Benny needs an urgent, specialized neurological vet consult and imaging/testing! We need your help desperately to make this happen.

Imagine waking up one morning to find your beloved cat suddenly struggling to walk on his front legs, stumbling around in a panic, trying to hide himself in the kitchen cabinets! He was perfectly fine when you fed him two hours earlier. In a panic, you rush him to the vet, where unfortunately they have limited resources and are not able to really do much other than give you sedating medication and tell you he may never walk right again. In sadness and helplessness you bring him home and try and arrange him on a cozy bed on the floor. Instead, with tears rolling down your face, you watch him stumble around the room and eventually he falls on his face. You try hard get him situated again, but he’s so frightened and confused. You have no answers when he looks at you pleadingly.

The medication he’s given just puts him into a sleepy stupor. He now lies oddly on his now dysfunctional front legs, and you gently stretch them out so he is more comfortable. Every day you move his body around and massage his muscles, praying he’ll just get up and run around the house again with a big grin on his beautiful face! Every night you sleep beside him on the hard floor, in case something happens or he needs you, because he’s no longer able to climb into bed to snuggle with you. You fall asleep every night with the same prayer- “Please God, please help Benny recover the use of his legs and feel good again! Please, he’s such an amazing cat and he doesn’t deserve this to happen to him.” While God can perform miracles, sometimes you need to meet him halfway.

Benny is such a sweet, caring, loving, non-judgemental special soul. He hasn’t had an easy life. He was surrendered to the local kill shelter when he was about a year old for aggression issues. He was scheduled to be put to sleep when his bite hold was up, but a Guardian Angel interfered with those plans and mixed up his paperwork, so he ended up on the adoption floor instead! Scrolling through Facebook one day, I saw they had a special cat sale going on. For the fun of it, I went to their page. Scrolling through all the cute kitties, Ronaldo appeared. This was Benny’s shelter name. From the moment I saw his photo, I heard a whisper - “you need to save Ronaldo”. I kept hearing that voice, even a few days later when I spontaneously took a trip to town. I was about to leave and go back home, but decided I had to stop by the shelter to meet this mysterious Ronaldo.

At our meet & greet he was solely interested in murdering the chattering feather bird at the end of the stick, and paid no attention to my husband or I. We were visiting with the cats near his cage when we were getting ready to leave, and Ronaldo/Benny kept punching, yes, PUNCHING!, my arm! I mean, how can you ignore that sign?! We signed the adoption papers June 22, 2016 and took him home with us. I didn’t know what to name him for the first few days, until I saw just how goofy he was! Then it came to me – Benny Hill. So whenever you hear the Benny Hill theme song, picture this goofy boy bouncing around the house clumsily having the time of his life!

About a month into that happy adoption, out of the blue he suddenly got violently sick and I am very sure he died momentarily in my arms. I whispered to him when I thought he was no longer breathing- “Its ok, sweetheart, you can go now. I love you SO MUCH!”. Tears were running down my face. The next moment he started breathing again. That was when we really connected and formed a very strong bond. To make a long-complicated story short, we eventually found out he had hepatic encephalopathy, which is a neurological disorder that is caused by excess ammonia in the system, usually caused by a liver shunt. My husband read a dissertation on liver shunts and found a natural raw food recipe specifically for these conditions. The moment Benny was on that food, he went from dying to thriving. We have been able to maintain his complicated health issues well up until this point. Things are very serious now and Benny needs your help.

Despite immediately rushing Benny to the vet, they have very limited diagnostics where we live. They recommended that we reach out to Colorado State University Vet Teaching Hospital for a neurological consult with potential MRI/CT scans to help diagnose his condition. My vet is unsure if he had a stroke, a seizure, or possibly a pinched nerve or pinched disc somewhere along his spine. It’s also possible it’s a neurological disease that has progressed over the years. At this point, the only way to get a firm diagnosis and treatment plan is to bring him to CO State University. I reached out to them and sent them Benny’s vet records. They recommended that Benny be seen by their Neurological specialists for further examination, testing, and treatment.

Like so many, we are not in a financial position to truly make this happen. There is the consult cost, testing, and potential treatment cost. In addition, we have to travel over 6 hours to the appointment which means an overnight stay or possibly two if the vet can do imaging the next day. I have attached a copy of the email from the vet showing that we are looking at a possible cost upwards of $5,000 before treatment.

Benny is so far from giving up! Every day he pushes himself through not really being able to feel his front paws and bravely walks across the house, and especially for his beloved FOOD! Benny is such a fighter, a warrior, #bennystrong and #gobennygo! I really feel this consult will not only save his life, but maybe give him an even better quality of life than he’s ever had, because these vets have a greater understanding of neurological diseases.

Please help us help Benny! It would mean so much to celebrate his 8th Adoptaversary and almost 9th Birthday with a diagnosis and treatment plan that will give this deserving boy the opportunity to live many, many healthy years being loved so deeply by us.

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