From the Winn Feline Foundation Blog:
Friday, August 14, 2009
Potential Treatment for FIP
Legendre, A.M. and J.W. Bartges, Effect of polyprenyl immunostimulant on the survival times of three cats with the dry form of feline infectious peritonitis. Journal of Feline Medicine & Surgery, 2009. 11(8): p. 624-626.
"... There are no individual tests that are reliable for the diagnosis of FIP... and there is no known effective treatment. Polyprenyl immunostimulant (PI) is an investigational veterinary biologic manufactured by Sass & Sass, Inc... This case series from the University of Tennessee describes three cats with the dry (non-effusive) form of FIP treated with PI... Two of the three cats were still on treatment and were alive and well 2 years after diagnosis. The third cat survived 14 months but was treated for only 4.5 months. The investigators conclude that further studies to assess the therapeutic efficacy of PI for the treatment of FIP are warranted."
Note: One of the cats is an Abyssinian who is still alive despite test results that usually mean the cat is about to die. This drug is intended to and does indeed seem to support the cat's own immune system in its fight to control the disease.
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Aksum Notes:
FIP is a very frustrating and hard to understand disease that happens mostly in young cats. It is NOT contagious and has no known cause (although genetic and environmental causes are suspected, they have not been proven yet), but it has always been a fast death sentence, especially with wet FIP. (It is diagnosed improperly very often, by the way. Vets have been known to diagnose cats with FIP when they really have something else that is treatable.) However, there might be a way to prolong the life and health of a cat diagnosed with the "dry" form of FIP, with a new experimental drug that boosts the cat's immune system to help control the disease. This new series of case studies gives us hope.
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