Help Paying For Alfie's Eye Surgery

My name is Kathie B. and I'm a Registered Foster with the CNY Cat Coalition (CNYCC) in Syracuse, NY. I'm asking for donations to help defray the costs of eye surgery I had to have done on 7/30/25 for my foster cat, Alfie, who I took in off the street a couple months ago. The surgery bill came to $2389.00.

Alfie and I were fortunate to find a wonderful adoptive home for him prior to his eye surgery! CNYCC has a program in which a registered foster like me can adopt out their foster cat and take care of the cat's pre-existing medical condition. Registered fosters and CNYCC share the costs of the vet care needed for foster cats while they are in foster care (or after adoption when a procedure, such as eye surgery for a pre-existing condition, still has to be done). Under the Medical Fund, CNYCC covers 50-70% of the foster cat's vet expenses and the registered foster covers the balance.

The CNYCC Medical Fund is a wonderful program and an enormous help to registered fosters and their foster cats. But there are a lot of foster cats that need some vet care beyond spay/neuter, vaccines and parasite controls. Bills like Alfie's are fortunately not the norm. A bill like Alfie's takes a big chunk out of CNYCC's limited Medical Fund - and that affects the amount of money available to help other registered fosters and their foster cats.

My hope is that this GoFundMe will bring in donations that will help defray the bottom-line surgery-bill balance that CNYCC and I will shoulder for Alfie's eye surgery.

NOW, MORE ABOUT ALFIE'S SURGERY...

I've posted three pre-surgery pictures of Alfie. In looking at him I couldn't tell if he had an eyeball at all on the right and the left eye's upper lid didn't look normal. While also getting Alfie neutered, treating parasites, I had him seen by local vets to discuss the situation with his eyes. Alfie and I were referred to the Ophthalmology Specialty Department of Cornell University Hospital for Animals for a definitive diagnosis and surgical repair. Cornell diagnosed Alfie with eyelid agenesis in both eyes, which Cornell said is a congenital condition in which the upper eyelids do not form properly, including causing eyelash hairs to rub on the surface of the eye causing irritation and ulcerations. Alfie had dark discharge off and on from both eyes.

Alfie, who's just 12 months old now, had inflammation of his left cornea and a divot on the surface indicating he has had an infected ulcer in the past due to his eyelid agenesis. Alfie's right eye had severe abnormalities. The doctors were not able to see the right eye due to its small size. The doctors at Cornell suspect he had a corneal perforation to his right eye in the past, which resulted in the eye becoming very small and non-functional, but said it was also possible the right eye was like that when he was born.

We decided on an enucleation (surgical removal of the eye) for Alfie's right eye. The doctors suggested this as they couldn't be sure if Alfie's eye was in its current state because it had had a penetrating trauma to the eye in the past - and if that's what had happened - Alfie would always be at risk of developing an aggressive type of cancer called post-traumatic ocular sarcoma (something that could happen to him at any point in the near or distant future). After the tiny, abnormal right eye was removed Alfie's upper and lower eyelids would then be sewn shut.

For Alfie's left eye, our goals were to protect the eye from further ulcerations or other types of damage and to minimize Alfie's discomfort from the lash irritations (he had dark discharge from both of his eyes prior to surgery). We agreed on cryoepilation, the less complex of two surgical options, for Alfie's left eye. The doctors froze the left upper eyelid's tissue at the margin and thereby destroy the hair follicles in that tissue.

The second, more advanced surgical option we discussed was an eyelid graft for Alfie's left eye - the doctors would take tissue from his left lower eyelid and transpose it onto his upper eyelid. In picture B, where Alfie had eyes closed and was sleeping, you can see there is a curved looking cutout on the outer section of his upper left eyelid where the tissue never formed properly.

Alfie is healing well from his surgery, though is still receiving eye medicines for the irritated left eye. We're very hopeful the cryoepilation will be sufficient to keep Alfie's left eye comfortable and protected.