Introducing our superstar warrior Roberto.

Roberto is hoping you can help the SAA continue to look after him but he's also hoping he can help lots of other cats by raising awareness that FIP can now be treated successfully.

Roberto came into our care mid March after a private vet asked us for help to take on a cat needing cage rest for a newly repaired broken leg, Roberto had been found as a stray with a very painful swollen leg. The private vets he was taken to treated and repaired his broken leg.

Roberto soon won over everyone's hearts and although he didn't particularly like being on cage rest he coped with it really well and throughout was a sweet natured gentle loving boy. 6 weeks passed and he went back to the vets for his post op check. He passed with flying colours, his leg was healing really well and he could now move onto room rest and slowly increase his exercise and finally think about finding his forever home!

Just 7 days later Roberto started to act strangely, showing slight neurological signs and just wasn't his usual chatty self. We took him to the vets, he had a fever and was a little painful around his head, the vets ran some bloods which didn't really tell us much at that point. He came back to the sanctuary on some anti inflammatories and was closely monitored. Sadly things rapidly deteriorated from there, just 3 days later on 7th May he was admitted to the vets as he had become more neurological, more painful especially around his abdomen and had become anorexic. More bloods were taken and an ultrasound of his abdomen was performed. The vets suspected either toxoplasmosis or FIP. He was started on antibiotics and pain relief and samples were taken to send off to the lab for diagnosis.

Whilst at the vets Roberto continued to deteriorate despite receiving supportive and intensive care. Our team back at SAA did lots of research into FIP and with the support of our vets and a specialist FIP group we decided we needed to start Roberto on FIP treatment asap as he was deteriorating so quickly and we just didn't have the time to wait a week or 2 for confirmation from the lab.

Until recently FIP was seen as a death sentence, no licensed treatment was available. But now, although expensive, there is a treatment available, a treatment which has been proven to be successful.

Roberto started his FIP treatment journey on 11th May. At this point he could not stand, he was extremely ataxic and wasn't eating for himself, he was being closely monitored by the vets for seizures and was on iv fluids, he had also lost alot of weight going down to just 3.03kg. Although he was so poorly he was calm and settled albeit mostly 'away with the fairies'. Day 2 of treatment and he was pretty much the same, on fluids, ataxic and only taking small amounts of syringe feeds, he was stable. Day 3 he started chatting to the nurses who were treating him, he was still pretty out of it but showing very small improvements. On day 5 of treatment 2 of our team from SAA went to visit him at the vets and we were amazed by his progress, he was standing on his own, he was engaging with us and actively wanting to eat some cooked chicken! Day 7 of treatment and he was discharged from the vets, eating ravenously and walking around, a little wobbly but walking!

He has continued to go from strength to strength, he has gained over 1kg in 4 weeks, at his lightest he was 3.03kg and he now weighs 4.24kg. He has just had his 4 weeks check up blood test and the vets are amazed with his progress.

Roberto still has a long road of treatment ahead, the course of treatment is a minimum of 12 weeks and then he will need a period of observation once he finishes treatment to make sure he doesn't relapse. His treatment started with a 3 day course of Remdesivir given IV, he then moved onto GS-441524 tablets given twice daily. Roberto has neuro FIP so requires the highest dose of treatment.

We will be keeping you upto date on his story!