This is the story of Rufus, Deezer, Sebastian, Lucy, Runa, and Jila.
My friend Jila has an enormous heart. She takes in cats who have nowhere else to go – the stray kitten haunting the back yard, the abandoned cat nobody wants who has spent 8 years at the shelter, the cats whose owners have passed away or can't care for them.
Most of these cats have come with health problems – FIV, diabetes, cataracts, brain tumors, seizures.
And some of these health problems have been very expensive to treat.
Jila had Rufus for 17 years, and his diabetes, discovered when he was only a year old, was well-controlled for most of that time.
But in 2021, his blood sugar suddenly became unstable, leading to a 2.5 year saga of weekly blood draws, glucose sensors, experimentation with different brands and dosages of insulin, and many many many trips to the vet (who termed Rufus a medical mystery and was never able to get him stabilized).
Simultaneously, Deezer, another diabetic cat whom she’d taken in when his people had to rehome him, also had his blood sugar go unstable. Although he was eventually stabilized, by then he had developed hypercalcemia and kidney cancer.
Jila gave Deezer and Rufus long and high-quality lives, despite their medical challenges, until they passed in 2023 and 2024 respectively.
And then things should have calmed down for a little while.
But then Sebastian's annual physical showed high calcium levels – which can be the first sign of hypercalcemia or cancer.
And then Lucy's annual showed skyrocketing kidney values (twelve times the normal level), usually indicative of kidney failure.
And then Runa started having seizures.
When Sebastian went in for more diagnostic tests, he caught a flu at the vet (he gets sick easily because he is FIV+) and gave it to Runa (who is also FIV+), meaning that both of them were on antibiotics for a week each.
Lucy’s diagnostics indicated a double kidney infection from two different bacteria, one of which was antibiotic resistant. For a while she was on three different antibiotics.
Runa’s diagnostics showed an insufficiently developed cerebral cortex, which means there is a gap in her skull filled with excess cerebral fluid, the pressure of which against her brain causes the seizures. It’s not curable, but it is controllable with medication – but her diagnostics also showed an elevated liver enzyme that meant the standard anti-seizure medication could not be used until certain possible liver issues were eliminated by an ultrasound (which they eventually were).
As things stand now: Lucy’s kidney values need to be retested. Runa needs a blood test to see if the anti-seizure medication is at appropriate levels in her blood.
And Sebastian has started vomiting. Nausea is a second symptom of hypercalcemia. But the only way to tell for sure is another round of tests.
Jila still has unpaid bills from the most recent round of diagnostics, and these are blocking her from paying for the tests and treatment her cats need moving forward.
She routinely goes above and beyond, not just for her human friends, but for the special needs cats who rely on her. Can we help her pay the outstanding bills and set each of these three feline family members on the road to recovery?