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Help offset Athena's and James Bond’s medical bills

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I adopted my cat, Misty Blue (or Athena Blue, as we’ve all agreed about to rename her) on March 23 of this year. Misty was taken from a large cat colony in Middlesex Co., VA when she was a young cat, and lived in foster care and with rescues for most of her life. She was transferred to the local county shelter where I adopted her from in mid March of this year, after having bounced between a foster home and a rescue center for the first part of the year. She was adopted by another family soon after arriving at our local shelter, but was promptly returned 3 days later as she was not eating or drinking much, nor was she fitting in with the family as they had hoped, and they were not willing to give her the time to settle in which she needed. I ended up adopting her two days after the shelter had taken her back. We clicked instantly, and she came home with me the next morning. For the few weeks I've had her, her confidence with me has grown immensely, but her appetite still has not. She had been undereating and drinking very little, even prior to me adopting her, to the point where enough was enough and she needed to be seen by a vet. We took her for a check up on Tuesday May the 15th, and she ended up being hospitalized the following evening for severe problems with her liver. She's been in the hospital since, thankfully with around-the-clock care, but she is still really sick. She had a semi-permanent esophageal feeding tube placed, as well as more bloodwork and an ultrasound done on May 17th, which showed inflammation of her liver and multiple other internal organs, and further tests revealed a heart murmur and some cardiac abnormality, as well as fatty liver disease, possible re-feeding syndrome, and a lesion on her gallbladder. The doctors suspect it is a severe case of pancreatitis, though without more specific imaging and biopsies, we can't definitively rule out cancer.

She'll be in the hospital for a few more days to make sure she's responding well to the supportive treatment the vet has been giving her, and I've been referred to take her to an internal medicine specialist. There is no question about costs when it comes to deciding her treatment- whatever the vets suggest and think is the best way to support her, however her initial exam and hospital intake over the last two days have cost approximately $4,750, which has taken almost every dollar I had in savings. Anyone who knows me knows that I do not ask for help unless its really, really needed. I know her vet bill for her hospital stay has already increased by another $500, and will likely end up costing another $1,500-$2000. The quotes for the internal medicine specialist are ranging around $1,300 in addition to this, potentially more. I'm trying to offset the costs of the impending hospital bill by even a little bit, as I don't have much left to pay with. I'm looking into vet loans and potentially new credit as well, but if anyone is able to donate even a dollar or so to help with my beautiful girl's vet bills, it would be so immensely appreciated. To anyone who's read this far, and to anyone who is able to donate thank you.

05/13 edit: I adopted James Bond, who was meant to be Misty’s brother, one week after she passed. It was made well known to me that James was vision impaired, and had a history of feline lower urinary tract disease (FLUTD), and that he needed prescription food for the rest of his life. One small note from October 12, 2020, in his medical records from the shelter mentioned "history of acute neurologic episode" from June or July or 2020. These were absolutely no issue, and we brought him home on April 26th, with so much love. He began to settle in immediately, was so confident and curious, and so sweet. On Wednesday May 1st, he had what we would soon find out was a seizure. The next day, he had a few more seizures, and even had one whilst at the vet later that evening, where his vet immediately identified his episode as a seizure, and gave us a referral to an ophthalmologist and a neurologist, and prescribed gabapentin in the mean time to help prevent the seizures. At 2am, that same night, I woke up to James growling aggressively (he was not the type to vocalize really at all), and rushed out to discover he was having seizures back to back to back, continuing for nearly a half hour. My father and I rushed him to the emergency vet (different than where Misty went), the next morning, where we were lucky enough to get a neurology consultation. They gave James a hefty dose of phenobarbital to prevent any further seizure clusters, and gave us oral phenobarbital to administer at home, as well as 4 emergency injections of midazolam. His initial vet visit was over $500 and his emergency and neurology visits were close to $700. James improved steadily over the next week, and was doing very well on his medications, until he wasn't. On Saturday May 10, I got a message from my parents that they had suspected another seizure, and given him one of the emergency midazolam injections. Later that day, he had another seizure, and we administered another injection. We brought him right back to the ER, where he was admitted immediately, and given several anti seizure medications intravenously to give him time to rest and recover. The emergency vet deposit was $1,800, which stretched my debt to the max, but was absolutely non-negotiable. We thought we would be bringing James home the next day (Sunday, mother's day), but that next morning I got a call from his ER vet saying that he had been seizing throughout the night, and that they were immensely concerned and he was likely not going to make it out. We went down to the ER and after a discussion with his vet, we were told they were almost certain that it was a brain tumor causing his seizures, and that there was nothing that could be done. We lost James that afternoon. I held him and petted him, and my entire family cried as we watched him stop breathing. I dug his grave right next to Misty's that afternoon. To lose everything I had trying to care for Misty, to go the deepest into debt I possibly could, trying to care for James, for my parents to lose even more money covering what I could not...on top of losing my two beautiful babies in a span of under 6 weeks is a level of grief and pain I cannot describe. I am doing everything I can to grieve their loss in my own time whilst trying to work my way out of debt, but there is no way I can repay $10,000 in credit debt and debt to my parents, and replenish the $5,500 of my own personal savings that I lost. Any help is appreciated now, more than ever, whilst I try to force the local shelter, Fairfax County Animal Shelter (FCAS) to take responsibility for their role in the neglect of Misty and James' health.
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    Organizer

    Elise Holliday
    Organizer
    Alexandria, VA

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