Hi friends,

We have reached the point where we need to ask for help. My name is Julie and I’m writing this on behalf of myself and my six year old daughter River. Our only cat, Mulligan, of 8 years and my daughters best friend just became super, super sick.. like would have died if we hadn’t gotten home within minutes of when we did. It was so traumatic and terrifying and she is currently admitted to the emergency vet for the next three days at the very least.

We are completely heartbroken about this whole situation. When we arrived home yesterday and Mully didn’t immediately come greet us at the door with her little excited meows, my heart immediately sank. After a long search that felt like forever, we finally found her hiding under the bed. She was barely able to even walk. Her meows were unrecognizable and when I picked her up, she became completely floppy and weak in my arms. We immediately ran her straight to the emergency vet.

As mentioned, she is currently admitted to treat her shock, extreme dehydration and some damage to her kidneys and liver. They are hopeful there is a chance she could pull through with enough care and treatment, and believe it is most likely triggered by a food change we had just made (our normal brand was discontinued). Either she was severely allergic to it or it had gone bad and she got severe food poisoning. Regardless, her medical care has set us back significantly and I had to use a solid chunk of our savings yesterday just for the deposit in order to hopefully save her. I recognize that not everyone will think that was the responsible choice to make for a pet, but when your little 6 year old girl is begging you and saying that she will give you all of her money and toys to help if her Mully would just stay alive.. you really have no other choice. We love Mulligan so much and she has been an important part of our family since she was just a few weeks old. She curls up with River every single night to go to sleep, she crawls into our arms for snuggles every single opportunity, and purrs patiently while River smothers her with love multiple times a day.

Next Steps:

Currently, Mulligans care plan for the next few days involves IV fluids to help with dehydration from being sick, treatment for shock, tube feeding to help her slowly start eating and getting some calories into her to body. They have done a number of blood tests and urinalysis checking all of her levels and those have shown some kidney and liver damage. Because of that damage, they will be doing an ultrasound to figure out how extensive that damage is and to ensure there are no other secondary issues that could have caused this.

Other possible steps may include a liver biopsy, ultrasounds and x-rays, specialized medications to help her body recover safely, sedation, catheters, and quite a few other possible procedures. While they were hoping she would only need to stay for three days, it now looks like she may need more support than expected and need to stay even longer. We are charged per 6 hours of admission, so this alone adds up super quickly.

We are taking it one step and one hour at a time. The clinic has been incredible with understanding our financial situation and have promised they will only do what is absolutely necessary to give her the best fighting chance. They have cut costs where ever possible, but the rest is up to us. While I have recently found a new job and will be beginning work next week, I have been out of work for the last year due to severe chronic health conditions. We can’t do this on our own. I’m putting aside my pride to ask for help, so we will to know how far we can and should go to save our fluffy little gal.

If you are able to help, we would be beyond grateful. We absolutely don’t expect to reach any specific goal, so any contribution.. no matter how big or small.. will mean the world to our little family. Mulligan is our baby, our bedtime stuffy replacement, and an important piece of our family puzzle. We want to do anything and everything we can, as long as it continues to be the best thing for her.

Thank you so, so much.

Note: We are happy to share the receipts and logs of her current care and after care with the allocated prices in order to show where all donations are going. We have currently paid almost $4000 for these next three days of admission and procedures and she is expected to likely need additional time. We will only do what is medically necessary and only what is truly best for her. If there comes a time that the compassionate decision is to let her just rest, then we will allow her to do so as our final act of love.