Poki the kitty's medical expenses

While on a road trip traveling through the mountains in rural Japan, we spotted an injured stray cat crossing the expressway. We stopped the car and managed to safely catch him! His injuries turned out to be worse than we thought so we abandoned our plans and reservations and drove home so we could take him to our vet.

Poki is about 6 months old and was hit by a car but managed to survive on his own (he was eating roadkill when we got to him!) until we picked him up, but now he needs surgery to remove part of his tail, a number of other medical treatments, and an extended stay with the vet while he heals.

Poki's full exam results:
-His rear left leg is broken in several areas, but the vet thinks it can heal on its own without surgery. If for some reason it isn't healing well, the vet said we may need to re-discuss surgery later on.
-His tail was de-gloved and the tip needs to be surgically removed
-He has numerous skin lesions from the accident but they're healing fine on their own
-He has stomach worms and will get an injection to kill them
-He is getting a topical treatment for ticks/fleas
-His blood tests were normal
-He is negative for FIV/FeLV
-He's eating very healthily, has normal bowel movements, and while he's underweight and weak from malnutrition he's very alert and "genki" (lively)!

The vet expects a full recovery and Poki should be an energetic ball of fluff again soon! His leg is expected to take about a month to build up bone matter around all the broken pieces. He's also very wary of people right now but after he starts getting used to regular meals and healing up he should start opening up. :)

Jun and I will be away from home for the next two months while we travel for work, but we'll be paying for Poki's recovery regardless of how much it ends up costing and how much is raised! We plan on adopting him and taking him home when we return to Japan, but because we already have another cat we have to make sure they'll get along before we can 100% say Poki will be with us permanently. Regardless, we will take care of him for sure until he's fully healed. In the worst case scenario if he can't live with our cat, we'll keep him with us until we find him a forever home. Japanese homes have a lot of separated rooms so it won't be difficult to keep the two kitties apart for a while if need be. :)

This is the estimate given to us by our vet:

And translated:


Since we at one point had two cats we already have everything he'll need when we get home (extra litter, food, water fountain, cat tower, cage, carrying case, bed, etc).

All in all it looks like his vet bills will be a lot less than we were expecting, so that's great news!! We ultimately chose GoFundMe for his fund-raising since we don't have to reach the goal here. We don't need to reach the goal--we'll get him the care he needs regardless of how much is raised, and whatever remains we'll manage ourselves! We're very touched by everyone who offered to donate and help on our video, and we appreciate all of your support for Poki!


Finding Poki

Poki at the vet