Hello everyone <3

Some of you might know that I've been dealing with my cats various health issues for the last few years. She was diagnosed with asthma about 3 years ago and things have been going downhill pretty much ever since.

Puddle is on a liquid prednisolone steroid medication that acts as an immunosuppresant. She takes this medication to manage her asthma because I haven't been able to train her to handle an inhaler, which she has to be okay with me putting over her muzzle in order for it to be effective. The prolonged use of these steroids has likely contributed to her variety of health issues, but I have been at a loss for what to do since it's really been the only option for managing her asthma.

When we moved to New York a year and a half ago, Puddle started sneezing blood and getting nose bleeds periodicially. After the first winter here passed, I thought that it had just been rhinitis (inflammation of the skin inside her nose) due to the intense dry heat from the radiators in our apartment. However, she has had recurring upper respiratory infections and mysterious problems with her respiratory system ever since then, along with an increase in her asthma symptoms. She hasn't been comfortable for a long time between the amount of sneezing and coughing she's been doing.

Eventually, she became antibiotic resistant. She recently had an upper respiratory infection (or at least that's what we thought it was) that was so bad and I could not get it to go away. I thought she was going to die. Her breathing was so labored and she was on antibiotics for over a month with pretty much no results. It's been horrible watching her behave like a shell of herself. She also had a bloody discharge coming from her nose periodically throughout this time with varying levels of intensity.

Eventually, that particular URI went away. However, she started vomiting frequently, eating significantly less, using the bathroom infrequently, and losing weight rapidly over the past month+. As I type this, she has eaten very little over the past two weeks. I've tried everything and its almost impossible to get her to eat, even though her appetite is there. She has a runny nose with a brown discharge, her energy is pretty low, and she barely uses the bathroom.

Obviously this is an emergency. I don't know what I will find when I take her back to the specialist, but I would hate to know that there was something wrong with her that could've been fixed had I been able to afford the care she needed. I took her to a veterinary specialist recently and got two different estimates to try to get a sense of what is wrong with her and if it's fixable. The prices range between 4,000 and 12,000$ depending on what imaging and approach I opt for and what they find (or don't find). Their concerns are that she could have a foreign body stuck somewhere in her nose or lungs, she could have a polyp or mass, both of which could be cancerous or benign, or something else entirely.

It has been so stressful and deeply saddening to watch my poor cat's health decline over the last few years and I just feel so desperate to know what is going on with her and if there's any way to help her. I am asking for financial support to get at least the bare minimum level of care for her as soon as possible and hopefully make some beneficial discoveries. I feel hopeful that my little girl has a lot of life left in her once we can get her health issues diagnosed and under control.

Thank you so much for the love, support, and care <3