Support Leaf and Lily's Recovery Journey

Hello, my name's Courtney and I have two lovely kitties, Leaf (black) and Lily (calico.) We've had a rough year.

I was sick the entire month of January; a family member was kind enough to bring Covid to the family Christmas party and most of us were sick. I've moved in the last year so when I received the reminder for annual shots postcard, I was going to take the kitties to a vet who was closer and highly recommended. Just a friendly little meet-and-greet with the vet and booster shots. I'd get to it as soon as I was feeling better.

The universe heard my thoughts and started laughing.

Mid month, Lily started acting like she had a UTI. She demonstrated this by walking into the bathroom with me- she's my usual Bathroom Defender, that was normal enough- and then peed on my legs. More than once. Message received, ma'am.

We went to the vet, antibiotics were given, but when we went back to the vet to see how she'd recovered ten days later, there was still blood in her urine. An x-ray showed a lovely little tic-tac of a bladder stone, and our options were trying a food change ($70 for six entire pounds of food was an oof!) or surgery, which would've been $1800 (now the food sounded practically free!) I happily bought that food, and a microchip feeder. Leaf already had a microchip feeder because Lily will eat any food that's not nailed down, but now that Lily had different expensive food, Leaf thought it was delicious! Lily is skittish, so it took some time for her to figure out the feeder, but after about a month, she was well on her way to feeling better. An x-ray showed that the stone was half dissolved already, so Lily finally had a clean bill of health.

That was the first $1,000.

Leaf decided in mid-February that he also wanted to go to the vet for something more interesting than annual shots, apparently. He stopped eating on a Friday and threw up water all night. We spent the next day at the emergency vet. Leaf is a darling, lovely little boy, but he is very, very dumb, and I was convinced he'd eaten something and had an impaction. He hadn't had access to Lily's food for two weeks now so I didn't think it was related, and he was only throwing up the water he was drinking. After six hours at the emergency vet, the x-ray showed no foreign bodies, so Leaf was sent home with meds for the vomiting, an appetite stimulant, and to follow up with the vet on Monday.

That was the second $1,000.

Leaf didn't start eating at all, so the vet was followed up with. They were able to get the x-rays from our Saturday trip and he was full of poop, so an enema seemed reasonable. His bloodwork was just fine except his gallbladder numbers were high, but tests were negative for anything that would usually cause those numbers. The vet suggested we try the enema and appetite stimulants and an ultrasound if he still didn't start eating.

Leaf still just wouldn't eat.

Tuesday he was getting lethargic so we went back to the vet. He was given IV fluids and scheduled for an ultrasound in the morning. They tried all the delicious foods, but the boy had been rejecting tuna all weekend, so even churu and recovery food were ignored. He clearly wanted to eat but just... wouldn't.

The ultrasound on Wednesday morning left him with a nakey grey tummy- Leaf has a smoke coat, so his fur is grey at the base- and a diagnosis of essentially kitty IBS. He's developed an allergy to the animal proteins he's used to, so Leaf also needed new, $70-for-six-pounds hydrolyzed protein food, which of course is different food than Lily's eating. The addition of painkillers for all the irritation finally helped change course, and Leaf finally started eating that evening. I was on the phone with a coworker and started crying when I saw Leaf start chowing down on the recovery food. When I called the vet's office in the morning to tell them Leaf was eating, everyone was excited with me.

I continued to pill Leaf with pills and liquid medications twice a day for two weeks, and while that was rough, he was mostly cooperative. He was already a velcro kitty but he was attached to me at the shoulder and hasn't stopped since.

That whole saga was the remaining $2,000.

It's been a month now, and Leaf's going in for a visit tomorrow for the annual shots that was all I was planning on getting way back in January when the reminder card came in the mail.

Thankfully CareCredit exists, but I don't have a spare $40 lying around, much less $4,000. It's been so wildly stressful that I'm finally able to sit down and write this out now that both cats (and myself) are all feeling better. Any help would be amazing, including sharing this with others.

Thank you!