Help Little Sister & Pretty Face Return to Complete Health!

Jan 2, 2025 Update: On the last day of 2024, I took Little Sister to the vet for a CT scan. The scan showed a mass, so Dr. Loose asked me if I wanted to proceed with a biopsy and culture and I said yes. These are other diagnostic tools to figure out what the mass is. The radiologist, who read the CT scan, doesn't think it's cancer, rather they think it may be something fungal. This is nothing I've dealt with or heard of, but it's definitely better than cancer and now we wait for the test results to come in. Even though I was able to get these diagnostics done at rescue rates, the cost is still $1300 so I've increased my fundraising goal as a result. I will keep everyone posted on how Little Sister is doing. So far she is recovering well from Tuesday's procedures (the biopsy was kind of invasive), thank goodness.

This year for my annual birthday fundraiser I am raising funds to help two female cats, Pretty Face (4 years old) and Little Sister (2 years old), that come from the same colony and are currently in my care.

These two girls have different medical issues and different backgrounds – Pretty Face had been someone’s pet while Little Sister was born outside – so here is a summary of the help they need, followed by their backgrounds.

Pretty Face ($750)

$250 – spay, rabies and FVRCP vaccines, bloodwork, medication, snap test (neg/neg), microchip, flea meds, fecal test and deworming (I have already paid for these services)

$500 – dental and bloodwork recheck

Little Sister ($636)

$386 – spay, rabies and FVRCP vaccines, bloodwork, medication, snap test (neg/neg), microchip, flea meds, fecal test and deworming (I have already paid for these services)

$250 – additional testing to determine the cause of Little Sister’s chronic rhinitis

I rounded up the fundraiser by a little bit to cover travel and additional expenses, which there always are. Here are the cats’ stories:

Pretty Face, who was given her name by her colony caretakers, had been someone’s pet, but her owner, a neighbor of the colony caretakers, brought her to them when she no longer wanted Pretty Face (for no good reason). Unfortunately, four years ago when this was all going down, neither Pretty Face’s owner nor the colony caretakers took her to New York’s Animal Care Centers, which would have been far better for this sweet girl than putting her outside – a young, unfixed female cat.

Fast forward to about 2 months ago when I met the colony caretakers with a rescue friend and we started working on TNRing (trap, neuter, return) their colony. The caretakers told me Pretty Face’s story and that something had happened to her upper lip – they thought she had somehow burned it and that’s why her mouth was disfigured.

Well, after trapping her and taking her to get spayed, we found out what was going on with Pretty Face’s mouth and health in general. Her veterinary report included that she had an ulcerated hard palate, excessive flea dirt, an ulcerated upper lip, and eosinophilic granuloma. She also has grade 3 (out of 4) dental disease and is severely underweight.

Eosinophilic granuloma is complicated and I’ve never had a cat with it before so I’m learning, but essentially, her body had a strong reaction to the fleas that had been ravaging her for years, and the adverse reaction caused the mouth ulcers, anemia, and made her coat very thin and wiry. Immediately after her spay, she was started on an antibiotic, which was to help with the anemia, and of course we rid her of those fleas forever, and are giving her plenty of food.

In September, Pretty Face will go back to the vet to have follow up bloodwork done. I’ll also see if there’s anything that needs to be done for the eosinophilic granuloma or if her mouth will heal over time. Her fur is already growing back and she is constantly grooming. She will need a dental, having been diagnosed with grade 3 dental disease, but I’ll wait till I can get an appointment at the rescue clinic because it’s significantly less expensive.

It didn’t take long for Pretty Face to show her incredibly loving, friendly side. I can tell how happy she is to be inside again and flea-free even though she’s stuck in my basement for the time being. When I go downstairs, she instantly jumps in my lap and starts purring. I am extremely fond of this girl and rescuing her and being able to change the trajectory of her life around is incredibly rewarding.

Little Sister’s story is not nearly as long as Pretty Face’s, as she’s younger for one, but we also know that Little Sister was born outside about 2 years ago, because the colony caretakers know a lot about each colony cat.

Little Sister’s problem is either chronic rhinitis or worse, nasal cancer. When she was trapped and went to the ASPCA to get spayed, she was rejected because she had such a bad upper respiratory infection. This girl was all snot (sorry), so we put her on antibiotics for 2 weeks, as they recommended, and when she went back to the ASPCA, we also signed a high-risk waiver, since she remained congested. Luckily, her surgery went fine. The congestion, however, got worse again, so I took her to my vet, where they put her on another antibiotic as well as another medication to help her kick the upper respiratory infection.

During this time, and now too, Little Sister was in a playpen in my basement to get socialized because unlike friendly Pretty Face, who had been someone’s pet, Little Sister had never been touched by people. Normally, I would have returned a cat like Little Sister to her colony, but her congestion is so bad that she would have really struggled outside. Luckily, she is doing really well on her socialization journey so now I can even give her nasal spray two times a day. What is causing her congestion remains unclear, though, so I need to take her back to the vet soon for another blood test that could provide some insight. Interestingly, a number of cats from this colony have upper respiratory problems so something is going on, and clearly Little Sister has been hit hard.

Thank you so much for helping out these two girls on their medical journeys. Your support is greatly appreciated!