Steve Munt saves his cat, Zee, from unique and severe illness.

It's been three years, but Steve Munt can still feel the shock of the emergency veterinarian's news: His young cat, Zee, had a severe illness and a five percent chance of survival.

"They were recommending euthanize her," the Lake Oswego resident says.

The brown-and-white tabby his first cat had captured his heart on a routine pet food run just a few years before. Now she was sluggish, and the vet believed she had a blood-clotting problem known as Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation (DIC).

But Munt wasn't ready to let go of Zee without a fight. He took her to DoveLewis Emergency Animal Hospital in Portland for a second opinion.

Though he didn't know it at the time, that decision to fight for Zee would set Munt and his family on a journey to save the cat's life through innovative and even unconventional methods.

"I was all-in," he says. "I wanted to give her every chance."

During Zee's hospital stay at DoveLewis in June 2014, the staff put her on IV fluids and started conducting tests, ultimately determining that she didn't have DIC, but kidney disease.

While the incorrect diagnosis had likely been the result of a faulty blood test, Munt says the DoveLewis team discovered that Zee's red blood cell count was still dangerously low.

Zee's veterinarians were upfront with him about the cost of her care, Munt says; he knows not every pet owner could go to the same lengths he did.

"I'm thankful that I was able to (afford it)," he says.

Zee received a blood transfusion at DoveLewis, and then began seeing an internal medicine specialist at Cascade Veterinary Referral Center in Tigard, who diagnosed her with stage three chronic kidney disease. Tests showed that for her specific condition, the median survival time was nine months.

Munt set to work researching her options a surgeon at the University of Pennsylvania could perform a kidney transplant, using a homeless cat as a kidney donor, so long as Munt agreed to adopt the donor cat after the surgery. But as it turned out, Zee wasn't sick enough to warrant the procedure.

He also read about a vet at the University of Colorado who was researching stem cell therapy for cats. The treatment was still considered experimental for feline kidney disease, he says, but he was able to get a compassionate-use exception for Zee.

Munt worked with doctors at Cascade Veterinary Referral Center, who performed three stem cell infusions that fall and winter. By early 2015, Zee was more energetic and was gaining back weight.

He continued researching treatment options to keep Zee healthy, since her chronic kidney disease would continue to progress. He heard that acupuncture could be used to treat feline kidney disease.

"I'm a very skeptical person with stuff like this," he says. But he decided that it couldn't hurt to try.

After the first acupuncture treatment, Zee was visibly relaxed, her appetite improved dramatically and she went from anemic to non-anemic. She still receives the treatments every six weeks.

Today, Zee showing no signs of kidney disease, Munt says. Her kidney function has improved and she's enjoying life with the six other cats in her home. She even has her own Twitter account @growingupzee with more than 10,000 followers.

"Every day that I look at Zee, it just amazes me," he says. "I never expected to see Zee like this again."

Munt continues to monitor her health Zee may need more stem cell therapy or even a kidney transplant in the future.

He's also learned about feline nutrition, since many cat foods can actually increase the risk of kidney disease in cats, he says. Among the seven cats in his house, he serves five different diets.

Munt plans to share what he's learned over the past three years in a book one that would discuss how to advocate for a sick pet and how to work collaboratively with a vet. He says that for any treatment, it's important for pet owners to know their desired outcome and their budget and to make sure their vet is on the same page.

He says he hopes Zee's story can inspire others who are treating a sick pet.

"My focus was really on saving Zee and really giving her the best quality of life that I could," he says. "I never thought she would recover to this level."

Contact Lake Oswego Review/West Linn Tidings reporter Kelsey O'Halloran at 503-636-1281 ext. 101 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Here is the original post:
Saving Zee - Pamplin Media Group