My wife and I got Hash from a rescue November 7.  We had just lost our dog that my wife had for 13 years, but we were excited to start rebuilding our family in our new home with this cat. We had thought he had a clean bill of health but within the first couple weeks he ended up having multiple vet visits for several issues & ultimately ended up needing to be hospitalized for GI issues he had when we adopted him which cost us over $2000. Having only had him for a couple of weeks, that was a tough pill to swallow but we were determined to do all we could to give this cat a wonderful life. After a couple weeks of a new feeding routine (he needs to be fed his meals with a slow feeder rather than having food left out) he started to improve and come out of his shell, but it was not too long before more issues started to pop up. He started to get extremely itchy and was scratching himself to the point of his whole neck being scabbed up. Back to the vet, where he was given a shot of steroids. The shot bought him enough time to heal the scabbing but the impact to his immune system caused him to have a flare up of the upper respiratory virus he also had when we adopted him. Back to the vet we went to make sure it was nothing else & we were told it would get better in a few days. It did, but then a few days after that he started showing signs of having difficulty urinating. The ultimate alert was when he peed on our bed, which he had only done two other times, both of which were signals that he was sick. BACK to the vet for the third same day appointment in the matter of two weeks (which same day appointments are an extra fee due to the urgency) and they found he had struvite crystals in his bladder.   They sent us home with medication in hopes of preventing a blockage but, unfortunately, by the next morning he had still been unable to urinate and we were told we needed to bring him to the emergency animal hospital as, if left untreated, a urinary tract blockage will lead to death. Of course we rushed him there where he needed to stay for 2 nights while catheterized... another $3000 bill and we have not even had him for 6 months. The prognosis isn’t too great for cats with these crystals as it is a lifetime battle and subsequent blockages can be triggered by stress alone.  Even knowing this, we were still not ready to give up; the plan was to try to manage it with prescription food. Given his food allergies, the formula he was put on is $125 a month. So now, nearing $7000 in less than six months, between both hospitalizations, many vet visits in between, and prescription food, we have basically maxed out what we can spend on him.  We worry that should a blockage happen again we won't be able to financially support another hospitalization to save his life. There is an additional surgery that can be performed to widen the urethra that would make it less likely for the crystals to form a blockage, however that was estimated at around $6,000. The hardest thing is that outside of all his medical needs he is a GREAT cat. Well behaved, non-destructive. Never once scratched at any of our furniture, is sweet as can be, and is just an overall handsome loving boy.  My wife and I  are at a point where we have exhausted everything we can, financially. There is nothing more we want than to give this cat the best life ever.