Kitty’s ER Bills and Final Resting Costs

This is Kitty (legal name Solfège, but responds to Kitty more). She’s a 5 year old mackerel tabby who has had a turn for the worse. She lost her appetite and seemed sluggish after missing a jump on Tuesday, February 11th. She went to the vet with my friend and her owner, Jami, and soon we were rushing to Med Vet Cincinnati. She has fluid in her stomach and is jaundiced. Initially, we were warned that her symptoms aligned with Lymphoma. Jami was distraught as Kitty had no warning signs just 2 months ago at her yearly check up. Kitty was hospitalized overnight and had incredible care (thank you endlessly to the critical care team and doctors ). They stabilized her enough over night to do an ultrasound, and we were mentally prepared by staff for possible euthanasia as lymphoma has a poor prognosis. We went early to Med Center on Thursday to get as much time with Kitty as possible and then waited to hear back from Radiology.

Around 4 in the afternoon, we got pulled in for a final meeting with the vet and learned that her ultrasound and other tests confirmed no lymphoma!!! NO CANCER!!! But softly confirmed a likely disease called Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP). FIP was a fatal condition up until a few years ago when its treatment was made available in the USA. As Bova is somewhat of a miracle drug, it comes at a pretty penny on top of the critical care unit costs.

Kitty is far from out of the woods, and her treatment plan will take a minimum of 3 months, potentially up to 8 months. Cats that receive this FIP treatment have an 80-85% chance of remission and we’re hoping to help her be apart of the kitties and cats that live past FIP She deserves to continue eating stinky wet food and chasing tiny puff balls for years to come.

So far, we are raising funds to cover her initial medication, her ER bills, check ups for the next few months, and her FIP treatment (BOVA). In the short run, we are hoping to free up a few thousand on her care credit (which was maxed out for this emergency). It is not out of the realm of possibility that she may need to go to the ER again for a blood transfusion or emergency fluids / feeding.