An Update On Moki's Health and Neurological Status

I know that many of you have been patiently awaiting an update on Moki's condition and I thank you for baring with the slowness of my response. With that said, at long last, an update is finally here!

To begin, I think it's best to state that Moki continues to remain as happy and upbeat as ever, despite his current condition. He continues to remain one of the gang, with both Mini Much and Little Kitty including Moki in all that they do, i.e., both nap time and play time. Given Moki's special condition and the fact that he can't run around upstairs or play on the tile, it is particularly amazing to watch both Mini Munch and Little Kitty cater to Moki's special needs. While the two of them could go just about anywhere in the house that they so chose, they both have a tendency to stick close to Moki. Sometimes taking turns watching over him and at others, joining together in one big group. Their play time also has a tendency to remain downstairs and carpet bound, instead of tile bound, so that Moki can join in on the play time at will...It's as if on some level they understand Moki's disability but simply don't care, or to put it another way, they have a tendency to see Moki and not the disability...



Now with that said, let's move on to Moki's current state of health. It's been about four months now since Moki last had to be given Tamiflu on a regular basis. What can best be described as the viral part of Moki's condition, seems to be currently in a state of dormancy. While no one can say for sure how long this period of dormancy will last, we'll be keeping our fingers crossed that it will last for awhile yet to come!



Despite being off the Tamiflu however, Moki continues to need sub-q-fluids on a regular basis. Unfortunately the price of Moki's sub-q-fluids has recently gone up, which at this point begs me to ask Moki's followers if anyone knows a place where we can order sub-q-fluids online which might be cheaper in price. We are currently getting our sub-q-fluids through a company called Thriving Pets, and while we LOVE this company, and feel that their prices are very reasonable, the cost of shipping the fluids from Colorado to California, costs about the same as the fluids themselves. We currently pay $40.00 for a box of 12, 1 liter bags, and do to the weight of the box, the shipping costs us an extra $45.00. The last order we placed, which was on July 23rd, came to a total of $97.00, which can be broken down as follows: $40.00 for a box of 12, 1 liter bags, $5.00 for 2 IV admin sets, $6.50 for a box of 100 18 gauge Terumo needles, and $45.00 to ship it all. Ordering the sub-q-fluids through Thriving Pets is still a great deal cheaper than ordering the sub-q-fluids directly through our vet, who charges $20.00 per bag of sub-q-fluids, and that doesn't include the IV set, or needles, but we are hoping to find a company located closer to us, so that we can further reduce the cost of Moki's sub-q-fluids, so if anyone knows of a company which sells their sub-q-fluids for cheaper, we would really appreciate you giving us their name...



And now we shall move on to the current challenges which Moki is facing. While his viral and neurological condition seem to be improving, not rearing their ugly heads as much at the moment, Moki's orthopedic problem seems to be taking a turn for the worse. His back legs just aren't working as well as they use to. Needless to say, Moki is in pretty desperate need of physical therapy and possibly a wheel chair at this point. Momma bean has been able to help Moki compensate some what for his orthopedic problems, by teaching him to brace his back leg against the wall when he eats, so that his back legs don't spread out from under him while he eats, and she has been working with him as much as possible trying to get him to pull his back legs in and under him while he walks but at this point it looks like Moki is going to need some professional help.

Expense wise momma bean can't quite afford the cost all but herself, she has been able to for the most part, stay on top of the cost of the sub-q-fluids, special diet, and occasional Tamiflu over the course of the last year, but with recently having two cars (both her's and her cousin's, with whom she is currently residing) break down on her, both of which needed to be fixed, having to purchase a new cell phone after her old cell phone which she had for over 8 years died, and which in momma beans case is a necessity given the state of her car, and the fact that she commutes two hours each way to school 4 days a week, and having to pay the registration on her car, which was due as of today, she is a little tapped out of cash at the moment, considering momma bean is getting by on financial aid, and the small salary she makes working part time on campus, which essentially is just enough money to cover the cost of gas it takes to get to and from school. Momma bean would therefore welcome any donations, no matter how big or small, (the donation button is located in the upper left hand corner of Moki's blog,) to help offset/cover the cost of physical therapy for Moki. (Momma bean won't start funding raising to help cover the cost of a wheel chair for Moki until after Moki has returned to physical therapy, and the physical therapists says that a wheel chair will be in Moki's be interest...so for now momma bean is just trying to raise enough money to get Moki back in physical therapy.) Momma bean will however try to arrange to get an auction or some other type of fund raising event up and going some time before the end of next week, to help cover the cost of the physical therapy, as well as try to sell off some old textbooks, and perhaps host a garage sell or some thing to that effect, to try and raise some of the money as well.

Thanks in advance to everyone who has continually supported Moki and seen him through all of this! He is undoubtedly a fighter and it's your generosity and caring keeps him going!