Help Our Kitten Get A Chance At Life - Vet Bills

We adopted our sweet girl Maple from a no kill rescue shelter on Saturday December 28th and immediately fell in love. She was the perfect addition to our family as a little sister to two older male cats. We took her home and set her up in a room with all her new toys and bed, and began what we thought was going to be a happy life together.

On Sunday, after we spent the morning capturing all of Maples sweetness in a photo shoot, we noticed she was sneezing. We didn’t think too much of it, but kept monitoring her closely and kept her isolated from her new older brothers. 

By Monday afternoon she started deteriorating quickly. She began drooling and foaming at the mouth and wasn’t going near food or water. We were so scared and called a vet and took her right away for a check up. The vet wasn’t sure what was happening , but we thought it could have been a reaction to her flea medication. She was given some drugs and fluids and sent home with us for the night. 

We took turns the whole night holding her and monitoring her, growing more concerned as she began vomiting and having diarrhoea. 

As soon as the vet opened on Tuesday, New Years Eve, we took her straight in. She stayed there until 4pm, getting IV fluids and medication to keep her from throwing up, as well as blood work and tests. Since it was New Years, the vet was closing and Maple had to be transferred to a 24/7 Emergency vet hospital for intensive overnight care. They informed us that they would try a special lipid therapy that would help her immediately if she was having a reaction to the flea treatment. We said goodbye to her and left her there overnight. 

The next morning on January 1, the emergency vet called to say Maple was not responding to treatment, and that they had discovered she had a very deadly and serious illness called feline Panleukopenia . They said that they could continue to provide supportive care with no guarantee that she would live, but advised us it would be almost $5000, and we were already at close to $3000 for treatments. They said that euthanasia was also an option, which we just couldn’t face. We knew our little Maple was strong and a fighter and we wanted to give her the best chance at pulling through. 

Desperately and bawling my eyes out I called the original shelter where we got Maple from to inform them what was happening, so that they could protect their cats and kittens and take precautions. They said that they wanted to help, and offered to continue treating Maple free of charge at a vet about an hour away, close to where we got her. We were so grateful for this, and had Maple discharged from the hospital and transferred her to the new vet. 

They warned us that this disease was very serious and to not get our hopes up, but they would do all they could to help our little girl. I held her paw one last time and told her I loved her, and we left hoping for the best but preparing for the worse. 

Today, on January 2, we’ve received updates that Maple has made it through the night and has managed to keep some food down from syringe feeding. While she could still quickly deteriorate, we are clinging onto this small hope.

Even though the current vet is so wonderfully treating Maple free of charge, we are still grappling with the massive and unexpected bills from the past few days of treatment, including treating and vaccinating our 2 older cats to protect them from the virus. As a lifelong pet owner, I know that there are many responsibilities that come with pet ownership and that it’s important to treat pets and keep them healthy, but nothing could prepare myself and my husband for the emotional and financial shock that we’ve been through over the past 5 days. 

We would be so incredibly grateful for any donation at all. Everything is going to Maples current vet bills, and if we get a miracle and she pulls through, donations will help her future supportive care to ensure she stays healthy. 

If you can help Maple at all, thank you so much.  We would also appreciate sharing our story with anyone you think could help. In the meantime, please keep our little sweet Maple in your thoughts as she fights this horrible virus.