never thought i’d find myself here but here we are, i’ll swallow my pride if it means possibly giving my girl a longer and healthier life. 8 years ago i rescued a little orange and white kitten, peach. she has since become my everything. she would crawl inside my body and become a part of me if she could. i love her more than most people. wherever i am, she is always within a foot away if she’s not on top of me. she’s the best most patient big sister to gus and finn and olive’s (our older cat) biggest annoyance.

a few weeks ago i tried to give her an oral flea medication and saw that her teeth were in very poor condition. i left a message for the vet and didn’t hear back so called and they got me in (yesterday). i figured she would need a few teeth pulled, at worst a full mouth tooth extraction. financially we’re not doing great, barely floating but i was willing to go into debt and open a care credit card and hope for the best.

she screamed the whole time in the car and was shaking and scared, she’s super anxious hence why she hasn’t been to the vet in years. she hid in my arms until the vet came in and took her. she was holding her and had a strange look on her face so i asked what was wrong, she used her stethoscope and said she has a grade 5-6 heart murmur. the scale is 1-6 with 6 being the worst. i asked what that means and she said that she wouldn’t be able to put peach under anesthesia with that because there’s a high chance she wouldn’t make it out.

i was crushed. i asked what the next steps were and she said that she’d need labs with a full panel and a test to determine whether her thyroid was causing her heart issues or whether it was a structural problem. if it was a thyroid issue, it could be treated (possibly) with thyroid meds. if it was indeed a heart issue then she would need to be referred to a cardiologist who would do an EKG / figure out a treatment plan so that they could possibly get her heart to the point where she could go under anesthesia to treat the periodontal disease that she has in her mouth.

i went ahead and got the labs for her, flea treatment, paid alittle over $300 and went on my way expecting the results to be in within 24-48 hours.

today (alittle over 24 hours later) the results came in. her thyroid is clear with no issues so that was good but it is showing her heart indeed has problems that need looked into so she’s referred to the cardiologist for EKG/treatment. unfortunately they also found that her liver counts are pretty bad so she needs an ultrasound and then possible treatment plans for that. this is all before her mouth, what i thought was the original issue can get taken care of

i have a bunch of places to call based on recommendations and suggestions i was given for lower cost clinics/cardiologists should take care credit vs the ones that don’t. i will be doing my best to try and get costs down but its going to take several thousands to get her in good health between teeth extraction, EKG, cardiology care, ultrasound, liver care and whatever else may come up. as much as i wish i did and could just pay it or charge it without batting an eye, i just don’t have anywhere near that. i cant in good conscience max out my credit card to pour into her care especially with having two young kids, one of which was in the ER last month, a car needing brakes, house constantly falling apart and needing repairs, being self employed among many other things.

so, help me help peach? i’m terrible at accepting help and would rather drown before asking but im feeling rather desperate. at least now i can’t say that i didn’t try every single thing out there to get the best care for her. thank you if you’ve made it this far