Poppy’s Emergency Heart Surgery

On April 1st, I was eating dinner when I heard an unusual sound. As I went to investigate it, I found that the noise was coming from my cat and that it was her trying to use the bathroom in a place she normally would never go. I run her up to the bathroom so she can do her business where she is supposed to and quickly realized that something was off. I began to monitor her constipation over the next day and check how much shes eating or drinking. During this time she seems less active and is sleeping in places she doesn’t normally go to. Concerning but didn’t seem to be a reason to rush to the vet. I was going to give it one more day and then take her.

On April 3rd, I am woken up by my cat screaming the most piercing scream around 9am. As I run in the hall to check on her I quickly realize she is completely limp from the waist down. I check her litter box, food, and water. Nothing has been touched since Friday night. I quickly call Urgent care to get her seen as I now believed she was dehydrated from the constipation causing her to be limp. We get to the vet and after 45 minutes of her being seen the doctor comes out. She tells me that I need to get her to the closest hospital as it seems to be a serious heart issue. Her heart was only beating at 70 beats a minute when it should be 170. I rush her to the hospital where it’s confirmed she has a hole in her heart and the heart was failing. The only option now is heart surgery or lose my cat.

Without giving it a second thought I chose to save my cat, thus giving up all of my savings for college. This may have seemed like a crazy thing to do for a cat but to me it seemed like a no brainer. My cat deserves a second chance so how could I not give her that? Most people with a pet understand the unique bond that comes from this relationship and understand that there is no other bond like it. My cat is my best friend and has saved me so many times when I was low, so how could I not save her? I lost everything I had to do this but I would do it again and do not regret anything!

Luckily, she made it through the surgery but they found several rare occurrences within her body during it. She had the hole in her heart which required the pacemaker, a hole in her diaphragm which was sucking her liver and stomach fat into it, her heart was attached to her diaphragm, she is missing half of her lining in her body, and has several extra bones on her spine.

We have a long road of recovery ahead of us now with the discovery of these things but she was worth every penny and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Any bit of help with her journey would help tremendously and I would be forever grateful for your help and support to give my cat a second chance at life. We have a bond like no other and she truly is my other half. I’m so grateful to still have her with me today. Any donations are appreciated no matter the amount. Your help means so much to me and I can’t thank anyone enough for their help on this journey.