If you've ever talked to me for more than a few minutes, you have probably heard me mention Aurora. She's my best friend and my soul cat. At midnight last night, we noticed she was breathing heavily, a little lethargic, and her gums were pale. We rushed her to the emergency vet where they immediately took her back and placed her on oxygen. It was decided she needed to be hospitalized at least for a night as they continued to monitor her and did tests to determine what was going on. During the X-ray, they were able to find a soft tissue structure that's pushing on her esophagus. While they can't rule out a mass, the vet believes it's a hiatal hernia, a rare condition in cats. The plan right now is to keep her hospitalized until Monday since she seems dependent on the oxygen, and then they'll do a CT scan since it isn't available on weekends. If it's a hernia, then surgery is the most likely outcome.

Aurora's vet bills currently sit at $6,800 and will increase at least another $2,500-$3,000 with the CT scan. We always set aside money for unforeseen issues with the pets but were blown away by this. If you are able, please consider donating to Aurora's vet bills.

8/2 10:30 pm Update:

The vets are confidant that it’s a hernia and the best treatment would be surgery so we’ve preemptively scheduled surgery for Monday, 8/4. She will still need a CT Scan before to confirm. While surgery is always risky, this is really the only path going forward. She will need another night at least in the hospital to recover and then will have a two week recovery at home. However, this will be another $8,000-$10,000 on top of the $6,800 we have already paid. Thank you everyone who has donated so far. I appreciate it more than I can ever say.

8/3 Update:

We visited Aurora twice today. She is doing pretty well but is still reliant on oxygen. She is obviously very grumpy but I got to give her some pets and she was drinking water and keeping it down. There’s some questions now about whether the structure is her abdomen or esophagus, but she has a CT scan tomorrow to give more definitive answers and then she’s scheduled for surgery after that. Our original payment was used up so we had to pay an extra $2,400 today, leaving our current total at $8,585. That doesn’t include the $8,000-10,000 we’re expecting to spend for her scan, surgery, and hospital stay post surgery. I posted a photo showing what we have paid so far. Thank you again to everyone who has donated.

8/5 Update:

Aurora had a CT scan and surgery yesterday so we were hoping to finally get some answers. Unfortunately that didn’t happen. The surgery found some abnormal tissue and two lung lobes were removed. However the rest of the lungs looked normal. A biopsy was sent off but we won’t have those results for another week. Right now the vet is thinking it’s either an infection or mesothelioma that caused all of this. They said they’ve never seen anything like this so they are just as baffled as us. They placed a chest tube in Aurora that is draining the fluid around the lungs.

The good news is that Aurora is now off oxygen and is eating and drinking now. We visited her today and she seemed content and fell asleep while we were petting her. We’re hoping she can come home tomorrow.

Our current expenses is sitting at just under $20,000 so we could really use any help we can get. We’re so thankful to everyone who has been kind enough to donate so far.

8/9 Update:

Aurora came home on Wednesday and has been doing well so far. She is becoming more active and vocal and is starting to act a bit more like herself. She decided last night that she wanted to sleep in bed with me so that was nice. Our total bill was just under $20,000 so we really appreciate any help.

8/15 Update:

We received the biopsy results back and unfortunately it confirmed Aurora has metastatic carcinoma. Her prognosis is not good and it’s expected that she has weeks, maybe a couple months left. Chemotherapy is not expected to really increase her lifespan, so we’ve decided not to go down that route and just to make her as comfortable and loved as possible. We are obviously heartbroken over this news and would have never guessed this was going to be the outcome when we took her in two weeks ago. We’re just thankful that we get to have a little more time with her.