Help Miss Mochi Fight for Her Life

My sweet little Mochi is facing a terrifying diagnosis at only nine months old. A few months ago I adopted Mochi and her brother Boba, very excited to have kitties in my life again. Mochi had a little bit of a belly when I got her, and has always been much lower energy than her brother. But her belly has started getting much bigger recently and she seemed too lethargic for a kitten who clearly wants to play and eats, drinks and uses the litter box so well. I called several local vets trying to get her an appointment sooner rather than later and was thankful to finally find one taking new patients.

The vet was devastated to tell me that she was pretty certain Mochi had FIP - Feline Infectious Peritonitis. They drew some fluid from her swollen abdomen to test, and tried to draw some blood for blood work but didn’t get much so we’ll be back next week to try again. I am also taking Boba in for a checkup and he may need to get some blood work to make sure we don’t have to worry about him having it too. Because they were rescues from a hoarder situation, it’s likely that is where they caught the FeCV virus that mutates into FIP in 10% of cases.

Thankfully the vet had experience with FIP and though the outlook used to be super bleak, recently there has been a drug developed that has been quite successful in treating it. But funding for research being done by UC Davis was halted when the pandemic started. Interestingly, since FIP is caused by a kitty coronavirus, the treatment is similar to ones given to human Covid patients. But it’s not been approved for vets to prescribe in the US yet so it is a bit experimental.

I have been researching since we got home and found a very helpful group of FIP Warriors who are guiding me. Now we will await test results and decide on treatment plans. Thankfully Mochi is young and doesn’t seem to show advanced neurological symptoms so the odds are in her favor if we proceed carefully and quickly.

The treatment is 84 days of daily injections or pills (often kitty parents start with faster acting injections and switch to pills which are a bit easier to administer). So it will be a long and tough journey for little Mochi and bloodwork is recommended every 4-6 weeks and it requires supplies like a baby scale, needles, treats to help the medicine go down and sometimes treatment for injection site wounds. When thinking about whether it’s worth investing so much in one little kitty, I consider that even if I were to help her be comfortable as possible and eventually put her down, that would still come with plenty of costs. The treatment isn’t terribly expensive or difficult to obtain with some guidance from many cat lovers who have gone thru the treatment and had their kitties cured. My initial shock and devastation has turned into hope after doing some research and finding a very supportive community.

I am not sure how much the treatment will cost in total, but I’m guesstimating with a ballpark of medicine and blood work costs for several months of treatment. There will likely be a bunch of extra expenses that come up and I’d prefer not to go back into the depths of credit card debt. So even though I hate asking for help, I want Mochi to have the best chance possible of beating this disease and I know she can with some help.

I know there are a ton of worthy causes but if you have ever loved a pet like family, if you are someone like me who can’t help squealing with delight at every kitty she sees, you’ll understand how much my heart is breaking right now. We need a miracle and I can’t look at these perfect pink bean toes and nose without wanting to fight for my precious Mochi. She deserves a chance to thrive and actually feel like a kitten again, and Boba would be lost without his sister. Please help if you’re able.

Any funds leftover after paying for Mochi’s treatment, vet visits, supplies and Boba’s screening for FIP will be donated to other kitties fighting FIP and/or Forgotten Felines of Sonoma County.

Thank you for caring and sharing! Anything helps, even just passing this page along.

With love and biscuits,

Megan, Mochi and Boba