Help Finn: Our Beloved Cross Eyed Cat

Finn is our 12 year old black cat with the most loving personality, the sweetest crossed-eyes, and the silliest little mannerisms. We adopted him as a kitten back in the beginning of 2014. He was the only baby without a name and the number given to him was 6660. He was very small, likely the runt of his litter. Odds were stacked against him. He has brought so much love and joy to our lives and we cannot imagine doing life without him.

Three weeks ago, we took Finn to the emergency vet due to not eating consistently over a few days, acting weak and wobbly, and he started to fade on the ride there. While Finn has struggled over the years with his gut health, this was a lot worse. He has been on a hydrolyzed protein diet for half his life because of this. He was diagnosed with pancreatitis and IBD. That ER stay was mostly focused on the pancreatitis, his low body temperature, his low blood pressure, and getting him through the night. He barely weighed 6lbs when we took him in. He responded well and we were able to bring him home after 24 hours.

Since then, we have been focused on giving him his meds, making sure he’s eating well, drinking, and acting like his loving self. We had a follow-up at our local vet, and felt we were in the clear, while knowing this is a chronic life condition he has. The past week has been up and down. Finn has been picky about eating, but we tried so many different ways to entice him with his wet and dry food. We felt he was drinking plenty, but he has felt unsteady.

Two nights ago, I was holding him on a heating pad on the couch and he got up to go lay on the floor. This was completely out of character for him, so we made the decision to go back to the ER. We were there for a few hours while he got fluids.

He seemed perkier and his fur/body felt better, he was more interested in food, and we were so hopeful.

Yesterday was rough. Sam and I took turns sitting with him, trying to get him to eat, microwaving his dry food with water, mixing his dry food with wet food, putting it in different bowls/dishes, and hand feeding. He would get excited and eat a little and stop, but he was drinking a lot. He spent most of the day in the bathroom, resting on a towel on the floor. We tried to get him to cuddle, but he started acting the same as the night before. He would stand wobbly where he was, and then eventually sit or lay down.

We took him to the ER at midnight. His body temp was low, he was gassy, weak, and struggling. We both sobbed as the vet told us his odds, the costs involved with care for 72 hours, and how to even make a decision like this — what his future would look like, if we’d end up here again. We couldn’t bear to say goodbye and give up on him. We signed papers, gave him tons of cuddles and kisses, and made a $5k deposit on our credit card that we knew we couldn’t really afford.

At 7AM, we got a call that he was already doing so much better. He was affectionate, eating on his own, and doing well with a steroid they put him on. His potassium had been so low that he wasn’t absorbing any nutrients anymore, which is a part of why everything went downhill so quickly. They had thought they might need to put in a feeding tube, which was concerning to sedate him while he was so weak, but he didn’t end up needing it.

We had two checkup calls from the various veterinarians working with him, and then went to visit him to see how he was doing. He was very rambunctious, climbing all over us for attention (and probably hoping to escape his new prison), and felt physically so much better. We got tons of good information on next steps, how to manage the next stage of recuperation and bringing him back to “normal” health, and were informed that he may be able to come home sometime tomorrow.

We are going to do our best to manage the expenses alongside everything else life throws at us, but we know that his new care routine will be more expensive, and that he may still have times that things get bad enough to need hospitalization. While we understand that there are many animals (and people) who need help on this platform, we are so very gracious for every person that is able to spare a bit to help ease this situation for us. Everyone we have spoken with has told us he is not suffering or in any pain, we know we can keep him healthy and happy. We truly want to give this little guy the best possible life he can have.

Thank you SO much for taking the time to read this. We appreciate you so much whether you can make a small donation and/or sharing this with your friends and family!