Help us help Ronnie!

Hey everyone. I am making this because we recently got a 5 month old kitten, Ronald Dregan, and she is the cutest little baby.

A friend gave her to us for a "trial period" on Wednesday, 9/11. The dates will make more sense as we go along. I noticed almost immediately how ravenous she was for food, she even jumped 5 ft in the air to land directly on her food spilling it everywhere when I was trying to feed her one day.

She was fine that night and into the following day, 9/12, but I did notice she hadn't pooped. I chalked it up to her being in a new environment and a shy pooper, so I thought let's give it some time. Friday, 9/13, she pooped and I was so excited I texted my husband about it! Meanwhile, she is still being her spunky, crazy self, and meowing all the time with so much energy especially when it came to meal time.

On Saturday, 9/14, I fucked up and left a teaser in the room while I went on a walk with our pup. I came back and noticed she had eaten the string part of the teaser, but I didn't remember how long the teaser was and I thought, "Oh, it's a cat toy, she'll be fine." But I started watching her and monitoring her poop and how much she was eating (still ravenously, I might add).

Fast forward to Monday, 9/16, I get home from work and feed our animals including little Ronnie, still eating RAVENOUSLY. And I noticed she still hasn't pooped. I do a quick Google search about cats and how often they poop, everything was telling me to take her to the emergency vet. I chatted with an online vet tech and he had me send some photos and such to which he said I needed to take her to the emergency vet. Little Ronnie is still being her normal, crazy, ravenous self.

I take her around 10pm to Sage, our local emergency vet. They do their scans and vitals and stuff, and all Ronnie's vitals are normal, but since she ate the string, they do an X-ray.

The X-ray solidified that she needed endoscopic surgery. The vet tried her BEST to not have to have us pay for the surgery, hell, we had her on a TRIAL BASIS and weren't even sure if we were keeping her yet. She even tried to induce vomiting, but cats are really hard to make vomit. We decided to go ahead with the surgery. Meanwhile, Ronnie is being her normal, crazy, ravenous self.

They end up keeping Ronnie overnight so they can do the surgery the following morning, 9/17. The doctor describes the surgery to me as being very quick once she is under because strings are really easy to remove. Once Ronnie was under, she expected it to only take like 10 minutes for them to extract the string. I was a wreck, but I was hopeful Ronnie would respond well to treatment and surgery.

Well, the procedure lasted a lot longer than the vet originally thought. There was _SO_MUCH_STUFF_ in her belly, the vet had go in, pull stuff out, go in again, at least 6 to 7 times. RONNIE'S ENTIRE STOMACH WAS FULL OF FOREIGN BODIES! Her stomach lining was inflamed in a way that the vet described them as "being lodged in her belly for a long time." To clear things up a bit, the person I adopted Ronnie from had a lot of stuff going on in their personal life which is why they turned her over to us. They wanted to give her the life they couldn't and knew Ayran and I were the best fit for her.

I waited to get the message from the doctor that I could pick her up, but by golly I was so excited to have her back. She peed all over Ayran, but the vet and I determined that was due to anesthesia and we just let her sleep it off. Meanwhile Ronnie was her normal (groggy), crazy, RAVENOUS self.

The following morning, 9/18 (mind you, we have had Ronnie for 6 days at this point), I wake up to her being abnormally groggy and so lethargic she does not want to eat. I give her some anti nausea meds and skip the pain killer so maybe she will wake up. I call out of work because this baby needs to be monitored and I make an appointment at the vet. After an hour from making the appointment, she coughs really loud and I can hear her whistling as she's breathing. I call the vet asking if I should wait until my appointment or bring her in immediately, and they tell me to bring her in right away. I load this groggy kitty up and we are on our way. Ronnie is not being her normal, crazy ravenous self.

I'm trying to keep it together. We go to Sage and they take her back for "emergency triage for a kitten in respiratory distress." They take her back, and to my astonishment, they bring her back in 5 minutes saying her vitals are normal and her breathing is fine. We go to the Internal medicine floor to wait, they have Ronnie in the oxygen tank observing her. I'm keeping it together.

They call me back and put me and Ronnie in a room. They urge me to call a nurse if anything happens. I grab Ronnie from her carrier and she is peeing all over the place and breathing out of her mouth. I run to get the nurse, and I start balling in front of the packed waiting room. They walk me back to Ronnie's room and take her to put her in the oxygen tank. The vet comes and tells me she wants to hospitalize Ronnie overnight.

Ronnie was supposed to be with us on a trial period. We were not supposed to have to make these decisions especially when we don't have insurance. I want what's best for Ronnie, but part of my tears are from the amount of money I am going to have to fork over for this cat. A cat who I don't even know will get along with Cashmere, my first cat who is 9 years young.

Our vet bills have piled up, and we are already overspending. The night we decided to do surgery, they charged us right around $7k. To hospitalize her for the night, it's going to be another $3k, but what are we supposed to do? Say no? At this point, Ronnie is laying down and very unresponsive to calls. She has a fever of almost 105 and is not moving around at all. She just doesn't feel good, and poor baby! They took a lot of stuff out of her belly! But how can we afford this?

The next day 9/19, the vet calls me saying she did not improve over night. Her fever was still there, she was mouth breathing all the time and making a honking noise, and still not eating. I'm a wreck again, not only is this baby feeling awful, but we spent a bunch of money for no reason. How can we spend more money on her? We don't even have this money!

I go see her at 1pm and I call out to her and she responds to me. Her breathing has gotten so bad, she makes a honking noise when she gets excited. She is wobbling around and responding to my voice. She lays on me for about an hour, and the vet comes down to take her temp. They do the ear one that's not accurate first, and it reads 101.2. Has her temperature finally gone down? While she's on my chest, they take her rectal temp and it is 101.1. I'm balling my eyes out. She was responsive AND her temperature went down? How can I not give her another shot?

I'm asked to leave the room because of an emergency and critical patient. I'm in the lobby going back and forth to all of my bank accounts asking myself if it was worth it. If I move money here then I can max out this credit card, and have a little left on this credit card. How can I not give her a chance because she was so responsive even if I don't have the money? How are we going to afford another $2500 when we have already spent $10,000 on this kitten?

To give you a little back story, Ayran and I owed $10,000 in taxes this year and we still need to clean Cashmere's teeth, our 9 year old kitty. With all that in mind, we had to help Ronnie. She needed us and came to us just in time.

We decided to hospitalize her for one more night, the night 9/19. At 7 pm, the vet called us and we got the best news! Ronnie's temperature is still normal and she's walking around her oxygen tank and she's MEOWING Y'ALL!!!! I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!!!! She really just needed one more night. We took a chance and she's getting better because of it. She's just 5 months old and has so much life to live. We couldn't give up on her!

Here is the hard part, asking you all if you want to help in Ronnie's recovery. I know you all are invested in her, and I truly appreciate your love for her. I want to give her the life she deserves which is why I'm asking for your help. I'm only asking for her vet bill expenses because this was so unexpected (even for the person who gave her to us). We were not able to get insurance for her before she needed surgery. Honestly, anything helps and I truly, truly appreciate you all for listening to her story. If you can't donate, please share this story with all your friends. Ronnie has a real possibility of making it through this!