Save Ace

My name is Candice, I work with a local rescue group, Partners for Pets in Spokane, WA.  We rescue animals from the shelters get them spayed and neutered, their shots, dewormers, microchips and then adopt them to the public. My job is to make sure the felines I get are socialized, healthy and adoptable. Our program is run by grants and donations from the public. Sometimes our donations and grants don't stretch as far as we hope they will.

 I am starting this for a cat I rescued in May.  I named him Ace. I took him to get him neutered and he came back to me that evening not being able to see and having a seizure.  We ran him to pet emergency where they monitored him for an allergic reaction to the medication they put him under with. After that things seemed to be fine.  Recently he has shown mood swings, not wanting to eat, and off balance.  So we ran him to the vet again.  The initial blood work says there is something going on with his liver. After monitoring him the vet is leaning toward him having something called a feline liver shunt.  

Feline liver shunts can occur over time or be congenital. Ace is under a year old at this time, signs occur right around six months of age, well we got him at 8 months of age, and those symptoms were starting to show. What happens is when they eat or even try to process any thing that goes into their body it should be filtered by the liver. Well with the liver shunt  the food/other things that enter the body bypass his liver and toxins go right back into his blood stream which make him off balance, aggressive, anorexic, and sometimes temporarily blind,  and just not feeling well.  His eyes are copper which is another sign that he is being poisoned by things he needs to survive.

 Now that this is determined, this would be what happened after his neuter, his liver couldn't filter the medication they gave him.  We are starting him on a special food that will help the condition but right now we are looking at getting money to help with more lab work, an abdominal ultrasound and possible cat scan if the ultra sound doesn't come back with enough information.  After those tests come back the next step would be surgery to close off that vessel in the liver to let him live a normal life and to get him to a loving adopting home.

The alternative is to put him down. I don't have a problem with that if they are at the age where they need to be put down but this is a perfectly good cat under a year old, I think he deserves a good life.  A home with someone that will love him.  I believe every animal has the right to live especially one this loving, sweet, and young.  We unfortunately sometimes get these animals that are extra special with special conditions and the money just doesn't go that far.  So any donation will be helpful to his plight.  We do need it as soon as we can to get his life back on track.

Any excess donation I will be starting a separate bank account for those animals with Partners for Pets that may have these special circumstances so we can have some funds available when these situations arise.  We can't tell you how important these animals are to us and how grateful Ace and I will be as well as our program and our volunteers as they all love him very much.   Many of you may have seen Ace out at the adoption center as he was up for adoption until his illness came to light. If we get the funds to help him once he has recovered he will be out at our adoption center available for adoption. I sincerely hope some of you can help me save this little guys life.  Thank you.

Update: we have gotten his blood test done and it does confirm the liver shunt so now we need to find the extent of it by going to do the ultrasound.  That will be our next step for this little guy, I will keep everyone updated as we go along.