Support Lily Evans' Urgent Medical Care

Lily Evans is a survivor.

In 2010, I adopted her from the Humane Society of Missouri. She climbed my leg while I was filling out the paperwork to adopt her, sat on the clipboard, and I knew she was right for me. On our way out the door, she sneezed a few times, and they asked to have her quickly examined by the in-house vet. What followed were months of quarantine and touch-and-go due to her contracting FCV-VSD, a type of feline calicivirus that was around 62% fatal for kittens at the time she was diagnosed. She developed ulcers in her mouth and had to be cared for carefully. I would visit her several times a week after work and bring her toys, etc. She recovered, and I brought her home literally the day after my mom died in December of 2010. I was 20.

Fast forward to 2019. We had moved to the West Coast in 2015, and Lily had been doing well, although I had caught a few times in 2017 and 2018 where she seemed to act "off" and required antibiotics to make her act like her normal self again. She became sick again in 2019, this time losing her voice, although I could see her trying to meow. When I brought her in, we did a stomach scan and caught the tail end of something that looked off more toward her lung area. We redid a scan around her chest/lungs this time and discovered she had 1.5 collapsed lungs caused by a large tumor in her chest. I honestly thought this was the end for Lily, but it felt like I owed it to her to try to figure out what exactly was going on because during this whole thing she still seemed so energetic and lively. We ruled out fungal infection to confirm cancer and then biopsied the cancer. Instead of it being a worst-case scenario, it was a literal best-case scenario: Lily had a thymoma tumor, which CAN spread but often doesn't, meaning if we could confirm it hadn't spread, we could cut out the tumor, and she would be cancer-free. Despite my and her oncologist's doubts about whether a surgeon would be on board, they ended up confirming they'd be willing to do the surgery, and in late 2019, Lily had open chest surgery to remove this tumor. They had to carefully remove part of her heart lining at the time too, since the tumor had attached there. She recovered perfectly and had no real health complications since then other than a fractured fang after playing too roughly with a new kitten. You can actually see her old GoFundMe for this cancer "scare" back in 2019—the funds provided directly helped me be able to afford her surgery.

Fast forward to this year, SIX years after she had cancer removed from her! Lily is approaching 15/16 years of age, close to 70/80. At the end of January, I caught her running in and out of the litter box. We've experienced urinary blockages with another male cat of ours before, but this wasn't the same. She was clearly trying to poop, but nothing was coming out. I took her to the vet, and they gave her some care and prescribed her a laxative and probiotic but also asked me to call back the next day to schedule an enema if she hadn't pooped. She pooped in the carrier on the way home from the vet, so I put her on laxatives for a few days and probiotics longer term. She had one recurrence of the "trying to poop" dance in Feb, and I gave her laxatives for a few days again.

Last week, she started to stumble when she walked. It kept getting worse, and then she stopped eating as much and not waiting with the boys for dinner or nightly churu (that's how I feed her a probiotic). I took her to our vet, and they took her blood and urine, rehydrated her, and recommended an x-ray, but I could not afford it at that time. I used my partner's care credit line to pay for the $800+ bill. I took her home, hoping for the best, but she still wasn't acting well. They called me back frantic at around noon the next day and told me to take her to the ER. Her bloodwork had come back and showed she was in acute kidney failure and likely had some kind of UTI + kidney infection. I had applied and been approved for my own care credit line in between the first vet visit and when they called us back, so I was able to take her to a hospital recommended by the vet (he knows how strapped for funds I am). They charge by the hour for hospitalization instead of the day, which makes affordable care a little easier. They triaged her, confirmed she wasn't looking good, and admitted her. We agreed to 24-30 hours to start because everyone seemed very pessimistic at the time, and I didn't want to keep her in the hospital for days only to have to euthanize her there—this is what ended up happening with our other cat Roland, and I regret admitting him for so long when it was clear he wanted to let go. However, when they called the next day, she was doing really well, and the ultrasound had confirmed nothing beyond an infection in her kidneys and possibly starting in her bladder. I had honestly expected another type of cancer at this point, but the scans and bloodwork only indicate infection.

We were able to push our funds to the 47-hour mark for her but couldn't keep her the full 72 recommended at the ER. They sent us home Saturday with antibiotics, nausea medication, appetite stimulants, and supplies for subcutaneous fluids. We just did our first subcutaneous fluid transfer last night, and it seemed to go really well. Lily is eating on her own, moving around, and seems quite mentally present.

It is worth noting that the vet on the second day she was in the ER was concerned about a neurological issue with Lily. She said she was still much wobblier than they expected when left to walk around a room and that her eyes are dilated and a bit slow to respond to light. She also said if she were me with a cat at Lily's age, she wouldn't put her through the testing required to figure it out, so I'll bring it up with our normal vet, but I also think I trust that assessment. However, since getting her home, she barely seems wobbly to me at all, so I'm not sure how pressing this issue might be. They kept her on a bit of gabapentin, and that definitely made her much less coordinated, so now that she is off of it, she seems to be doing a lot better coordination-wise.

We need to take Lily back in for follow-up testing on Friday. They sent me the estimate. I will break down the totals so far below.

3/26 - $882.05 - Initial vet visit to the VCA. Exam, Enema, Subq Fluids, Bloodwork, and Urinalysis. I have a year to repay this with no interest.

3/27 - $252.20 - Add on urine culture for the urinalysis after it was determined she had an infection. I put this on a credit card that has 0% interest through the end of this year.

3/27 - 3/30 - $4,056.09 - 47 hours of hospitalization at level 2, Subq fluids, gabapentin, repeated bloodwork x 3, IV antibiotics, anti-nausea, and appetite stimulants. This all went on care credit, but I opted to do a 2-year (24-month) plan with a small amount of interest since I couldn't afford to pay all this off in a year.

4/4 - $474.85 - Repeated bloodwork and urinalysis at our normal vet (VCA)

That's the breakdown so far. A calculator tells me the total, including her upcoming appointment, comes out to $5,665.19, and I rounded the goal up to $6k for likely more repeat bloodwork/prescription foods, but I doubt we'll ever reach close to that goal anyway. GoFundMe said it would start my goal at $2,800 and increase it as needed, so we'll start there. Honestly, even the $474.85 needed for this Friday's appointment would go a long way, so I don't have to add more debt anywhere.

Like with Lily's first GoFundMe, I commit to posting bills with private info blanked out as needed, and I commit to posting updates on how she is doing moving forward.