Hi, my name is Chloe, and I’m fundraising to help save our baby, Mayo (also known as Mr Gumbert, Gumpy Wumpy, Mayostein, Mr Chumbawumba, and Gooby Wooby).

Mayo first became unwell around the 4th of March. He suddenly became lethargic, stopped eating, developed a temperature, cried in pain, and wasn’t urinating. We took him to the vets, where he was treated for a suspected urinary infection and given pain relief. He improved for about a week, but then suddenly deteriorated again with the same symptoms, and began hiding under beds and sofas.

We rushed him to an emergency vet, but unfortunately his care there was inadequate. They refused to carry out basic tests, performed only a bladder scan, and told us nothing was wrong. He was sent home with gabapentin, which we chose not to give as it left him too sedated for us to properly monitor his condition.

Although Mayo showed slight improvement, he quickly declined again. Our regular vet then carried out further tests and found that his liver appeared discoloured, he was critically anaemic, and his liver enzymes were abnormal. An emergency blood transfusion was recommended, and there was concern he may have FIP, which, while serious, can have up to an 80% success rate with treatment.

We returned to the emergency vets, but once again they refused appropriate treatment and instead wanted to repeat tests that had already been completed, despite having been given the results. We felt they were prolonging things unnecessarily and increasing costs, so we made the difficult decision to remove Mayo from their care and take him elsewhere — each transfer costing us additional insurance excess fees out of pocket.

We have now found a different emergency vet who has been incredible. Following further blood tests and an ultrasound, the findings are:

• Persistent anaemia (17.4%)

• Elevated kidney values

• Low albumin

• Small amount of free fluid in the abdomen

• A blood clot in the splenic vein

Based on this, the current working diagnosis is protein-losing nephropathy, where the kidneys are damaged and leak protein into the urine. More serious underlying causes, such as lymphoma, cannot yet be ruled out without further specialist imaging.

Mayo has now started treatment to stabilise him, including:

• Semintra to reduce protein loss

• Steroids to control inflammation

• Clopidogrel to prevent further clotting

His care will now be managed by the out-of-hours veterinary team over the weekend and bank holiday. Unfortunately, this comes at a significant cost — basic hospitalisation alone is around £1,000 per day. We have already paid £800 in excess fees, and while our insurance limit is £6,000, we only have £4,000 remaining.

Mayo is only 8 years old — still our baby — and he has been perfectly healthy up until now. He has so much life left to live. He is the happiest, sweetest, funniest little soul, and the thought of losing him simply because we can’t afford his treatment is absolutely heartbreaking.

We are doing everything we can to save him, but we urgently need help. Any contribution, no matter how small, would mean the world to us and could help give Mayo the chance he deserves.

Thank you so much for reading and for any support you can give