two of her siblings were adopted out but we kept her sister, Amour, with her. They were SO bonded and Amour had been depressed when Fleur was in boarding at the vet and wouldn't play. Then one day, Fleur's appetite started going down and her belly felt different. Off to the vet we go where ultrasound shows just enough fluid that we could do the PCR. Fleur may only be 4 1/2 months but this girl had a ton of tortitude. NO WAY was she gonna put up with 84 days of injections. I could barely do subq fluids on her and even our vet remarked about how bad she was about needles. Thankfully there was one brand at the time that had an oral option. So when PCR said FIP, we ordered Mutian capsules. During the next 3 days of waiting on meds to arrive, she went downhill fast. My spicy kid was no longer eating and I was having to syringe feed again every 3 hours. Subq fluids 2-3 times a day. By the time meds came, she was so weak she could barely lift her head to look up at me. Constant fever. Ears had drooped. I wondered if we were too late but tried to keep the hope alive. Me and Amour just kept nursing her through the bad days. Sept 17th, 2019 meds were started. 8 hours after her first dose, fever gone. Day 2, she could sit all the way up and look up at me. Day 7, she started eating on her own again without me syringe feeding. Day 8, her belly started going down. Ultrasound two weeks later confirmed it was gone. She was FLEURISHING! Amour was so happy to have her sister feeling good again. Fleur was back to running around like a nut. She finished treatment on Dec 9th, 2019. A/G had gone from 0.3 in the beginning to a beautiful 1.0 at finish. No fluid anywhere except the pee in her bladder. 84 days of observation with no relapse and...FLEUR IS CURED!!! FIP is no longer 100% fatal!!!  Today is exactly one year since she finished treatment and she is still a happy, healthy, goofy girl full of tortitude and loving life with Amour in their forever home!