Hi y'all,As many of you know, my partner Tyler and I recently adopted an ex-stray cat who we've named Butterball. He's amazing, so sweet and loves to cuddle and get belly rubs. It's actually hard to believe he's been living on the streets for so long considering how good he is around people. He has shown no desire to go back outside now that we've given him shelter and food and love. We will love him for the rest of his days! But Butterball did have it rough in the few years before we had him. He was a stray, and when he was rescued he was covered in car grease, with gashes across his neck and face, and a very nasty eye infection. The lovely woman who rescued him had witnessed people chasing him away with brooms, and thinks the cuts and infection were probably caused by a fight with another cat. He was almost blind when she found him (his eye was so infected). He would have been hit by a car or otherwise died. 
Butterball got another chance though! We're so happy we found him and can give him all the love he SO desperately wants (seriously, I've never met a cat so in need/want of TLC). We recently brought him to the SPCA to get neutered, only to find out he's already been neutered. This tells me that either he was caught, neutered and released as a stray cat, OR he was someone's pet and they lost him long ago or left him outside after finding out that he has health problems. This is too awful to think about but is definitely possible.


So, the SPCA told us he will need surgery to correct his eye, which as a result of the eye infection (which his rescuer cured with antibiotics) now has entropion. Basically that means his eyelashes are growing inward on the bottom lid of his right eye, which is obviously uncomfortable (y'all know that would feel shitty) - but even worse, they are irritating the cornea and inflaming the whole eye area. So his eye is all swollen AND if we don't get surgery to correct it, he will eventually lose vision in that eye. While being blind in one eye is not the worst thing in the world, the road there would be very painful for him and might result in other complications if we don't get this fixed. 

Here is some info on entropion: https://www.petcarerx.com/article/entropion-in-cats-an-odd-eye-deformation/1720


Surgery involves rolling the eyelid outward to its normal position by removing an elliptical piece of skin. The eye surgery is relatively minor but it's expensive as almost all vet procedures are. We've only found a few places in Montreal who will perform it.

March 2017 EDITED TO ADD:


His entropion has gone untreated for the past few months because we've been focusing on getting him tested and healthy in other ways. As our updates have said (plus much more after I stopped updating) - we've had him tested and we now know that he is FIV+, he has kidney failure, herpes, conjunctivitis, and, of course, entropion. 
He also got a really bad case of worms recently - like the worms were the size of spaghetti. It was gross. He was treated and they're gone now.
We also got his blood pressure taken (to check on his kidney failure progress - it's in a good range!), his urine tested (same reason, he has no protein in his urine which is a good sign!) and a bunch of other tests and checkups.

He's been doing really well, but recently his entropion has been acting up. Usually we give him some l-lysine crushed on his food which helps his herpes flareups and that usually has a positive effect on the entropion. It hasn't changed it this time though. He can barely open his eye, it makes it hard for him to play or look out the window... he's also constantly scratching at it because, as you could imagine, having eyelashes constantly laying against your cornea would be very uncomfortable. Poor thing.

The one that specializes in ocular health told me they can do it for somewhere between $1200 and $1700 - depending on how long the surgery takes. They said they will give me a more exact estimate after a consultation (that cost $160) and that they try very hard to honor the estimate they give. 
They do surgeries on Wednesdays, and said we can bring him in on a Tuesday for a consultation, leave him overnight and they'll do the surgery the next day.

WHERE YOU COME IN:

Well, as of right now, the money I recieve for school is going to school and living costs. I am also getting paid for a sponsored campaign I'm doing and will absolutely be contributing as much as I can toward this - but I don't recieve any school funding from May through August so I need some of it to pay rent and living costs.
Tyler is also going to contribute what he can but he got hit with a ridiculous tax fee (like, as much as the surgery cost) so, with all of that said - ANY help you can give us will directly help Butterball live a more comfortable life.

We love Butterball so much and want to love him for as long as we can. We will never give up on giving him the best life possible and would so so greatly appreciate any help in doing that.

Thank you so much for reading this! We love you! Butterball loves you! He's snort-purring right now!