Winnie’s Emergency Vet Bills

5pm 8/18 UPDATE

I am so sorry for missing a day in updating! Since Winnie has been home is has been a lot of work learning his feeding tube and trying to keep up with all his feedings and medications while also trying to catch up on work and take care of my daughter!

The first night Winnie was home after his feeding tube placement was rough. He was really nauseous from the anesthesia and even after a dose of Zofran he was still sick 3 times after we tried his first feed. This was pretty defeating in the moment because we weren’t sure if it was the anesthesia, a complication, or what was causing it. My husband ended up trying to feed him a little bit later and he was able to tolerate 10ml which was such a blessing. At this point, Winnie hadn’t had anything but a few force feeds In 6 days and it was imperative he kept some food down!! We continued to wake up every 2 hours during the night to check on him and continued tube feeding the following morning. We have had a TON of help from a vet tech in our neighborhood who offered to come over Thursday morning and do his feeding with me and then come back again in the afternoon and then again today! Feedings have been going pretty smoothly since Thursday. We have had a couple of small scares with thinking he was going to shake his tube out or that it maybe had already come out of place but thankfully it was still stitched in and secure.

Side note: Winnie wasn’t able to get a feeding tube in his nose, like they normally do, because they think he has a fracture in his nose/sinus area (not the bone but other soft tissue), and the swelling was too bad. So instead, he got an Esophagostomy Tube, which is where they make an incision on his neck and into his esophagus and then places the tube inside where the end of the tube will sit right above the stomach opening.

Winnie continues to shock everyone with the improvements he has been making. Winnie had his first bowel movement since the accident, he has eaten a few pieces of dry food on his own, has meowed multiple times, made a LOT of biscuits, jumped onto his cat tower, and actually jumped over his gate in our room(not happy about it but happy he feels good enough to do that lol). His right eye has opened up more and is reacting to light! His left eye is still swollen but has started opening up a little bit today.

Winnie went to the vet today and will need to go every 3 or so days to get his tube site checked for infection, medication changes, weight checks, temp checks, and just for the vet to see his overall progress. He was taken off his old pain med today and put on gabapentin instead, since his previous pain med is an NSAID and has a risk of kidney damage. He will also be starting an antibiotic as a preventive.

We are not sure when Winnie will get his tube out yet but we do know that we will still be accruing vet bills for at least another 2 weeks or so, minimum as he goes to get checked during recovery. My husband has had to miss a few days of work when the accident first happened so that hasn’t helped with the rising bills. As of now our Go Fund Me is set below the amount we've paid, & we don’t expect to get all the vet bills covered but any little bit helps us and there is absolutely no way we could’ve done this without the support of all of you guys!! Even if you haven’t donated but helped in other ways like lending supplies, praying for our family and Winnie. Etc. All of it doesn’t go unnoticed and I am so very thankful to have so many people cheering Winnie on <3

Please share his GFM link, continue to pray, and donate if you feel led to!! I will continue to update here

making biscuits on his purple purring barney

Night time pets :)

Just hanging

3:30PM 2/16 UPDATE

Of course, I am going to start off by saying THANK YOU to everyone who has prayed, donated, shared, reached out, offered support/supplies, etc. You guys are the reason Winnie has come so far, without the prayers, donations, and supplies we'd be in a much different position right now. I see God working in so many ways, and it makes me so emotional to think about.

Winnies feeding last night didn’t go that great, he has never been a wet food cat and so these force feedings with wet food are not only traumatic because they're literally “force feedings” but also because Winnie just doesn’t like that food, and never has. This may be a different story if it was our other cat, Spike, who is a wet food fanatic. We decided late last night we were going to call the vet as soon as they opened to further discuss a feeding tube. We called and they got us in to see Winnie’s doctor today at 10:15 am. After discussing the pros/cons with his doctor and learning that Winnie has lost 2 pounds within the last 5 days (which I know isn’t a ton but still not great), we determined that the best option at this point was to go ahead and get him a feeding tube.

I cannot tell you how nervous this made me because getting a feeding tube also means getting put under anesthesia and with Winnie’s case we aren’t 100% sure if he has any brain damage, which would increase his risk of anesthesia complications. But there are also life-threatening complications for a cat who isn’t getting enough nutrition, specifically fatty liver.

Winnie's vet reminded us today that Winnie is a miracle. She said she read the other vet's notes from previous facilities and how multiple vets recommended we put Winnie down and she is so happy we didn’t. Winnie has made significant progress and continues to defy the odds Winnies fight for life is so strong, it takes nothing to make him the happiest cat.

We signed all the papers and left Winnie at the vet for his feeding tube surgery around 11:30 am. They were super busy today so we weren’t exactly sure what time he would go back for his procedure but they told us they’d let us know as soon as Winnie was out of surgery. At this point in time there was nothing else we could do but pray for a successful surgery and that God works through the hands of the surgeon. And yet again, Our prayers were answered. Winnie is currently out of surgery, his vet said his tube placement went well and we can come to go over discharge instructions and pick him up around 4:30. Praise God.

Please continue to pray for Winnie and for our family as this whole recovery period has left us with many sleepless nights and has been hard in so many different ways for us and of course for Winnie. But we are so blessed and can't wait to continue to see Winnie heal. Also please continue to share Winnie’s story, and donate if you feel led to. We haven’t gotten the bill for his surgery today but vet bills have been stacking up. We are so blessed to be able to already have $1500 to put toward them and I am not sure how we would be able to do all of this without the help of all of you.

I have had to increase the “Go Fund Me” amount a couple of times because of the continued visits.

Thank you <3 - Sara

Winnie before surgery

The picture winnies vet sent me after his surgery, in recovery

6 pm 8/15 UPDATE

First and foremost I want to continue to thank everyone who has prayed, donated, shared, reached out, and our neighborhood community who has come together and been a huge support system for us. We have had multiple neighbors bring by potty pads, offer to bring us dinner/meals, a neighbor let us borrow their large baby gate to keep Winnie contained because he is blind right now, & multiple vet techs in the neighborhood have reached out, and offered to help me care for Winnie. I look back and just feel so undeserving of all of the love and support we have gotten. So many fellow brothers and sisters in Christ have helped us pray for Winnie and over Winnie. The presence of God throughout this journey has been so strong and we know that he hears our prayers and is answering them daily. Winnie has already far surpassed multiple vet's expectations for him and he is not even completely healed yet. We know Winnie has a great vet right now who fully believes in him and we expect him to continue to recover.

When we picked up Winnie and brought him home last night he was in great spirits, It is the happiest I have seen him since this whole incident. He was rubbing up on all of us, purring, super interested in food but unable to eat, he walked around our room for a while just exploring. We are not sure if he can see yet, or if he will be able to see again, but his right eye has started to open up and we can see it now! The left is still swollen shut, but hopefully, will open soon. My husband and I took shifts waking up every 2 hours last night to check on him and he was in a different position each time, which is good! He also used the litter box on his own twice last night!

When I woke up this morning I could tell Winnie's spirits had gone down. His narcotics would've been completely out of his system at that point so I had a feeling it was his pain level bringing him down. I tried to syringe feed Winnie at that time and he started gagging repeatedly ☹ I tried 4 different foods and he gagged to every single one of them. This made it pretty impossible for me to feed him his medicines and to get him any fluids or food. I contacted his vet and we ended up bringing him in this afternoon so they could try to force-feed him and for him to get subcutaneous fluids. They were able to force-feed him and send him back home with us. After about 30-45 minutes Winnie was more like himself again which comforted me! If feeding continues to be a struggle tonight and tomorrow morning Winnie will be going in for a feeding tube. We can tell the appetite stimulant is working because Winnie becomes super interested in food and soooo excited when we grab his treats, unfortunately, when he tries to eat his treats or dry food they fall out of his mouth or he has a hard time swallowing them. We are praying we have more success with his feedings tonight and tomorrow morning. We have a call into the vet now to see if they will give me a saline bag and needles so the vet tech in the neighborhood can give Winnie daily subcutaneous fluids & we also have a vet tech coming over tomorrow morning to assist with the feeding because Winnie is not a happy camper being force-fed so all the extra help the better!

I will continue to keep everyone updated here on winnies GFM! Thank you again to everyone who has prayed, donated, reached out, offered supplies/services, etc.

This is our other cat spike checking in on winnie

my daughter gave winnie her tiger and blanket to sleep with so he was "cozy"

his eye is starting to open!

he beloved dry food, he wants to eat the whole bowl but struggled

2pm 8/14 UPDATE

Sorry It took so long to update, we have been very busy coordinating Winnie's care and we are all running on minimal sleep. I want to continue to thank everyone for their support, prayers, and donations. Without the donations we’ve received we would not be able to get Winnie the care he is currently receiving. He has been to 3 different animal hospitals and 4 different visits which all included IV placement, fluids, meds, testing, exams, etc. Anyone who has a pet knows how fast these bills stack up so I just really want everyone to know how much it means even if you donated $5. It’s the fact that so many people are coming together and fighting this fight with Winnie and loving him like he’s their own. There is no better feeling. And I don’t believe Winnie would be making the progress he is without the prayers. He has already surpassed many of the vet's expectations and proved them wrong in the process. I know it is hard to see an animal suffer and I have had some people reach out or make comments about how I am letting him suffer but I believe we all suffer and when people suffer we give them a chance, we don’t just put them to sleep. Winnie is no different in my eyes, he is family. Of course, he has experienced pain but he was in a traumatic accident and that’s to be expected, that pain is not a permanent pain. If I thought Winnie wasn’t fighting I would’ve made the hard decision in his best interest but when I tell you Winnie wants to live, I'm telling you he’s FIGHTING for life. God hears our prayers and I see him working. Please continue to pray.

We picked Winnie up from the hospital early this morning and met with the vet there before discharge. She told me that Winnie's swelling has improved, although it is still very significant, she is seeing improvement and that is all we wanted at this time. She told me that Winnie has managed to use the bathroom on his own twice which is HUGE. She also told me he is much more aware neurologically and at this moment in time she thinks it is best to hold off on the CT with contrast and let Winnie continue to improve without having to take the risk of anesthesia, and I agree. We brought Winnie home for an hour or so until his vet near us opened. While he was here he had a few episodes of panic where he started panting and seemed in distress. But we saw that he is able to walk and actually run ( even thought I don’t want him doing that yet it is still a blessing to see). Once we got him calm he was purring and trying to roll on his back and also trying to look at everyone but was unable to see us which I think induces the panic a little. The vet at the hospital said there is a chance he will be blind because at this time his eyes are not responding like they should BUT all things are possible and that isn’t a for sure thing yet.

After we dropped Winnie off at the vet near us for the day, we got a call from the vet with some pretty good news. She had seen Winnie on Friday when we rushed him in and that she was familiar with his case. She said that Winnie is definitely more alert today and that his swelling has changed but is still present. She told us that she also agrees he was VERY heavily medicated with narcotics and that he may be having withdrawal because of the super high doses he was given at multiple places. (It is so very sad to me that every place we went had records of Winnie’s previous treatment but they continued to give him a narcotic in the morphine family. I know they thought he was a “goner” but he clearly was overmedicated which could’ve caused other issues for him).

She said they were able to syringe-feed him a little bit of food but he fighting the whole time. She suspected Winnie probably had a sinus fracture because so much of the swelling has migrated to his nose and mouth and moved away from the top of his head but after another x-ray, they confirmed that Winnie does not have a sinus fracture and this appears to be soft tissue swelling. She also told me that although the ER doctor thinks Winnie may have been attacked by an animal, she thinks he definitely was hit by a car because on his x-rays you can see gravel marks where the gravel was pushed in at high force.

She said that his neurological improvement is significant and she knows that we have been told multiple times by multiple different vets to put Winnie down but she does not recommend that. She said he is showing so many good signs and has had so much improvement, she sees him recovering from this. (praise the Lord). She told us that with cases like this recovery isn’t quick, just like humans who get into traumatic car accidents, they don’t just improve over the course of 3 days and are better. But she sees him getting better and that’s all that matters right now.

The main concern right now is that Winnie does not want to eat on his own. Possibly due to pain/swelling. But since it's been almost 5 days without a meal for him we have to be considering a feeding tube. Winnie has just been given an appetite stimulant to hopefully push him to eat on his own. If this doesn’t work we will have to get a feeding tube placed so that way we can feed him from home and he can receive the nutrition his body needs to recover. We would do the tube now but unfortunately, this requires anesthesia, which we obviously want to avoid at all costs since we don’t know for sure if he has any brain damage. If he did, anesthesia would be a higher risk for him than normal.

The vet didn’t mention doing any more pain meds today but possibly gabapentin and another drug I forgot the name of that works similarly to Tylenol/Advil. She doesn’t think the steroids are helping much at this point so we are discontinuing those for now.

I will make another update after we see how he does today at the vet and at home. Please continue to pray, share, send support, and donate if you feel led to. Winnie has a long road ahead of him and the vet bills are going to continue for a little while, so any and all donations are greatly appreciated. Thank you <3

10pm 8/13 UPDATE

We went to visit Winnie at the hospital tonight. I drug myself there, after days of no sleep and non-stop crying I’m on E, but I knew Winnie needed to hear my voice. If he’s going to fight I need him to know we’re right there fighting with him. We prayed over him. Right after the prayer he lifted his head and tried to look around. His eyes are swollen shut but he’s trying. When I held him he started purring so loud, he was clawing into me with his claws. My sweet baby he kept trying to look at me and I was just staring back at his swollen little face

He seems more aware today, I’m praying the excess of pain medication is leaving his body and he can actually be aware or his surroundings. We’re not out of the woods yet, tomorrow morning winnie will be transferred to the vet who first saw him on Friday and monitored there for the day since the animal hospital isn’t open during the days due to staffing shortages. If he doesn’t improve before tomorrow night we will be bringing him back to the hospital when they open at 6pm and going through with a CT scan with contrast. This requires him to be put under anesthesia, which comes with its own risks. Although the CT scan could hold all the answers to his swelling, it worries me so much. Please pray for guidance for my husband and I as we navigate these very tough decisions.

without everyones donations, prayers, and support none of this would be possible. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

12pm 8/13 UPDATE

A lot has happened and so I wanted to come on here and update everyone. I am so so blessed to have such an outpour of love from our community, friends, and even strangers. I wish I could show winnie how loved he is, how many people are praying for him. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart, truly it means the world.

Unfortunelty, Friday night into Saturday Winnie started to decline over night. His swelling became even more significant than it already was and his eyes become completely shut. He had some trouble breathing and was acting very very lethargic. We rushed him to VCA Saturday morning and got the news you never want to hear. They told us Winnie had severe trauma and has severe swelling on his brain and possibly his spinal cord, which would limit the amount of oxygen his brain could receive. They told us Winnies chance of survival was just 10% and even if he did survive he would never be the same cat. They told us Winnie would be left with permanent brain damage and they weren’t sure the extent. They encouraged us to put Winnie down. Winnie has fought so hard we knew we couldn’t just give up on him. Even the vet who saw him on Friday said he is fighting and he is a tough cat he is a miracle he said. All those words were constantly replaying in my head. We decided to transfer Winnie to a trauma hospital 1 ½ hours away from us to try to get him the best care and maybe a different outcome. Unfortunately, after being evaluated by the vet there they told us that with it already being 48 hours after the accident and Winnie is declining and not improving his chances are recovering are grave. They told us most cases like Winnie end up passing shortly after being admitted. I cant even type these words now without crying. Winnie didn’t deserve this. He is the best cat, he was there for me during my high-risk pregnancy with my daughter and finds me meowing every time I sneeze, cry, or when im upset. Winnie has always been the baby of our family and if you’ve met him you know why. He is truly the kindest soul and brings kindness to everyone he comes across.

After talking everything over we decided we were going to bring Winnie home. He had TONS of pain meds at VCA and the trauma hospital so I know he wasn’t suffering. We wanted him to pass In the comfort of his own home if this was going to be the outcome. The trauma hospital made my husband feel like the worst human in the world for taking Winnie home instead of having him treated there as if we don’t feel enough guilt right now. We signed the “leaving against medical advice” paper and brought our baby home. I sat down with him, praying over him telling him he can do this. He was still fighting he was able to stand up and change positions, he is able to pur and expand his paw and respond when we talk to him. I know he is still there and we all felt a great sense from God to not give up on Winnie. Late last night as we were talking we felt so let down by the vet community here, no further testing was done to prove he had brain damage. I felt they didn’t do enough. Maybe I am wrong but I can't have doubts through this process as they will eat me alive. I began researching his symptoms and I came across poisonous snake bites in cats. We live in an area with many poisonous snakes, although we personally haven’t seen any we do know they are native to the area. I grabbed my flashlight and started inspecting Winnie and I found puncture wounds on his head. How so many vets miss this? I immediately told my husband we needed to bring him back in somewhere else so we rushed to another animal hospital 20 min away from us and they took Winnie back and immediately ran the venom test. It was negative. But this vet did something all the others neglected to do. She thoroughly examined Winnie and found 4 puncture wounds on his face and scratches on his body. She determined he was attacked by an animal. Right now Winnie is still currently under their care as we try to maneuver through the next steps. We aren’t sure if he was also hit by a car and attacked or just attacked but this vet told us she does not think Winnie has brain damage and she doesn’t think his chance of survival is 10% but much higher. We are suspecting Winnie does have a sinus fracture causing the sounds when he breathes and he does have severe swelling of the face but the cause isn’t 100% determined yet. The vets are currently creating a plan to move forward. Winnie may need a CT scan to look deeper at what exactly is going on and if he is starting to form an abscess on his face or if it is just edema. He is fighting. Unfortunately, on Friday they gave Winnie a 3-day narcotic, and on Saturday morning VCA gave Winnie another 3-day narcotic shot, the trauma hospital also gave him a narcotic so he is over-medicated and very sedated from it. In this condition, the vet isn’t able to really see how Winnie is doing and he is unable to eat or drink on his own since he is so sedated. Only time will help those medications leave his body so right now our main focus is the swelling ☹ Please continue to pray, if Winnie needs a CT he will have to be put under anesthesia which has risks of its own. None of this is easy and we are relying on our prayers and signs from God on how to get through this. We want our baby back home, God can't have him yet.

Thank you for all the donations, none of this is cheap and with our recent move, we just weren’t prepared for this type of vet bill. Here are some pics of him through his life and his current state☹

9:40pm 8/11 UPDATE

We just picked up Winnie from the vet before they closed. It’s going to be a long recovery for him. Thankfully he doesn’t need surgery right now he just has massive amounts of swelling and pain. He’s on a liquid diet that we have to syringe feed along with other medications.

He may have to go to the 24/hr emergency hospital if he declines but we’re praying he pulls through until we can get him back in on Monday. Please continue to pray for him & donate if you feel lead to

1:26pm 8/11 UPDATE : The vet has called us and told us that a client who was in their office overheard what was going on and said she saw Winnie get hit by a golf cart late last night. The vet said Winnie was hit at a high speed and that it appears that he went flying. Thankfully winnie doesn’t have an fractures or breaks. He also doesn’t have any internal bleeding that they can see. He is on IV steroids, pain meds, antibiotics, and fluids & is starting to become more coherent. The vet thinks winnie is going to pull through thank you all for your donations and prayers. I will continue to update here

Unfortunately our cat Winnie got hit by a car sometimes between last night and early this morning. We woke up to blood everywhere and poor winnie laying on the garage floor. My husband immediately transported him to the closest vet where he is currently under their care. We are still waiting to hear the extent of the injuries. My heart is broken seeing our sweet baby so hurt Winnie is my daughters best friend and we would all be so devastated if he didn’t pull through, please send prayers.

I will continue to post updates here on this go fund me.

My family and I recently moved out of state and we were prepared to take on an expense like this at the moment so I truly appreciate everyone’s donations and prayers