Bilbo Baggins Vet (Mis)Adventure

Hello!

 

Meet Bilbo Baggins! Our beautiful and adorable chunky cat. The long story short is that Bilbo has been in an out of the vet for emergency surgeries the last few months (to empty his bowel and to drain recurrent infections from said surgery). He is has been in and out of the vet since late March ) and most recently required a stay at the VCA Emergency Clinic.

 

Update June 20th:

We first noticed behavioural changes in Bilbo around 3 months ago and took him to the vet. They couldn’t find anything wrong with him but sent us home with some pheromones to help boost his mood. A couple weeks later we woke up one morning and found Bilbo at the bottom of the stairs with what appeared to be chewed on packing peanuts. He was lethargic and unresponsive to food, so we rushed to another vet that day. They took an X-ray and identified that there was something in his stomach that he was struggling to pass, and we were prescribed laxatives. These seemed to work and after a few days he was having regular bowel movements. However shortly after that he became constipated again. We called in for a refill of the laxatives, but after a few days we could tell that it was not getting the job done. We took him back in and the vet took another X-ray, this one showed that Bilbo was severely constipated. He was admitted for an overnight stay with the plan being that he would have an enema in the morning to try and improve his condition. There were a number of large blockages that they were unable to remove via enema, and at this point they called and said they would need to go in surgically to finish the job. We picked him up the next day and brought him home. He seemed happy to be home, but he was still struggling to poop, and about a week after getting him home we noticed he had a fever and there was redness around his incision. We brought him back to the vet and they confirmed that he had an infection. The wound needed to be re-opened to flush out the infection. We brought him home again the next day and within a few days of getting home saw pus seeping out of the incision. We went back to the vet for the fourth time where Bilbo was opened up again to flush out infection, and at this point we asked the vet to please board him so that he could heal in a sterile environment. He stayed at the vet for 9 days and the day we brought him home we could tell within hours that he still wasn’t healthy. He was leaking poop all over the room, would not eat or drink, and was extremely lethargic. The next morning we brought him to an Animal Emergency Hospital, where he was immediately admitted, and we began the journey to figure out what had happened. We learned that the surgery that was performed on Bilbo is not a standard surgery, and through complications an infection had taken hold internally. They were able to completely flush out the infection and his wound is now healing very nicely. The constipation had gotten very bad again and he was given laxatives over the course of 4 days to slowly and safely empty his bowels. Constipation in cats is relatively common as they get older, and we have been able to work with the ER doctors, including an internal medicine specialist, to make a care plan to manage it going forward. Bilbo’s prognosis is very good now that the infection has been completely removed and he is getting proper care for his gastro-intestinal issues. But it took some life threatening missteps for us to get here. Decisions were made that put Bilbo at risk and ended up costing us thousands of dollars to recover from. We are so grateful for the care Bilbo received at the ER, the staff there are incredibly caring and hard working. As it is an Emergency hospital an extended stay there ends up being quite expensive. But it 100% saved Bilbo’s life and we wouldn’t change that for the world.

 

****** UPDATE JUNE 11th - Bilbo has returned home from the ER. He is healing well and in clearly better conditions and spirits. Jessica will be filming a video to give a more thorough update next week - but in the meantime we are just hoping to have a few days relaxing with our boy. We have a few follow up appointments booked and faced a $9000+ bill upon his discharge today and updated our goal to $13500. 

 

** UPDATE JUNE 7th - due to further complications, Bilbo needed to go into an Emergency Vet Clinic today. He is stable a treatment plan is in place. Due to the Urgent Care Nature of the facilitcity, this bill is an additional $3000. We have updated our goal to $7500. Thank you so much to those who have already shared and/or donated.

** UPDATE JUNE 9th - Bilbo remains in an Emergency Vet Clinic still. He is stable condition while they treat his digestive issues and do exploratory search. This extended ER stay (currently going on 2 days, with an expected 2 more) means we have updated our goal to $11,000. Thank you so much to those who have already shared and/or donated.

For more details please read below!

Meet Bilbo Baggins. Bilbo is an (approximately) 12 year old cat that was adopted into our family approximately 2 years ago. Bilbo was a rescue, with a road ahead of him. He was overweight, patchy, and intolerant to wheat proteins! (essentially, he is a celiac. GF baby.) Over the last 2 years we've gotten Bilbo's weight under control and his fur has grown back in beautifully due to a medicated and controlled diet.  Overall, he was a healthy and happy boy back in March!! 

Our big chunky son Bilbo has had quite a few weeks. Back in Early April he was brought in due to behavioural issues. He was grumpy and becoming aggressive towards our other cat. Several tests were run such as allergy and blood panels and it was diagnosed as age and grumpiness. He was given pheromones (happy juice!).

A few weeks later he seemed to have some issues using the toilet. He went in and  they gave him an xray showed that showed blockage. He was given pain killers and stool softeners and sent home. 

It seemed to improve for a few days and then worsen again. We went back in and he was officially diagnosed as Kitty Arthritis - turns out he also has a bone growth near the base of his tail that makes it painful for him to have bowel movements. This is treated with medication given daily.

This time he was brought in overnight and they attempted an enema to clear his obstructed bowel. More x-rays. 

Unfortunately this did not work and they need to go forward with surgery to clear his blockage.  

Since then his staples keep getting infected and he has had operated on twice to drain it properly. 

With the blood tests, x-rays, medications, surgeries, and consultations we have racked up around $3500 in vet bills currently partially on credit cards. 

Both my roommate and I are out of work due to Covid and are currently relying on our CERB for income and regretfully that has started to drain. We are hoping some folks might be able to help our by giving a dollar or 2 or a share on social media to try to raise money towards to the deficit we are facing in our bank accounts and to go towards the credit card bills and for the impending bill when we pick him up from his last surgery in a few days. 

 

We are hopeful this will be his last drainage.

 

We are young starving artists who have always put what little money we made towards making sure our cats are healthy. With the pandemic going on, the option to take on a second job or work overtime isn't an option to try to increase income. 

 

Thank you if you read this far and thank you for any support you can give! 

 

*anyone who donates over $100 will receive a handmade card from Bilbo Baggins in the mail - pls provide mailing address or email address.