Support Winter's Urgent Medical Care

Hello! To all who know me, hello, and to those who do not know me name is Morgan Herron and I truly appreciate you taking time out of your day to read Winter's recent medical story.

My husband and I went away about one week ago for my birthday and returned home on a Tuesday evening to find our sweet 2 year old cat, Winter, acting strange. We initially thought she was just angry at us for going away for a few days but when things didn't change on Wednesday we started to get concerned. She started to do the telltale signs of illness in cats including hiding, not eating, and was very lethargic. I made the initial call to our local vet who said they could get her in that Friday. However, as the next day, Thursday, came she became very hot to the touch and more lethargic, so we got her in that day. Our local vet got her in and found she had a significant fever of 105.8, elevated white blood cells, was dehydrated and had protein in her urine. So, they gave her IV fluids, antibiotics and an anti-inflammatory and diagnosed her with "fever of unknown origin" sending her home to us that day still with a mild fever.

We were hopeful after that visit as she was finally eating and walking around the house but still not herself. Saturday rolled around and she showed signs of regression and fever above 104 degrees so we called the local vet but unfortunately, they reported there was nothing they could do and to bring her to the emergency vet. My husband called the nearest emergency vet and they were at capacity and weren't accepting any more cases, so we then used a telehealth vet who told us to hold off on bringing her based on clinical presentation.

We waited and Sunday came and we checked her temperature and it was now over 105, she was more lethargic, had some neurological changes, and hadn't eaten for over 24 hours. We made the decision to bring her to Cornell Emergency Vet.

At Cornell they found she had a fever of 106 and recommended that we admit her to which we did as that temperature is quite severe. Overnight her fever did not come down despite the fluids and antibiotics she was receiving. Her labs are still not great at this point and the vet recommended that they do an abdominal ultrasound and more lab work. Her abdominal ultrasound showed significantly enlarged lymph nodes, free fluid in her abdominal cavity, and she also has a mass on her small intestine. They did sample the fluid for cancer, which was negative, but this is not a guarantee there are no cancers present. Based on all the findings and lab values they are thinking she may have Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP) but unfortunately this is very difficult to diagnose. We are doing all the necessary steps to diagnose and treat as appropriate. However, if this is not the appropriate diagnosis then she may need surgery to remove the mass on her small intestine and also to biopsy the lymph node to test them for certain cancers that may not be found from the sample taken earlier. At this point it looks like she will be staying at Cornell for about a week depending on what happens.

All this being said... it has been quite the journey with our girl and we still don't have ours answer yet but I am hoping that what the Veterinarians are doing at Cornell lead us to a diagnosis and treatment plan so we can get Winter home and back to her healthy spunky self. With all of these tests and hospital stay there is a financial burden, and it is not inexpensive by any means. As this was quite unexpected with her being so young and seemingly healthy until last week, Matt and I are asking for your help if you are willing and able to help relieve the financial burden and help our sweet girl.

We really appreciate and love all of you <3

We will update on here as necessary.