Squirts spinal shunt
NOW OR NEVER
Those are literally the words straight from the neurologists mouth. It’s now or never. We have a HUGE emergency with our little foster kitten Squirt. You may or may not remember him. We saved him from the high kill shelter in may as a tiny 10 day old kitten where he was set to be euthanized. I was originally told he had swimmers syndrome. We soon realized he didn’t and he just seemed like a typical paralyzed cat, at first. Dr Sabshin said he was fine, xrays looked great, he was good for adoption. Dr Rose saw the xrays and said he was fine. But I kept having a nagging feeling something was wrong. I finally decided to just quietly go have an MRI done, if it was nothing I was worried for nothing and I would just move on. But of course, it’s never nothing, is it?
Squirt has a condition called syringomyelia. What is that? If you want to think of it in an easy way, it’s like hydrocephalus of the spine. His lower spine, where his spinal cord should be is filled with cerebral spinal fluid and the spinal cord is degenerated. This is like something that happened inutero, but has been slowly progressing. If you look at the photo the arrow pointing upwards is where the normal spinal cord starts (and the continues to the left) all the arrows pointing down is just fluid. I’ve also learned this is the reason squirt breathes a little faster than normal, some of the neurons are destroyed that control the chest muscles.
Squirt needs a lumboperitoneal shunt to save his life. NOW. A shunt will be inserted into his spine to drain the excess fluid into his abdomen. If we do not do this the fluid will continue to spread up the spine, it will destroy all the neurons and degenerate his entire spinal cord completely paralyzing him and ultimately killing him. A shunt is the only way to help keep him as he is now. Which is happy! He may be paralyzed in his back legs and require bladder expression but he uses his litterbox to poop, loves to play, snuggle, and burrow in blankets. How could I possibly tell him his life isn’t worth it?
The shunt surgery is VERY expensive. The actual shunt pieces themselves are expensive (there’s multiple things required to place a shunt running a couple thousand dollars at THEIR cost). Then the cost of surgery, hospitalization, etc. We are looking at $9,000, plus today’s $2800 MRI. I know. It’s massive. Dr Levine has placed an order for the materials needed to shunt Squirt and the plan is to do surgery in a week pending I can raise the funds. This is very time sensitive.
Please, if you have just a few dollars to spare, consider donating it towards Squirts spinal shunt. This will literally save his life. Any amount will help, no donation is too big or too small. If we can’t raise the funds in time we will have to push his surgery. Please help us save Squirt. If you can’t donate please share!
PayPal.me/foxfosterkittens
http://www.venmo.com/Foxfosterkittens_18
Cash app: $foxfosterkittens19
Zelle: [email redacted]
