My name is Sam, and Darla is my one-year-old sweet and feisty kitty who has been my bestie and constant through a rough past year of my life. She’s my first pet I’ve ever had, and I love her so, so, so much.

About a week ago, Darla suddenly stopped eating, wouldn’t drink water, and was throwing up for over 24 hours, so I rushed her to an emergency vet where they did X-rays, blood work, gave her fluids, and told me it seemed like something that would just pass. I was relieved, although it was $1,200 for that visit. We were sent home hoping she would start to improve. Another day went by with no eating or improvement, so I scheduled a follow up with a regular vet, but the earliest appointment I could get was five days out. In that time, I was constantly trying to syringe her water and wet food as much as possible since she wasn't drinking much and not eating at all. I watched my usually EXTREMELY playful and active kitty just hide and lay around looking miserable. When I finally brought her in to the vet, they redid X-rays and found what appeared to be some kind of obstruction, and she was also very dehydrated at that point, so they kept her on an IV and fluids for two nights hoping that she would just pass whatever was obstructing her. That didn’t happen, so we ended up having to do an abdominal exploratory where we found out she somehow found and ate a long line of string/thread and had a linear obstruction, which is very serious. She needed emergency surgery, and during the procedure, they also discovered she had a perforated stomach. They had to make five incisions just to remove the obstruction. The vet said it was one of the worst cases she had ever seen.

They told me her prognosis is 50/50. She is thankfully doing really well so far in terms of healing and how she’s feeling but she’s still not out of the clear and is very high risk for infection. The surgery and care are expected to cost over $4,500 on top of the $1,200 already spent at the emergency vet.

I am not the kind of person to ever ask for help from anyone, and I know times are tough for most, but if you’re in a position to and want to help with these costs for Darla, it would be more appreciated than I could ever express. She’s fighting hard, and I’m doing everything I can to give her the best chance to recover.

Thank you for reading and caring ♥️