Snowball from UAE

by Maria Pavel
(United Arab Emirates)

Snowball was found as a four-month-old kitten in the garden by an organization in UAE. He was dumped with his eyes out. They took him to the vet, and after a full check up they decided to undergo both eye removal surgeries. While examining him, they found he was deaf as well.

I was following his case on Facebook and after 15 days at the vet, I decided to adopt him. On November 19, 2018, I brought him home with me from a foster mommy.

He was still sick and weak. I remember he was under gastro food. He had severe diarrhea with blood. I took him to a vet and they said he had Panleukopenia. He stayed there for two days.

The third day I took him out because the rescue group said it's not possible. They had done all the tests and he was negative. His problem was caused by antibiotics only, and I had to be patient.

The diarrhea persisted, so I decided to visit another vet. They said a stool test showed he had coronavirus and that there is no medication for this virus. I again contacted the rescue group and they said it was not possible, and I should take him to the same vet but another, better branch.

The next day I took him and she said it was not coronavirus, it was Giardia. I was given a treatment and after a week the diarrhea stopped. He started to gain weight because I changed the gastro food to the kitten one.

He started to be active and act like a normal kitten. After 15 days, he developed a fever. We took him to the vet and he was given an injection to reduce the fever and another one to boost his immune system.

We brought him home, but the next day the fever returned. The vet decided to do a full blood test. She said he had ringworm, but his blood test was good. I was relieved. I took the medication and left for home, but we noticed he still had a fever. He stopped eating and being active and didn't move from the bed at all.

We took him back to the vet. She said it was FIP and that there is no cure for this fatal virus. The sky had become dark and the world had stopped. We didn't believe that he had it. We said God won't do this because he is already deaf and blind.

He was given an antibiotic and steroids for one week. The fever was there and never went below 40.2 degrees, but he ate and drank lots of water. We thought after a week maybe he would be better since he didn't stop eating.

We contacted everyone, even people overseas to see if there was a treatment for FIP. We were ready to get it, even if it was very expensive. The most important thing was to save Snowball.

We were advised to get Interferon and Moducare. We got the treatment from Spain and we had hoped it would work. Meanwhile, Snowball had stopped eating and his breathing had become very difficult day by day. Before the medication arrived, I went to the vet and requested they give him steroids since it would make him eat.

After three days, we started to notice he was in pain from the fluid and the quality of breathing and the food. We took him to the vet to have the injection of the Interferon, but the vet refused and advised us not to put him in more pain because he was in the last stage.

On March 2, 2019 we decided to put him down and not to cause more stress or pain to him anymore.

We are devastated with huge sadness and sorrow.