Help Oren get lifesaving treatment

This little kitten, Oren, has had a rough life.

He was found at 6 weeks old with his 9 (!) brothers & sisters in Perry, Oklahoma. Small, starving, covered in fleas, and with a wicked case of ringworm fungus. Tiny Paws Kitten Rescue took them in and nursed them back to health.

On September 1st, 2022, we visited Tiny Paws looking for a pair of kittens to fill the hole in our house and hearts left after our sweet 16-year-old chonky orange cat, Skillet, passed suddenly from a blood clot that went to his lungs at the end of July. This left his best friend, Teagan, our 17-year-old Siamese cat, distraught and lonely (even though he had us, he's very co-dependent and has always had a snuggle friend).

So there we were at Tiny Paws, standing in a room full of kittens running, playing, and displaying all the cute kitten antics. How would we pick? Turns out Shiro and Oren made it easy on us; they picked us. Both of them approached us individually; Shiro came to me, and Oren to Brian, and we picked them up, and they immediately melted and purred and clung to us. We knew we weren't leaving without them. So we loaded them up and drove them home an hour away. Oren was not pleased with the car ride and shouted pretty much the whole time.

We made it home and got the kittens set up safely behind a baby gate in our office, hoping to slowly introduce them to Teagan over the next 2 weeks. Unfortunately, a few days in, we found a patch of lingering ringworm on Oren and tried to treat it with topical medication, but in a week, it had spread all over him and to his brother. Thus we launched our 2-month battle to kill the ringworm. Despite the separation and my deep cleaning (I bleach-mopped the office every 2 days and did more laundry on sanitary mode than I care to recall), all 5 of us got it eventually. Along the way, we noticed some suspect evidence that Oren also had a tapeworm; however, that was an easy one and done treatment in comparison to the microscopic fungus spores. But by continuing to clean and treat with oral and topical meds, we were all finally cleared to coexist at the beginning of November.

After all that, we were overjoyed to finally release Oren and Shiro into "gen pop" and let them explore the entirety of their new home. Unfortunately, it was short-lived...

Our Current Predicament

With everyone out and about, it was easygoing for about a day. Then we noticed Oren wasn't eating much and was missing jumps and stumbling occasionally with his back legs. Then he started hiding, refusing to play, and sleeping all the time. I knew something was very wrong. On October 30th, he was a healthy, happy 7 lb 5-month-old kitten, but by November 7th, he was depressed, not eating, and he had lost half a pound. The next day (Tuesday the 8th), we got him into the vet. She suspected maybe it was just "gastroenteritis" (a big word for "tummy ache") and sent us away with some antibiotics and some FortiFlora to add to his wet food. We tried our best, he hated the antibiotics, but we forced them into him anyway. Despite our best efforts, by that Friday, he was flat out refusing to eat anything at all (except for a couple of Churus) and was down to 6 lbs (a 15% loss in less than 2 weeks).

At this point, I'm starting to suspect something much worse. We then beg our vet to squeeze us in that Saturday, and because she's a saint, she gets us in. Together we determine that because he's so young, FIV/FELV, and heartworm negative, his symptoms point to either Toxoplasmosis or FIP (feline infectious peritonitis).

We send off tests for both, and I've never been so hopeful that our 5-month-old kitten would have a terrible disease like Toxoplasmosis... because FIP is 100% fatal without treatment, and treatment for it is very expensive and not exactly "legal."

Unfortunately, it wasn't Toxoplasmosis, and all signs point to FIP. Thankfully, through an underground network of cat ladies, we are able to get ahold of potentially life-saving, experimental medication. I've read more clinical papers than I rightfully should, but the studies are solid, and this medication has a very high success rate (something like 95%). Unfortunately, it is extremely expensive (in the $4,000-$10,000 range, depending on the course the disease takes). I would sell a kidney to save this little guy, but we are opting to only do one black market deal instead of two... (haha, I kid).

We hadn't planned on this out-of-pocket expense, and it will be very difficult for us to cover in our current financial state. We've already spent a couple of thousand dollars on his vet care to date, as well as expensive food and way too many toys. Let's just say, Chewy loves us. We had planned for normal kitten expenses, but this is very out of the ordinary.

So we are asking you, dear friends, family, loved ones, acquaintances, parasocial friends, and strangers, to help us save this little guy's life. Anything you can spare would mean the world to us. We just can't give up on him, and knowing that other people want to help us help him is such a blessing.

In the meantime, he has round-the-clock care and supervision, and he's separated back out into our office, so Shiro doesn't try to play with him when he's feeling so poorly or eat all his food. Thankfully there is a bed in the office/guest room, so at least it's a comfortable place for me to sleep. I'm also feeding him a high-calorie kitten food mush through a syringe every 3 hours to keep him from losing any more weight, which is really fun for both of us (we both hate it, but we are getting through it).

I can not stress enough that without this medication, he will not survive this. FIP is a terrible disease! And while I'm frustrated at the landscape of what care looks like, I'm really glad that there is care available... because just 5 years ago, that wasn't the case. We are facing a hard road to recovery, the treatment is 84 days at minimum with an 84-day observation period after that. I didn't have kitten nurse for the next 6 months on my to-do list... but it's on there now! I've read so many success stories, so I'm hopeful and willing to go this distance. This little orange baby has stolen my heart, and I will do everything in my power to keep him around for the next 15-20 years. Thank you for reading all that, and any support you can give will mean the world to us.

Where Will the Funds Go?

All funds raised by this campaign will go towards paying for this potentially life-saving medication for Oren. The medicine has to be administered daily for three months, followed by a three-month observation period to ensure that he has been cleared of FIP and doesn’t need an additional, equally expensive, round of treatment.

Since the medicine has to be administered based on his daily weight and will result in him gaining weight from his current state (which is a good thing!), our costs will fluctuate but are expected to run between $5,000 and $10,000 for the medicine alone (and this doesn’t even include blood tests and imaging that may be required as part of the process to verify successful treatment).

Our initial goal of $5,000 will allow us to at least cover the first few weeks of treatment until we are able to save or raise additional funds to complete the full course. Any funds raised in excess of the goal will be applied towards ongoing medication costs as well as lab testing and imaging, as we expect the full treatment to approach and possibly exceed $10,000. If we are lucky and it doesn't cost as much as we've been quoted, any remaining funds will be applied to Oren & Shiro's ongoing veterinary care and feeding. 100% of the funds raised will be for these two rescued kittens.

Help Us Save Oren's Life

It has been an incredibly rough road for a kitten who has yet to celebrate his six-month birthday. But with your help, we can do everything possible to see him survive and thrive for years to come.

Thank you so much for your willingness to legitimately make the biggest difference possible in this poor kitten’s life.