Help Vet Bills for Emergency Treatments & Surgery

It feels really uncomfortable to be crowdsourcing when I have a nice place to live, nice things, etc. But sometimes life throws you a few too many curveballs too close together. I've had a number of major expenses - all within the last year - that I'm still trying to pay off. However, I am asking for help with the approximately $10,000 in pet costs & vet bills that have stacked up within the last month or so.

I recently brought home a third cat. I lost someone with whom I was very close in February; it was sudden and unexpected. His name was Donald and he was basically a father to me, more so than my own, for over 20 years. He left behind a handsome orange old man named Drifter. While he loved Drifter very much, it was boomer love, which means Drifter had really only ever been to the vet to be declawed (which I am vehemently against, but this happened almost 15 years ago) and neutered. I knew immediately that I had to take Drifter home. Donald's son was going to drop him off at a shelter. My parents picked him up for me until I could get to the East Coast to bring him home. When they went to pick him up, he was emaciated, lethargic, and not responding to food. His thyroid levels were more than doubled what they should've been and he had ulcers on his corneas. My parents' vet was actually questioning his chances of survival and quality of life. I had a friend who is a vet review his report and she said these were all treatable and it wouldn't be inhuman to give him a chance, so I did. But that has come with tremendous cost. His initial vet bills cost almost $1000 for bloodwork to get his thyroid hormone levels corrected, and on top of that, I had to do something about his eyes. I took him to an ophthalmologist and it turns out he's been living his entire 15-ish year life with a condition called entropion where his lower eyelid folded in and fur had been rubbing against his eyes his whole life. The surgery, which he had on May 2, 2023, to correct this was about $4000.

On February 25 of this year, one of my other cats, Bailey, had a UTI that required emergency care before it became life-threatening. That alone was almost $1500. Now, on this Memorial Day weekend, I had to bring her in for emergency care again. She was lethargic, stopped eating much, was vomiting constantly, and hadn't used the litterbox for almost a week. When I brought her in, she was extremely dehydrated and x-rays revealed she was so backed up that food wasn't moving past her stomach. Not only that, the blockage was putting pressure on her urethra making it difficult for her to urinate. I once again caught it just shy of it becoming life-threatening. The blockage was too severe to correct with an enema so they had to insert a tube through her nose into her stomach to deliver laxatives directly to her digestive tract and monitor her overnight until everything passed. I was able to take her home around 1 am this morning but I have to keep a close eye on her to make sure her physiological functions return to normal. I'm hoping I don't have to take her back. This visit cost us about $4,500.

I did not have the money for any of these visits and had to put everything on my credit cards - the interest rates are through the roof, so I will end up paying much more in the long run than the roughly $10,000 that it originally costs. I'm asking for help because I'm financially depleted, especially if anything else goes wrong this year. Any small amount that can be spared would be immensely appreciated - I know things are tight for everyone and it only seems to be getting worse. You will have my undying gratitude if you can help share my fundraiser and/or for any help you can afford.

Thank you kindly,

Felecia, Bailey & Drifter <3