In July of 2020 we brought home our perfect little kitten Sergio, everything was great until about mid October. I began to notice his right eye looked cloudy, and dirty. After a regular vet visit, then a visit to the animal eye specialist, he was diagnosed with anterior uveitis. Upon his diagnosis the vet mentioned to me “ some cats with anterior uveitis have a disease called FIP (Feline Infectious Peritonitis) , but if he is otherwise healthy there is no reason to believe he has this”. Since he was otherwise acting normal I thought nothing of it. Within two weeks of his eye diagnosis , Sergio would barely touch his food. I noticed he felt thin, and mentioned this at his follow up eye appointment. The vet took blood, and found that his globulin proteins were high, another indicator of FIP, but still wasn’t 100% convinced, and had me try new food. I’m not exaggerating when I say I bought almost every brand of food to see what he would eat. He wouldn’t touch any of it. Along with Sergio not eating, he was becoming more and more lifeless by the day. He would barely get off the couch, he was a 6 month old kitten that wouldn’t even look at a toy. Upon waiting for a definite diagnosis, he got worse and worse. His head, and paws would twitch, he would fall over when he was walking or at the most random times, he also began missing his jumps and falling. He couldn’t sleep without waking himself up from his tremors. He eventually lost the ability to jump, and I remember having to carry him to the bathroom because he was too weak to go. These were the hardest days, I remember waking up every hour on the hour making sure he was still breathing, or the times I was on my way home from work mentally preparing myself for what I may walk into. He would look at me, and cry out in pain. It was the most heart breaking thing to see him suffer. While waiting for a confirmed diagnosis from the vet, I of course turned to google. Typing in every symptom he was having look for some bit of hope, but everything that came up was the worst possible answer, FIP. Most people have never heard of this disease, me being one of them. If you have you know not only rare, it’s considered incurable, and 95% of cats diagnosed either die on their own, or have to be euthanized. Looking back I think his vet knew, but didn’t have the heart to break mine, and was also hanging onto every bit of hope that this may not be what he has ( the symptoms of FIP can also be symptoms of numerous other issues). About mid to end November his vet was pretty much convinced he had FIP at this point, but wanted to me to wait on one more test result to be sure. He said to give him a couple days, and he will let me know. Within those couple of days I turned to more research, more googling, and the one I least expected to give me answers; Facebook. For the hell of it I typed in “FIP” in the exotic cat group I’m in. The very first post to pop up was of a beautiful young cat named Pearl. Her owner made a post about how she is doing so well with her FIP treatment, and that she was fighting hard. I couldn’t believe there was any kind of treatment at all. I was convinced I was going to have to say goodbye to Sergio. I immediately messaged her, and she got me into the hands of the right people. Apparently there was a treatment, but it’s not approved for use in America. Hundreds of pet parents were treating their cats with this drug they had to obtain from the black market. I felt so hopeful. I was put in touch with a lady who had the drug, and without hesitation I sent her $800, and the drugs showed up the next day. I was well aware of the risk I was taking, but at that moment it didn’t matter. If there was a chance to save my cat I was going to do it. Before my vet even called me with the confirmed FIP diagnosis I was ready to go with injections. (My vet was not allowed to have anything to do with this drug as it’s use is not approved by the FDA, they never mentioned it to me or told me to do it. I found the drug, and we treated our cat on our own). There was even a chance the drug wouldn’t work, but it was either try and he dies, try and he lives, or don’t try and he dies anyway. I took my chances. We had to learn how to give injections, as he was going to need one every 24 hours for which ended up being over 100 days. Within 30 minutes of the first injection he was eating again. Within a week, the twitching stopped, within a month he was playing ( I cried like a baby the first time he played with a toy again). At 6 weeks he was jumping again. I still can’t believe it looking back. The injection days were mentally and physically exhausting but we did it. I’m so grateful to Hudson (my boyfriend) who never once doubted that we could save Sergios life. He backed me up 100%. No matter how stressed out, and drained we were, he was always there holding Sergio while I gave him his injection. All the times we were bit, scratched, and stabbed with needles were all worth it. It’s now Octobe 2021, and he is technically “cured”. He runs, jumps, plays, smothers his cat sister Sage , and eats like a pig. We are grateful for him every day. To some people they are just cats, just animals, just pets, but to us he is so much more, and we would do it all over again. We are their voices, and we are responsible for their little lives. Always fight for your fur babies, and never ever give up. Go with your gut, and do your research always! Sergio was days away from dying, and ONE Facebook post saved his life. I am grateful to the woman who made the initial post I found, the drug, and everyone who had our back during this crazy time. Thank you for reading, I hope this story was able to spread some knowledge, and hopefully save some more fur babies lives!