Moki was born a normal feral kitten. At about 3 months of age he found his way to a local no-kill feline only shelter, where I was volunteering. Given his feral nature Moki could not be adopted out until he had been socialized. I therefore agreed to take him home on a foster only basis to socialize him so that he could be adopted out. At that time I had no plans of keeping him being as I already owned 7 other cats.
Within a matter of weeks however, while under my care, Moki developed a mysterious upper respiratory like infection. He was taken to the shelters vet and put on the normal course of URI antibiotics. Unfortunately the antibiotics did not work and Moki continued to grow worse. He saw several other veterinarians during this period of time, including the one I used for my own cats, each of whom prescribed a different course of antibiotics until finally he got so bad that he had to be hospitalized.
Moki continued to get worse while under the direct care of the first veterinary hospital so a decision was made to move him to a 24 hour emergency hospital. At that point in time his white blood cell count was 0.7. He should have been dead and the emergency hospital knew it upon his checking in. They therefore told me to say goodbye because it was highly unlikely he would make it through the night.
To everyone's amazement however Moki survived the night. He had improved so much in fact, that the new doctor who came on shift the following morning thought that someone had mixed up Moki's cage card so she asked me to come in to verify that Moki was the same cat who's name was on his cage. Indeed he was. Moki's recovery was not however without complications. While he had survived the night the illness had left him with severe neurological damage.
After a few more days in intensive care the emergency hospital told me I could finally bring Moki home. First however they wanted to be sure that I wanted to bring Moki home. You see, the neurological damage caused by the virus was so severe at first that the emergency hospital told me that Moki would never be able to sit up, walk, or eat on his own again. They also told me that while Moki would never be able to do these things, his neurological condition would never get any worse.
Given that so little time had passed between Moki developing the neurological condition and the hospital making a diagnosis I decided to bring Moki home and give him a shot at life. Within a matter of days I had Moki sitting up and eating on his own and through lots of hard work, to the amazement of his doctors, I soon got Moki walking once again as well. Moki's walking was not perfect, his head would shake, and he would fall over every couple of steps, but it was more than anyone expected.
As the months continued the virus which had originally made Moki sick would come and go. The virus and the kind of neurological damage it caused to Moki was unlike anything any of the regular vets had ever seen. Thus on July 29th of 2007, I turned to the online pet community for help. I originally shared Moki's story on Catster but it soon grew from there, and eventually this blog was created as a way of reaching out to others.
As the months continued the virus which had originally made Moki sick would come and go. The virus and the kind of neurological damage it caused to Moki was unlike anything any of the regular vets had ever seen. Thus on July 29th of 2007, I turned to the online pet community for help. I originally shared Moki's story on Catster but it soon grew from there, and eventually this blog was created as a way of reaching out to others.
It's now 2011 and we have yet to identify the virus which originally made Moki sick and which continues to come back from time to time. (The neurological team and all the specialists at UC Davis were baffled by Moki's condition even after running all their advance tests...) As for Moki's neurological condition, it lead to several orthopedic problems so we are now working with both a small animal physical rehabilitation specialist and a small animal acupuncturist. Fortunately through the combination of the two we are starting to see some major improvements.
We continue to share his story which serves to help education people about special needs pets and what can be done for them including the use of services such as small animal physical rehabilitation and small animal acupuncture. The cost of his medical treatments remain quite high with physical rehabilitation costing $98 per week, and acupuncture costing $129.00 every 10 days. These costs are in addition to those of his regular medical care which including in part, daily sub-q-fluids, Tamiflu, and a special diet. I therefore ask that if you enjoy this blog, and liked reading Moki's story that you consider making a NON-tax deductable donation to his medical fund (I am a single person doing what I can to help him, not a non-profit,) and that you consider sharing this blog with your family and friends. Together we can not only continue to help Moki, but we can educate others about special needs pets, and the complimentary and alternative medical therapies which can be used to treat them.
Thank you!
