Bunky the FIP Warrior is doing great ! Bunky the 9 month old kitten couldn’t breathe because his chest was filling up with fluid around his heart & his lungs. Bunky had 110 milliliters of fluid drained at the ER & then came to us the next day to have another 60 milliliters drained. We knew we had to stop the fluid buildup in his chest so we turned to GS-4415234 therapy as all symptoms were pointing to FIP.

FIP develops when feline enteric coronavirus (FECV), a common benign intestinal virus, mutates into the malignant FIPV virus. Discovered by a Cornell veterinarian in 1963, this mutant moves from intestinal cells to white blood cells called macrophages. Traveling through the body, it killed most cats within weeks. Kittens are particularly vulnerable, especially in shelters.

GS-441524 is a nucleoside analogue antiviral drug which was developed by Gilead Sciences. It is the main plasma metabolite of the antiviral prodrug remdesivir, and has a half-life of around 24 hours in human patients. Remdesivir & GS-441524 were both found to be effective in vitro against feline coronavirus strains responsible for feline infectious peritonitis (FIP), a lethal systemic disease affecting domestic cats.

Unlike published substances or drugs that inhibit FIPV by hampering cellular processes usurped by viruses for their replication,13,14 small molecules like GS-441524 interfere directly with replicative processes encoded by the virus

Many thanks go out to people involved in this case from @ru4mepetrescue for bringing this FIP kitty to us & to @visionvetimaging for draining this kitty’s chest to @fip_warriors_5.0 who help us vets manage FIP & @kraftie2008 for supplying us with our 1st vial of GS & for helping the local community of cat lovers