How the Black Market Saved Thousands of Cats

Piracy isn't a pricing problem, it's a service problem.

I think this is largely a result of changing generational views as to not only the role of, but the status of pets as conscious living beings. In the last century, they have gone from being effectively property to commonly thought of as members of the family, or even directly equated to children. The infrastructure and systems in place were built on the earlier view of pets. Very few people would have spent thousands of dollars to get their cat cancer treatment even a few decades ago, let alone go into debt for it. The infrastructure is starting to evolve to reflect how much people care for their pets now, but it is still lagging quite a ways behind the public sentiment.

This is heartbreaking for me. We had two adorable kittens who died of FIP at 6 months and 11 months. It was about 10 years ago before the breakthroughs. Wish we had the vaccine then. Glad future fur babies can be treated.

Im proud of how many rescues trusted the proof & used the treatment. So many have been saved so far.

My fur baby Grandaughter got FIP and was save by black market meds!! It cost them $5k total but to them, it was worth it!!💕💕

I lost my boy to FIP years ago, a couple years ago I watched a kitten fight it off. I was in joyful tears.

About three years ago my happy and lively five year old cat suddenly came down with recurring bladder infections and bilateral uveitis. Unfortunately the vet diagnosed her with FIP and she was put to rest. I’m glad to see that there’s now hope for cats that come down with this horrible disease. Thank you for spreading awareness with this video… RIP Bronya ❤

My little man Kinoko got FIP when he was about a year old, he nearly died multiple times, took me days to notice his mood change and him hiding and by the time we knew it was FIP he had close to 20 seizures in a single morning and was unlikely to survive. I sat with him for 3 days and nights straight with nearly no sleep feeding him baby food and water by syringe. He nearly died from the FIP, the dehydration and the hungry. There was definitely things I could have done better for him at that time but I fully was in shock, but somehow he survived.

Our kitten that we adopted with FIP turns 1 today! We were fortunate enough to be able to work with a compounding pharmacy and mostly avoid “black market “ variants of treatment. He started to recover so quickly once starting the treatment. Crazy to think it was 100% fatal not long ago.

Clear explanation of how an antiviral interrupts the virus’s copying process. A helpful way to make the science accessible.

Had a foster cat which got FIP after a year, luckily he got this treatment and is healthy again. He was adopted and is still doing great.

There is a compounding pharmacy that does it pretty regularly. Plus you don't have to buy the full 84 day dose at once. Most vets are able to order from them

pangur-and-grim tumblr followers being like "I know this one!!!"

11:00 I work for a US FDA registered compounding pharmacy that offers two medications (GS441524 and molnupirvair) usedto treat FIP. So there's definitely legal means to obtain these medications now fortunately (but still a lot of sketchy places to get them too)

I lost my 2.5 year old tuxedo named Minnie last New Year’s Eve to Dry FIP (originally thought to be a stress induced herpes flare-up) and the vet that I went to after finding Minnie mentioned the treatment and a bit of it’s black market history. She trying to get me to understand that what happened wasn’t my fault and was telling me that even if the vet who I had taken Minnie to on Christmas had diagnosed FIP, that treatment may or may not have worked. I miss my Minnie but at least she’s in a better place and I like to believe she guided me to my newest fur baby, Nobu.