Help Save Lu the Five-Legged Cat

Hi, my name is JB and I'm hoping to raise some money to help save the life of my cat, Lu.

Lu is a seven year old housecat who lives with a multitude of health issues. First of all, she has five legs, which is surprisingly the least of her problems. She also has a heart murmur, only one kidney, and is not spayed due to what the doctors call "malpositioned internal organs". One of her "normal" back legs has a condition that doesn't allow it to extend fully, so she mostly pulls herself around with her front legs.

When Lu was younger, she was able to walk more easily, use the litter box and clean herself like any normal cat. But with age, her mobility has steeply diminished. She needs baths and professional grooming frequently to keep her back end clean and healthy.

Despite her numerous health issues, Lu is the sweetest kitty I have ever encountered and has a lust for life as strong as any cat out there. She cuddles endlessly, plays with toys, and loves to watch the birds and explore outside.

In September of 2022, I brought Lu to Nashville Vet Specialists in hopes of getting some advice on how to best care for my aging special needs cat. That's when I got the devastating news that she has mammary cancer (common in cats that are not spayed). The usual course of action for mammary cancer in cats is the surgical removal of both chains of mammary glands. While surgery for Lu would undoubtedly be complicated and potentially impossible, they encouraged me to seek the advice of an oncologist if I wanted to treat her.

I called every oncologist in Tennessee (and some in Kentucky) but could only find one that could see me within several months. Luckily she was at the University of Tennessee Small Animal Hospital, which is just about the best place I could take such a special animal.

After a four-hour drive and several hours of waiting around, the oncologist told me that her cancer was not very advanced, but she will need surgery as soon as possible, and will likely need chemo afterward to keep the cancer from taking hold in other parts of her body. It was amazing news that they would even consider taking on such a complicated case.

But before we could even schedule surgery, there are several more hoops to jump through. We need to know that she is healthy enough to be put under anesthesia, which involves many more tests. She has already gotten her bloodwork reviewed and the doctors said it all looks good and normal. However, she also needs several ultrasounds, and an echocardiogram to see if the cancer has spread and if her heart is strong enough to withstand being anesthetized.

I have already spent hundreds if not over a thousand dollars on vet visits since September of last year. The pre-surgery tests alone cost will $1,300 and start in mid-March. If she gets the green light, then we will hopefully schedule surgery with the UT Small Animal Hospital. They are the most advanced program and would give Lu the best chance of a successful surgery and easy recovery. However, it will cost between $3500 and $7000, not including the price of chemo which I have yet to learn. The other option is to schedule the surgery with a local clinic in Nashville. They have strongly recommended that I take her to UT if possible, but if I couldn't afford it they would perform the surgery. That option would cost around $3500 (not including chemo). UT is also the only place that can treat this type of cancer, so I will likely be taking many trips back and forth to Knoxville, which of course gets expensive as well.

Here's where I want to explain why I'm asking for support. Obviously, this has and will take a huge toll on my bank account. I've already depleted most of the savings I had, and I'd barely be able to cover her upcoming tests by myself. I sat in the car after hearing that saving her life might cost $7000, sobbing and wondering if and how I could possibly afford it. I finally decided that I would just put all of her bills on credit cards if I had to. I knew that I wouldn't miss the money, but I would definitely miss her. I knew if I didn't do everything in my power to save her life, it would always feel like I just let her die without fighting.

I resigned myself to the idea that I would be spending close to 10k to save my cat, but realized it might be possible to not put myself into debt to do it.

In the five years that I've had Lu, I know that she has made so many people happy. She has met hundreds of people, and while they love seeing her strange and miraculous shape, they fall in love even more with her amazing personality.

A cat like Lu doesn't come around very often (or ever before, as far as I've been able to find); I think we should save her, so she can keep making people smile for as long as possible.

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