Guppy is a very strong willed, 7 week old rescue kitten who came to me (Laura) when she was a few days old. She was with her litter at another fosters home and was not nursing and when they tried to bottle feed she would continually aspirate and have milk come out of her nose. She was extremely small having not grown rapidly like a normal kitten in her first week of life but thankfully the previous foster kept her stable until I got back to Syracuse and could take her.

When I assessed her upon first getting her here I found she had a very sizable (as in long and wide) cleft palate. This means Guppy has a hole from her oral cavity to her nasal cavity where normally the hard and soft palate would be separating the two, forming a normal roof of the mouth.

The positive is that cleft palate repairs in kittens and puppies are highly successful but the negative is that it means tube feeding until the surgery and recovery are done. In Guppy’s case, even with tube feeding she had a rough time and just was not gaining weight appropriately. In 4 days she didn’t gain anything and that alone was extremely worrisome to me. Although I kept putting my best efforts into her care, I truly didn’t have high hopes. But little Guppy was determined to prove me wrong.

By 2 weeks of age she was far more stable and then as time went on she grew and matured. Though she is very small for her age she is robust and active and I couldn’t be happier with her progress.

With a lot of dedication on my part and determination on her part we are getting closer to the age that she can have her cleft palate repaired.

I always feel badly doing these fund raisers but we are talking about being able to help guppy be able to eat and drink like a normal cat. With surgery her prognosis is very good else I wouldn’t be asking for help.

As Guppy has aged the cleft has gotten smaller (which is a fairly normal event) but ultimately she needs a dental specialist to surgically close the hole in the roof of her mouth.

As is, If Guppy were to eat or drink like a normal kitten it would just end up going into her nasal cavity through the cleft. I allow her minimal amounts of time post tube feeding to suckle on her bottle with a long nipple that helps appease her, but Guppy is dying to eat on her own.

Although I don’t anticipate her having her surgery until 3-6 months of age I want to be able to have the funding so that as soon as she can undergo her surgery I am not holding things up.

I will update a more exact surgery cost as soon as possible and am just going by averages. Obviously if for whatever reason this fundraiser were to exceed the surgery costs donors would be contacted with the option of refunding.

If you have any questions please contact me at [phone redacted]. Text is preferred. Thanks for reading and please share if you can. Guppy and me very much appreciate any help whether through donations or sharing!