Help Da Baby Overcome Her Rare Liver Shunt

Hello, our kitty, her name is "Da Baby" (Dial-Up), is so sweet and has these beautiful copper eyes, but those eyes were a curse because she has a very, very rare liver shunt, also known as a portosystemic shunt (PSS), which is a blood circulation abnormality in cats that occurs when blood from the digestive tract bypasses the liver. This prevents the liver from processing toxins in the blood, which can lead to a buildup of toxic substances and serious health issues. Copper eyes are an indicator that they may have a liver shunt issue. From my research, this condition is about a 2% chance. It's extremely un-researched and not many options on foods for her due to this.

Here is her story so far. We rescued her from a shelter in our city days before my birthday. She was my gift to myself, and I have another cat named Hank who wanted a sister. I spotted her in her cage at the shelter with a flower cone on and these amazing copper eyes, so pretty. She was sitting by the cage door all excited when my roommate and I walked in. The rescue staff let her out of her cage while they cleaned the room, and that's when we played with her. She had a bunch of energy, and at the time, any wobbliness I blamed on her just having gotten spayed (hence the flower cone). I wanted her, so I paid and filled out papers and took her home. Within the first few hours of bringing her home, I knew something was wrong with her. She was not acting like a regular kitten. She was drooling like crazy, out of it, wobbling even more; it just progressed over the next few days. I was in contact with the shelter at this time, and they advised me to "just wait a few days, saying it was most likely the sedatives she had from that early morning surgery." Mind you, this was day 3 of having her home. I have fostered kittens before and owned many throughout my life, and I knew something was wrong, more than just medicine or even surgery. By day 5, she fell off a cat tree and didn't catch herself, landing on her back. I scooped her up and yelled for my roommate, and we sat on our patio for hours with blankets as we waited for the vet to open. We didn't know what was wrong with her still, even after the vet visit. The doc could only say it may be a liver shunt, but we would need a specialist to know for sure. Before this visit, I was feeding her normal kitten food, which has high proteins, which basically was poison to her body. I changed her diet to low-protein diets, but it still wasn't enough, and she was drooling almost regularly.

This year, we were able to drive up to Pullman and stay for a few days and have them figure out what was wrong. Scans and blood work and the whole 9 yards. Got a CT scan which confirmed to us we were right, it's a shunt. The vets were very shocked by how well Da Baby's condition was. By this point, I had her diet down to rice, boiled chicken, hepatic powder, milk thistle, and immune support powders. It has kept her strong for this long. She is very stunted still, a whopping 6 lbs 8 oz.

We currently have her surgery scheduled, but we have had to push it back now for a second time due to not having the funds saved up still, sickness, vet visits, etc. We have about 1/4 of the amount saved for her to get surgery, but the price is still very high. We want to try our best to save up on our own, but every other month Da Baby will have conflicts with her immune system or her liver, so it's very difficult to save up. My roommate and I are working full time, me at a hotel and her as a bar keep, but it just doesn't seem like we will meet the goal we need for her surgery. It feels hopeless.

Recently, she somehow got fleas (never once in my life have I ever had fleas in my home or on my animals). We believe she got them from our dog who goes to the groomers occasionally (I do his nails at home). But due to these fleas, we now have her on a flea and tick prevention that doesn't make her sick with her liver condition. Certain medicines can have high proteins, so we have to be careful. She is currently struggling with an upper respiratory issue. We have an appointment scheduled for December 20th to hopefully see what we can do for this new issue. She has lost weight from the fleas, and she has just seemed to be slowing down, so this surgery sooner would be best for her survival. Our surgery is currently scheduled for April 28th, 2025. We want to hopefully save up enough to do it even sooner. Please, if anyone can help us and save our baby.

The Invoice we were given~

Da Baby Thanks you!! <3