Help Hawthorne!

Hawthorne and I have been pals for 8 1/2 years now. I raised him from a screamy kitten to the surly-yet-sweet adult you see in the photos.  On Thursday,  December 17th, he didn't wake me up at 4:40 am like he usually does, but he seemed fine, if not a little sleepier than usual. On Friday, still no early alarm kitty, and he seemed like he was a little bunched up in pain. 

My husband, being the excellent cat dad he is, took his boy in to the vet to see what was going on.  The vet didn't find anything obviously wrong in the tests, gave him some fluids, and sent him home. Saturday morning, he seemed better, but by Saturday evening he started sounding like he was choking on something, maybe trying to cough up a hairball. He was definitely struggling to take in air through his nose.  By Sunday morning, he didn't sound any better and I took him to the emergency vet in Ventura. We were there from 8:20 am until 10:00 pm. They did more tests and more tests, and before we knew it, we were splitting the bills between three cards just hoping for an answer.  Still nothing, and now we're up to our ear tufts in debt.

Two more tests are still needed that require a specialist and will set us back nearly two thousand dollars that we don't have. We didn't even have the well-over-a-thousand we've already gone through. He's a stubborn kitty who fights medicine and food, though I've managed to get some broth and some medicine  into him. It's breaking our hearts to see and hear him struggling so hard and we need help!