Help with Coda's Vet Bills and Ongoing Treatment

Hello, my name is Tristan. I am the lucky father of two beautiful rescue tuxedo cats, Staccato and Coda (musical notes, and Oreo was taken). Coda has recently gone through a whirlwind of an experience, from misdiagnosing doctors, to 3 month waits to get appointments with specialists, to being rushed to the ER.

 

Pending that result which will be in the next 7-10 days, we now have to settle up with the 5 bills for the 2 misdiagnosis's from poor veterinary care by doctors will we not be seeing anymore, to the other bills from the competent and well skilled doctors we will now be seeing from this point on.

 

As well we must monitor her to make sure she does not go through the hell of an inner ear infection flaring up from the poor veterinary negligence early on, which caused severe Ototoxicity which made her incapable of walking without falling over. It was heart wrenching.

 

We have finally gotten her through the hardest part of her hurdle though and finally have a diagnosis pending the biopsies. Coda most likely has an autoimmune disorder called: Pemphigus Foliaceus (PF)

 

The visits themselves have added up to 3500$ and then if this is her diagnosis will need followup medications and visit bills not included in this GoFundMe.

 

We are asking for your help to give back a little to the two beautiful Tuxedo cats that have brought so much joy to their nearly 10,000 followers on Instagram http://instagram.com/staccatoandcoda via a small donation to help ease our costs as we will be needing that for the long term care needed going forward. Anything will help. Thank you for your continued love and support of these two loving "puppy cats" as people call them. I am grateful to have them and to be able to share their adorableness with you all. They are two of a kind honestly and I would be lost without them.

 

 

 

From our doctor for those who want the details of the condition and next steps medically:

 

We discussed that the slides showed severe inflammation and suspect abnormal skin cells (acantholytic cells). This is suspicious for pemphigus foliaceus (PF), the most common immune-mediated skin disease in cats.

 

Given that Coda had skin lesions at the first vet visit, we suspect the following theoretical timeline: Coda already had a primary skin disease (ex. PF)-->any level of ear cleaning can sometimes cause ototoxicity since cats are very sensitive, but to be cautious, we will avoid Animax in the future (unknown cleaner name)-->the steroid injection started to help with Coda's skin lesions and also sometimes helps with vestibular disease (being off balance neurologically)-->a systemic antibiotic was also given so we can't rule out a drug reaction since signs did recur after this point-->bacteria were reported to be seen on cytology<48 hours ago, but we suspect the changes may have been contaminant given completely negative cytology today (cats are notorious for having waxy ears with more discharge)-->therefore, we will stop all new antibiotics (notify us if recurrence of

vestibular signs).

 

Medically the next steps are as follows:

1. Get a diagnosis - biopsy.

2. Get into clinical remission (no new or old skin lesions). Usually able to do this with steroids alone, but some cats can flare with taper.

3. Disease can be lifelong, so if unable to taper off steroids, then we would choose a 2nd-line immunosuppressive - trying to get to the lowest possible dose/frequency that is tolerated.

 

Sincerely,

Tristan, Staccato, and Coda.

 

 

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