This is not something that I normally would do, but given the situation I could really use some help.  Six days ago we received a call that there was a stray kitten living under the front steps of someones house in South Philly.  My husband and I rushed right over to grab her.  When I finally was able to reach her to pull her out, she was terrified and a giant roach came out with her.  She was filthy, covered in fleas and flea dirt and VERY skinny.  We wrapped her in a towel and she started to purr.   

We got home and bathed her, pulled fleas off of her, gave her flea medication and food.  She barely touched her food.  She weighed 1 lb 15 oz.  For her age and size, she should be at least 4 lbs.  For 2 days I couldn't get her to eat very much.  I force fed, I gave subcutaneous fluids, and she was still lethargic.  She was however in great spirits and purring like crazy, wanting human love at all times.  We took her to the vet on day 3 and she got up to 2 lbs, but still wasn't hungry.  She tested negative for felv/fiv and there was nothing overtly wrong on her exam.   We decided on an appetite stimulant which helped, but she was vomiting most of what she ate. 

On Saturday July 4th I saw that she vomited breakfast and when I picked her up she had some poo stuck to her.  When I tried to pull it, it was attached to hair.  A lot of hair.  I pulled out about 4 inches and then the rest was stuck.  It looked like she ate a piece of a hair weave on the street. So at that point I knew there was an obstruction (damn!!) I gave her some baby food with Miralax hoping that she could pass whatever was stuck, but she just vomited the food up.  Given that it was a major holiday (of course) we took her to VSEC that night so that they could confirm she needed exploratory surgery to remove the obstruction.  She stayed overnight, got IV fluids, 2 sets of xrays, some bloodwork, and they quoted me $3500-$4000 for everything(which is very high).  They weren't sure if they could dislodge with multiple enemas (they couldn't) - they just wanted to be sure she needed surgery since she is only 2 lbs.   By Sunday she still hadn't had the surgery and the bill was getting higher.  And they said they would operate that afternoon. 

Luckily City Cat Vet stepped in and offered to do emergency surgery that day if I transferred her over.  We picked her up from VSEC, took her to CCV and she had a more complicated surgery.   It turns out tat she did indeed eat a weave and it was lodged in her intestines and perforated her bowel.  She had to have 6-8 inches of intestine removed because the weave was so imbedded  in the tissue.  Poor tiny girl!!!!!  She stayed overnight and I picked her up yesterday to recover in our house.  She is eating and purring but has a long recovery - she goes back in for bloodwork on Friday because her white cell count was elevated and she was anemic.   

So in the middle of a pandemic when I have only really been working like normal for a few weeks, I had to pay $2957.20 in vet bills for a kitten that I have had for 5 days.  I don't normally ask for financial help with fosters, but these are special circumstances where I haven't worked like normal since March and this was quite a hefty bill (plus there's more to come). So if anyone can contribute, that would be so extremely helpful!!