Please Help Save Pudding's Life

My baby boy has always been a hefty one, weighing in at 13-16 lbs, but beginning this year, I noticed he had begun to lose weight. At first I was thrilled, thinking that his diet was finally paying off, but little did I know that there was something much sinister lurking.

March 2018, my beloved baby began to eat less and less. I took him in to see his vet and they informed me he was down to 9.8 lbs now. Roughly ideal for his size, but we didn't want him losing anymore weight. The vet had all of his blood work checked, everything seemed normal. He was diagnosed with a kitty cold and sent home with antibiotics.

A few weeks had passed, and I noticed his eating habits still had not picked back up, so I took him in again. This time he weighed in at only 8 lbs, and I knew something was really wrong. We had blood work done again, everything came back normal and the vet insisted that it was all in his mind and gave him anti nausea steroids, saying that his appetite should come back in a few more weeks. The verdict didn't sit right with me, he still wasn't eating and I sought out a second opinion.

After going to a different doctor, we ran blood work and weighed in again, this time he was down to 6.5 lbs and I was beginning to really panic. The new vet also called for a lab to see if we were looking at hyperthyroidism. We ran more tests, but all came back negative. The last thing we could do at this point was to have an ultrasound.

On Monday, June 25th, we received his ultrasound results back and in it made my heart sink further than it has ever before. My baby's stomach was distilled, causing him to feel full when he hadn't eaten, lymph nodes slightly swollen and excess fluid was found between his intestines, all signs pointing to one thing: lymphoma, or cancer of the white blood cells.

4 years ago this exact same disease took the life of another of my fur babies, and the thought of having to see this play out again is more than I can possibly bear. However we could not obtain a sample of the tissue from Pudding without undergoing a biopsy. But due to how quickly the disease is progressing, time is of the essence and I have made preparations with his doctor to seek out emergency treatment at a specialist at The Veterinary Medical Research Institute of Ames Iowa.

My baby means more to me than anything else in this world, and has fought for me and touched and impacted the lives of so many others, and so I come to the community asking for anything at all that can help my child make it through this long and difficult journey that awaits us.

100% of funds donated will go toward the labs, treatment, assessment, biopsy and surgical costs that are required for us to undergo this process. Once the disease has been verified, we will begin the proper course of treatment, but we really need everyone's help to reach this goal.

My family and myself are committed to doing everything possible to give Pudding every opportunity to live longer with the highest quality of life. So please help us with our battle against the odds, and thank you so much from the bottoms of our hearts helping see to it that Pudding can continue his calling of sharing his love and compassion with everyone he meets.