Charlie Needs Immediate Medical Care

Hi, my name is Hannah and I’m fundraising for the medical care my sweet little Charlie urgently needs. On March 16, 2024, Charlie was taken to the vet for vague but abnormal behaviors. He was uncharacteristically withdrawn and did not want to play. At that visit, it was discovered that Charlie is anemic. The vet took some blood to run testing to determine the cause for his anemia. On March 19, those results came back with a positive result for a very rare blood parasite. The vet said that the exposure to the parasite could have occurred before I even owned him and has gone asymptomatic and undetected until now. He was sent back home with some medicine to treat his anemia and the blood parasite causing his anemia. By March 21, something was very wrong. Charlie had not shown any signs of improvement and he was refusing to eat. I took him to the Vet ER where it was determined that Charlie is in critical condition and requires a blood transfusion and a 24 hour stay at the animal hospital to stabilize him. A single blood transfusion is $2,000 and he may need more than one in order to fully recover. If he receives the required medical care however, he has a strong chance of returning back to his usual friendly, sometimes mischievous, always loving, healthy old self.

If you have ever met Charlie, you know how sweetly dispositioned he is and he deserves to at least have an honest chance at beating this. If you have ever met me, you know that Charlie is my world. Charlie helped me through many hard times in my life, including the much needed emotional support that Charlie provided me after my father passed away from cancer. He is my best friend. My little Charlie horse. My little plum pudding.

Any donation amount is greatly appreciated during this insurmountable time. Thank you and I love you all so much.

Love,

Hannah & Charlie

_______________________________________________________

UPDATE (Saturday, March 23, 2024)

He received a blood transfusion on Thursday night, was closely monitored at the hospital, & he responded very well. A normal red blood cell count in cats ranges ~29%-40%. Charlie’s was 18% exactly 1 week ago. It was <8% when he was taken to the vet er on Thursday . Upon discharge yesterday afternoon, he was at 20%.

This is progress in the right direction but his diagnosis upon discharge from the hospital was severe non-regenerative anemia suspect secondary to mycoplasma infection. Non-regenerative means that his body is not producing new RBCs. There are several possible reasons for this but his otherwise normal lab work at the hospital conflicts with those possible reasons. To further add to the murkiness of everything, the lab work he had a week ago at the 1st visit indicated that he was regenerative with a high reticulocyte count (immature RBCs produced in response to anemia). At this time, the most logical explanation that the vet could offer is that his immune system over responded to the mycoplasmas that were attacking his RBCs & went on to begin attacking his bone marrow. He is currently on steroids to suppress this response & only time will tell. He is scheduled to get more lab work this Wednesday (3/27) to check & see if his body is starting to produce more RBCs. If it isn’t, a very difficult decision is going to have to be made.

After the 1st blood panel, medications, 2 er visits (the 1st one didn’t have any blood so we were transferred to the 2nd), a blood transfusion, a 24 hour hospital admittance along with all the lab work conducted there, & now an upcoming full blood panel, AND preparations to get married in June, I am definitely feeling the financial burden.

I can’t thank everyone enough who have generously contributed to the gofundme page I have set up. Please continue sharing Charlie’s story & donation link & if you can, please donate. Even $5 is a huge help at this time. Thank you