John Robbie

"My beautiful John Robie. Still doing well 8 months after his FIP diagnosis. He is a miracle thanks to PI. ( Polyprenyl Immunostimulant ) " ~ CatMom: Lisa Cone

7th Dec 2012

John Robie on the stove - a favorite place. 33 weeks on PI and still going strong!

Happy Catmas John Robie and Lisa!

The charming Jon Robbie is named after the antihero of "To Catch a Thief" since he stole Lisa's heart!

• John Robie (approximate BD of June 25, 2010). 

  "John Robie is an active 2 year old, curious, kittenish loving brat. His Dry FIP is concentrated in his intestines and it can be uncomfortable for him to poop (he meows in the cat box), but he's otherwise a normal cat and has even gained some weight. He actually looks (and acts) like a normal (but not fat) teenage cat. It is difficult to remember that he has a fatal disease. But, he's a feisty one and strong. He bounced back from exploratory surgery like it didn't even phase him. I think I knew then that he was going to be my fighter and he sure has.

  He was dumped in a parking lot at 5 weeks old and found by me. He's probably some exotic mix as he is VERY different from all of other street cats. He had terrible fleas and ear mites when I found him and a slight URI but was otherwise healthy. He was just going to be a foster, but he was too amazing and I fell in love, so he became a part of a household with 8 other cats. When he was a year old, I fostered 3, 4 week old kittens for a few months. He was always and indoor cat. He started losing weight in late March and we took him in to our vet almost immediately. My normal vet diagnosed FIP immediately and told me he had a few weeks tops. I have too much experience with vets not being proactive so I went exploring. A client of mine (I'm a pet sitter) had a recent great experience with a vet that works with pug rescue (I also have pugs) so I took him there for a second opinion. They were much more proactive, did exploratory surgery, took a biopsy and was willing to work with getting him PI. 

  That vet was Airport Irvine Animal Hospital Irvine, CA. They also started him on Prednisone, Trental (pentoxifylline) and an appetite stimulant right away. He responded pretty well right away to the meds. We got approved for PI and he started on that on April 7. I weaned him slowly off of Pred, but when we got to the point where he had stopped the pred completely, he started doing badly again. I upped the pred to normal dosage again until he stabilized again, then weaned him down to .25 mg every other day. He has remained on .25 pred every other day, 1/8 Trental every other day and PI every other day since then and it has been the perfect combination thus far. 

  Oh, one other thing...None of the 8 other cats in my household (who are older than JR) have shown any signs of FIP (yet), nor have the foster kittens that were "raised" by JR shown any signs of FIP. I hope it stays that way. " ~ Lisa

  
  

  Amen to that.
  

  April 2013 update:

  
  

  

  still doing amazing!
  John Robie is still on Prednisone at one year. A dose of .25 ever other day seems to be the ticket for him. He does NOT do well when he is off completely.
  

  May 2013 update:

  His update is currently in flux. He was stable on the same dosage of all 3 meds. We decreased his Pred and he took a turn for the worst.

  We upped it back up to the original dosage then slowly decreased it weekly. As of 2 days ago, he is started showing symptoms again with the Pred at .25 every other day.

  So now we have increased it again to .25 every day.

  Hopefully that will stabilize him.

  The trental and PI dosage remains the same.
   
  Fortunately John Robbie is back to his playful self on the daily prednisone. Please be cautious when the cat is doing well; they really do look normal and start perhaps fussing about medications so that people try to scale the medications back. I have collected several case histories of cats who have had problems when their doses were scaled back like Abbey. Oliver Mackinnon takes his 5mls of PI DAILY for 3 years and only now is starting to think about scaling back, Blade has been chugging along on his meds for 2 years - if it ain't broke dont fix!

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