My name is Chelsea. I’m trying to raise money to pay for my vet bills. I noticed my kitty Yuna started having difficulty keeping her food down on the 11th of this month. I found small piles of vomit around the house. I started to feed her smaller portions more frequently throughout the day (I thought she may just be eating too fast). It seemed to help but on the 17th she started to decline again. She couldn’t keep any of her food down that night and her breathing became labored. I stayed up most of the night to make sure she was okay and the next morning I called my vet as soon as they opened and scheduled her an appointment. When I brought her in we were seen any a vet that I had never seen/met before. I told him what had been going on and how concerned I was. I also asked to have a full body x-ray when I made the appointment and during the examination and was denied both times because “it wasn’t necessary yet”. I’ll never forgive myself for not pushing harder. He dismissed what I was telling him and said she just had an upper respiratory infection and a fever. He gave her an injection with an antibiotic and one with Cerenia (for nausea). When I impressed again how worried I was he said that if she was not her usual self by Monday then I could bring her back in and we’d go from there.

I took her home and waited a few hours to let her calm down (the vet was not very gentle with her) before I tried feeding her again. She threw up the rest of the weekend. I called back Monday and asked to speak to the vet; he wouldn’t even get on the phone with me. The girl relayed that all he recommended was the pill form of the Cerenia. I told her that the injection didn’t work and if Yuna can’t keep any food down then how is she supposed to take a pill? I spent 20 minutes going back and forth with the girl who answered the phone. I eventually relented and said I would take the pills but I wanted to set up an appointment for Thursday in case she kept declining and if she improved I would call to cancel. She checked and saw they had several openings. When I requested an early morning appointment she hung up on me. I immediately called back and after a few rings she apologized and said she hit the wrong button. Then she said they didn’t have any openings on Thursday. I was so confused. I asked her how all of the openings she had previously mentioned had been filled in the last 20 seconds. She said she was sorry but the earliest they could see Yuna would be on Monday. We went back and forth again for several more minutes before I gave up; this vet clearly did not care about what was going on with my baby. I was just going to call around to different vets and see if I could get her in somewhere else.

On Tuesday morning my ex helped me get Yuna an appointment at a different vet and offered to bring her because I had to work. When she told them what was going on they seemed as concerned as I was. When I took her to the vet on Saturday she weighed 5.20 lbs. When she was weighed on Tuesday she weighed 4.70 lbs. The vet was very concerned and took her to get a full body x-ray. His initial thought was she may have fluids in her lungs but they needed their radiologist to double check before they gave her a chest tap. He advised that he would call when he got an answer and that hopefully they could do the chest tap that day.

Later that evening he called back to say their radiologist thought that she may have a tumor (possibly Lymphoma - cancer). I asked him if there was a way to make sure the mass they were seeing was a tumor. He said there was another vet there that could do an ultrasound sound guided needle sampling the next morning.

I brought her in Wednesday morning before I went to work. After work I went to pick her up and find out the test results. My poor baby, less than a year old, had lymphoma. The mass that had formed was in her chest (mediastinal) and was pressing down on her lungs and her esophagus.

I asked if there was anything we could do and the vet said we could take her to Ohio State to see a specialist and try and get her surgery. He said that the surgery coupled with chemo and radiation she had a chance to go into remission but depending on the grade of her tumor would dictate how long she would live even if the surgery was successful. In her case, because of the placement, she would have 3 months, possibly a year or two. I thought about how long it would take to get a consultation, the university is over 2 hours from me, they would need to run additional testing, the surgery itself… it all amounted to more time and she didn’t have more time. I also thought about what her life would be like after the surgery; there was no guarantee that she wouldn’t continue to suffer. My baby had already gone almost a week without food, she was struggling to breathe and she was dropping weight fast. I told the vet I couldn’t let her suffer anymore and that I wanted to euthanize her. My baby was less than a year old. I told her I was sorry I couldn’t save her. I told her this wasn’t fair and she deserved better. I told her I loved her enough to break my own heart and I held her in my arms when she died.

Durinf this whole process I wanted to remain hopeful but I tried to prepare myself for the worst. I don’t regret anything I did to try and find answers and get her help but, ultimately, this was the only thing left to do.

Yuna means kind, gentle, soft. That’s what my baby was. She was so good and innocent. She loved chips and always had something to say. She liked to play fetch and wrestle with her big brother. She always knew how to work me over to get extra treats and she loved digging in the dirt of our house plants. She always wanted to do whatever her big brother did and her favorite place to sleep was between my legs. She leaves behind an older brother (Banchan) and an older sister (Mona).

If you’ve made it this far thank you for taking the time to read this. I’ve never done anything like this before but I’m asking for help. My vet bills equal $1437.23. I know a lot of people are struggling these days but if you could give ANYTHING I would greatly appreciate it. (I would also like to note that a portion of these bills includes Yuna’s cremation and an imprint of her paw.)