Moki Not Feeling Well...

We wanted to take a moment to address some of the health concerns being raised about Moki...Over the weekend, Moki had a really bad upset stomach. His urinary tract infection got much worse, he was gassy, had diarrhea, was having a hard time walking, and absolutely did not want to be picked up, which is rather unlike Moki...

I was starting to get rather concerned about Moki. This wasn't like him, and so I was determined to try and figure out what was going on...After watching Moki for awhile, I finally put what I believe to be two and two together, Moki was having a side effect from his medication.

I called Moki's doctor first thing Monday morning, and spoke with him about the possible side effects of Doxycyclin. As many of you are aware, Moki picked up a URI (upper respiratory infection) while at UC Davis. The URI was nothing serious, just some sneezing. However with Moki we want to nip everything in the butt as quickly as possible so that it doesn't become serious...

So since the medication Moki normally takes Clindamycin, wasn't working to control the sneezing, we discuss various options with our vet. Doxycyclin, was one of the medications our vet told us about which could be used to treatment URIs. Our vet however warned us that if we choose to go with the Doxycyclin, Moki's UTI (urinary tract infection) might get worse since Doxycyclin is not a broad based antibiotic like Clindamycin. In other words the Doxycyclin would only take care of the URI. What was a bean to do...

Well we went with the Doxycyclin and it did in fact clear up Moki's sneezing, unfortunately, it also allowed Moki's UTI to get much worse, and caused what we now believe to have been the symptoms we where seeing in Moki over the weekend, the gasiness, upset stomach diarrhea, trouble walking and so forth. Moki has now been off the Doxycycline since Sunday night, and he seems to be doing much better. Last night he started taking the Clindamycin again. He is still not drinking as much as normal but I think in a day or two, if the Doxycycline is actually behind all this, he should be just fine...so for now there is no need to worry.

Moki did want to show off his nifty new food bowls. We had been looking for an elevated food and water bowl system for Moki for quite some time. Eating and drinking from bowls which sit close to the ground is really hard for Moki. He often would lose his balance and roll over in his wet food. The new system since it sits higher makes it easier for Moki to eat out of and keeps him from rolling over in his food, should he actually lose his balance. The cool thing about this system is that the top actually separates from the bottom so that food can be stored in the plastic underneath. Since we already have air tight containers for our dry cat food, I decided to use this feature for something else. I filled it up with a ton of ice cubes and water, then I put the top back on. The ice cubes underneath his metal water bowl, help to keep the drinking water cold for everyone, while the ice cubes and water stored in the bottom of this system actually add weight, so that if Moki does fall over, the system stays in place instead of spilling all over him...how cool is that... I'll add some better pictures later on, showing the top and the bottom and how it all works...

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In Other News

Tomorrow is Moki's Gotcha Day!