<Photo>: At the top of Mt. Sugio in Shizuoka Prefecture, which was Daiki's last trip early in May.

At 5:30 a.m. on June 23, 2021, our beloved cat Daikichi went to heaven. He was about 15 years and 6 months old.

From the moment we were entrusted with his life, we thought we had prepared for it in a corner of our mind. But until the day came, we couldn't believe that the time would come so soon.

In fact, until just half a year ago, he was running around energetically, chasing after her younger sister, Fuku-chan, with a stamina that was hard to believe for a 15-year-old cat.

Daikichi suffered from squamous cell carcinoma. The direct cause of death was the metastasis of this cancer to his jawbone and blood loss from the affected area.

We, the foster parents, still feel regret that if we had noticed the disease earlier or started the treatment for the tumor earlier, we could have prevented this death. When we think about why Daikichi had to die from such a disease and what it meant to him, we decided to write this blog in the hope that by writing about our experience, it will encourage others who are suffering from similar pet diseases, and also may give them some ideas for their own pet's treatment.

◇Not knowing the cause of his loss of appetite, we temporally moved from Nagano to Tokyo for his treatment

Daikichi's illness started at the beginning of the year. He started sneezing at the beginning of the year, so we went to a local veterinary hospital (Nagano Prefecture) for a checkup. He had hypothermia and was diagnosed with pneumonia. That was on January 4th.

After a while, his body temperature returned to normal and the pneumonia was cured, but for some reason, Daikichi started to lose weight little by little. we tried to feed him his favorite wet food along with his usual crunchy one, and gave him warm white water instead of water, but the weight loss did not stop.

We went to a local vet for a checkup and blood tests, but they couldn't pinpoint the cause of the weight loss; we were told to come back in a month, and we did so for blood tests then, but still, they could not identify the cause of the disease.

◇An acupuncturist specializing in dogs and cats pointed out an abnormality in the oral cavity

After moving from Tokyo to Nagano Prefecture last September, my husband and I decided to return to Tokyo again with Daiki. We decided that we needed to take different approaches for testing and treatment, but there were too few options in Nagano Prefecture, where we had relocated.

An acupuncturist specializing in dogs and cats near my home in Tokyo examined Daikichi's body's "chi flow" while giving him acupuncture to stimulate his appetite points. He advised us to take him to a veterinarian for a thorough examination because he had an abnormality in his oral cavity.

So we asked Daikichi's original vet in Tokyo to examine him. However, neither palpation nor blood tests revealed any particular abnormality.

◇Finally diagnosed with cancer

On February 28, 2021, we visited a large hospital in Tokyo that specializes in treating cats. They still wanted to do the same thing as last time, just a blood test, but we believed the acupuncturist's words earlier and insisted on examining his oral cavity.

Finally, the doctor in charge noticed that Daikichi's left jawbone was slightly swollen by palpation, and an x-ray revealed that there was what looked like a tumor on the left jawbone.

We were also told that in the case of cancer of the jawbone, there was no treatment other than removal of the jaw and tongue, and that anti-cancer drugs and radiation would be virtually ineffective.

However, we were told that he would need general anesthesia for both the detailed pathological examination and the surgery, but considering his age, there was a high possibility that he would not wake up from the anesthesia.

After hearing this, our minds went blank and we gave up on the surgery. Using the Internet and other information networks, we decided to visit people who seemed to be knowledgeable about the treatment of this disease. From that time on, the days of groping a way in the dark to cure Daikichi.

◇Try various immunity-boosting supplements.

At that time, through an introduction from a judo therapist friend of ours, we got acquainted with Dr. Doi of Nanairo Veterinary Hospital (Yokohama City), which provides natural therapy using hydrogen supplements. With the doctor's advice, I started treatment using hydrogen supplements (zeolite), homotoxicology, and lactic acid bacteria (11-1) to raise the immune system's ability to fight cancer cells.

After that, Dr. Doi at this hospital continued to be very kind to me, giving me care counseling over the phone and encouraging emails.

◇Shrine visits, and healing and qigong...

After Daikichi became ill, we visited the shrine every day without fail.

Through an acquaintance, we met a veterinarian who also had animal communication skills, and we received regular distant healing sessions from him. we also received many remote qigong treatments from a few qigong masters who had a proven track record in treating pets. We also asked a few worldwide healing groups to provide Daikichi with remote healings from their members all over the world.

Of course, we don't know how these spiritual approaches, including healing and qigong, had a direct effect on his condition. If we were to say that it was just a matter of comfort for us as his foster parents, that would be all. However, at the time, we were willing to put aside our prejudices and do whatever we could to help improve Daikichi's condition.

In spite of our efforts, the amount of food Daikichi could eat became less and less. After a while, even his favorite wet food became inedible. So we crushed the wet food into small pieces and fed it to him by hand, but gradually he could not swallow anything with rough particles. He also began to refuse to eat from our fingers, and even ran away when it was time to feed him. So we had no choice but to start force-feeding him with a syringe.

◇Unable to eat and have a nasal catheter installed

In mid-May, not only his jaw but also the area around his throat began to swell, and finally Daikichi was unable to eat or drink from his mouth.

Still, we believed that if we could get nutrition into her body, we could concentrate our efforts on the tumor treatment, so we decided to give him a liquid diet through a nasal catheter, hoping for the best. We learned from an internet search that this was a way to save cats with anorexia and focus on treatment.

However, when we consulted the the closest vet to our house, they told us that the catheter could not be inserted without general anesthesia, but it might not wake him up again. And they also suggested that even if they could insert the catheter, it would not last more than a week. So we decided to look for another vet as a last hope.

As a result, we fortunately found one veterinary hospital, Little Peace Veterinary Hospital (Nakano Ward, Tokyo), which was able to put a catheter in his nose without anesthesia. Dr. Saito quickly attached the catheter to Daikichi's nose without giving him any pain.

Dr. Saito has been very helpful to us with second opinions since then.

◇Treatment by an integrative medicine veterinarian was a turning point.

We have been trying to boost Daikichi's immunity to prevent the tumor from growing, but now that the tumor has grown, we felt that we needed to take a different approach to the tumor.

So we searched the Internet and found out Moegino Animal Hospital (Yokohama City).

This is a rare veterinary hospital that offers "integrative medicine," which combines Eastern medicine (natural and alternative therapies) with Western medicine.

We decided to go to this vet, where Daikichi were treated with a drug called "Lupeol", which has been medically documented to inhibit cancer progression, and subcutaneous injections of the Maruyama vaccine, which is also used to inhibit human cancers. He also received cancer treatments such as high concentration vitamin C infusion, ozone therapy, and hyperthermia about every other day.

The vet also provided him with Cordyceps sinensis (PRIO) and Lactobacillus acidophilus producing substance (SOPHIA) as prescription supplements, which are known to inhibit cancer. The other prescription supplements for constipation caused by liquid diet and for anemia were very effective and very helpful.

We are very grateful to Dr. Goto for taking care of us until the very end, including stopping the bleeding when Daikichi vomited.

◇We ended up with was photoimmune guided therapy

In a conversation with Dr. Goto, we learned that there is a treatment called Photoimmune Guided Therapy that is not being done at his hospital. It is a new cancer treatment method using ICG-modified liposomes (ICG-Lipo), which is being conducted as animal clinical research at Tottori University and other institutions. It is characterized by fewer side effects like those of ordinary anticancer drug therapy and high therapeutic efficacy.

We were told that there are only a few veterinary clinics that offer this treatment, but after an internet search, we found out that Nomura Veterinary V Center (Nakano Ward, Tokyo) offers this treatment, and we started coming to the clinic every day from that day.

Two weeks after the start of treatment, the tumor had shrunk considerably. The blood test results were also good, and my doctors and we were happy to see the effects of the treatment.

As the tumor shrank, the fragile blood vessels in the tumor would not stop bleeding, and he unfortunately passed away.

◇Daichi's last days were truly a proud gentleman

The last two days of Daikichi's life were fierce. He vomited blood repeatedly, and we did everything we could to stop the bleeding, but he lost too much blood in a short period of time.

His pink paw pads and nose turned white and he peacefully passed away in our hands. A few minutes ago, he had a proper bowel movement in the toilet, even though he was already wobbly. He was a gentleman to the end and a truly wonderful boy.

Looking back, the 15 years we spent with him were invaluable. At the time of writing, we are still not completely over the sadness of Daikichi's death, but fortunately, we have many photos and videos of the happy days we spent with him through photo books, social networking sites, and other media. We have also received many words of condolence from followers around the world who mourned Daikichi's death, which has been a great help to us.

2021.06