Pepper's Journey to Health and Kitten Care

This fundraiser is for Pepper the Dollar General kitty and her 6 kittens.

(Update! 1/20/2025 - We fear that Pepper could possibly have FeLV (feline leukemia). She is losing her hair and getting skinnier. She needs to see the vet immediately for testing. If she's positive, that means all 6 kittens have it too. We need to hopefully rule it out and see what kind of treatment she needs.)

Pepper wandered into Dollar General on January 1st, 2025. She was very pregnant and looking for a warm place to give birth to her kittens. The manager at the store asked me to take her in since we had a winter storm on the way. Even though I knew I was not in a financial situation to take her in, I could not leave her outside to freeze to death while giving birth. She gave birth to 6 kittens on January 7th, 2025, one day before the winter storm hit.

Pepper has ongoing health problems. I took her to our local vet on January 3rd due to severe diarrhea, malnutrition, intestinal parasites, and anemia. She was treated for intestinal parasites, fleas, and ticks at the vet and put on a high-calorie diet, iron supplement, and a FortiFlora probiotic. Pepper (mom) has had ongoing diarrhea and is not gaining weight after the birth of her kittens. She has lost more weight. Just 24 hours after the birth of her kittens, she was skin and bones.

We also discovered a corneal abrasion or tear in her eye, so she needs to go back to see the veterinarian. She also still has severe diarrhea with pale-colored stool, weight loss, hair loss, watery eyes, and mucus, possibly a URI. She kept squinting her eye with discharge, so we just noticed the tear/scratch on her eye when trying to administer drops to flush the discharge from her eye. If the tear is deep, she'll need eye surgery.

This fundraiser will hopefully cover her return visit to her veterinarian as well as her vaccinations and spay once the kittens are weaned, and all vaccinations for 6 kittens, & spay/neuter for the 6 kittens (once old enough). Pepper will return to Farmersville Veterinarian Clinic for ongoing health problems, bloodwork, lab tests on her stool, and have her eye checked for the severity of the injury.

Pepper & kittens will receive their vaccinations and spay/neuter at Cause for Paws low-cost clinic in Greenville, TX. I have included screenshots for the cost of each service. You can also visit their website to review their pricing. Spay/neuter visits book fast, so I need to book now with spring around the corner. Cause for Paws requires full payment upfront to schedule an appointment for spay/neuter clinics. Vaccination clinics are on a first-come, first-serve basis with no payment required upfront.

Pepper's estimated vaccinations & spay = $120 (This does not include her immediate vet visit needed).

Kittens' spay/neuter, preventative dewormer, plus 3 vaccination rounds is estimated at $138 each, estimated total for all 6 = $828.

Her next vet visit can cost anywhere from $600+ depending on lab costs and the outcome of her eye.

We are looking at a minimum of $1,448 in vet bills, vaccinations, and treatment.

Any help towards this sweet momma and her adorably sweet kittens is very much appreciated.

I will post updates, invoices, past invoices, and any other medical expenses proof as we get them.

So far, I have included her first vet visit invoice.

We are waiting on a few donations to come in before she can go to the vet.

Thank you all in advance for helping us help Pepper & her babies through this journey. Without your help, saving her and her kittens would not have been possible.

We appreciate you all!!