Help with Ozzy's hospital costs and surgery

Hello!

One if my little furballs is in need of help. You may be aware of what's been going on with my cat Ozzy.

I adopted Izzy and Ozzy from the Scratching Post rescue in 2019 when they were 8 months old. They're typical siblings that love and hate eachother but wouldn't be without the other.

At the beginning of March, Ozzy came in from outside and was uncharacteristically loud. He was meowing and yowling and generally looking not very comfortable and just not himself. It turned out he had a blocked bladder which is quite common in male neutered cats (so the vet and Google tell me). I rushed him to our normal vet and they had to keep him in for 4 days to unblock him and give him treatment for high kidney enzymes and potassium. He came home after 4 days and seemed to be doing ok with his change of food and meds.

However a week later he was not well again and I rushed him to the out of hours vet in Romford at midnight. He was blocked again.

I was heartbroken that he was going through this again. So he was admitted, given another catheter, unblocked and treated for high kidney enzymes and potassium again. They also did an ultrasound but didn't really find anything. He came home after another 4 days with more medication, antibiotics and antiinflammatories. He seemed to perk up this time, he was more himself.

I started to notice after nearly 2 weeks that he was being off again. He'd lost a lot of weight since all this started and he wasn't eating. He was hanging out in the litter tray and looking quite down. Since he had been released he'd been leaking urine a bit and seemed to be urinating fine but that seemed to stop.

We ended up back at the vet and after palpating his abdomen, they confirmed he was blocked again. Poor vet then had me in tears and a sick cat. He was again admitted for unblocking and bloods and basically the same thing we'd done the previous two times. He was admitted on Monday 14th April, my birthday and his gotcha day. The next day I got a call from the vet saying that the best course of action would be to complete a surgery that shortens his urethra (Perineal Urethrostomy) which I agreed to. His bloods weren't coming down to normal as quickly this time and my vet was concerned.

On Wednesday the 16th April, the vet rang and said that they were very concerned with him and his bloods were not coming down and that I should take him to a specialist place in Basildon if they accepted the referral. I agreed to take him wherever he needed to get the best care.

Basildon suggested that he would be better at the RVC Queen Mother Hospital for Animals (not far from potters bar). My vet asked if I was ok to take him, which I said of course. Kidnapping a friend for support, Ozzy was picked up and for the first time in his 6 years left the M25. He took it pretty much in his stride, only making a few comments about my driving on the way.

Since then he's been an inpatient with them firstly in their ITU and then a cat ward.

They did a lot more tests.

He had pancreatitis, cystitis and acute kidney injury with possible chronic damage, he also had ulcers on his tongue. His creatinine levels were off the chart (later found to be around 1200). They gave him fluids and treatment for his potassium, keeping his catheter in place. He started showing signs of improvement though wasn't eating a lot. They have tried removing the catheter but unfortunately he would almost immediately block again.

He's had a feeding tube placed to improve his nutrition. Another scan was done on his urethra and they found a membrane (what the team have affectionately called the worm as it looks like one on the images) which they believe has been caused by irritation and is now the cause of him blocking. His urine culture also shows signs of a hospital acquired bacteria causing a UTI so is spending a night in isolation while they reculture his urine to see if that's been cleared up by the antibiotics.

In the last couple of days he's also removed his own catheter twice and taunts the nursing teams with it.

He now needs surgery. It's unclear at this moment whether it will be a standard Perineal Urethrostomy or whether it will need to be more invasive (please keep your fingers crossed for the standard).

Ozzy (and Izzy) are insured and insurance has covered all of the first instance and half of the second. However, it seems they won't be covering anything of this third instance.

Currently his bill stands at £5100

This is likely to increase to £6500 for his hospital stay.

The surgery is also going to cost around £5500.

I've been very lucky with help from family and possibly getting some help or payment plan from the RVC. It would mean the world to me, Ozzy and Izzy for any help towards this. He's only 6 and with this surgery has a great prognosis and full life ahead of him. I've added a few photos but if you want to see more he's all over my Instagram.

Thank you all x