Please help me pay for Lucy's medical bills

Update #1: She is fighting. But her road is hard.

Thank you everyone who has already donated. I will contact you all individually with personal thanks. Please share this to your facebook friends. I have received gifts from people I don't even know and it is just such a selfless act. I continue to be humbled.
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I never thought I would find myself in the humbling position of starting my own GoFundMe page, but if swallowing my pride will save my precious Lucy's life, I am willing to do it.

 

Up until 3 weeks ago, Lucy was a perfectly healthy kitty. Around February 5th or so, I noticed that she wasn't eating very much and was a bit lethargic. On February 9th since she hadn’t improved, I took her to the vet to get an examination and some blood work done. 

 

According to the vet, her blood work came back normal except that her thyroid was a bit overactive, which is common in older kitties. She was put on a medication to bring her into the normal range, and since I had another kitty who lived into her twenties with an overactive thyroid, I expected that she would be fine.

 

After a week or so with no improvement, in fact, eating less and showing some weakness in her back legs, I called the vet to see if perhaps she was being overmedicated. They said to take her off of the medicine for a couple of days and if she doesn't improve, to bring her back in. She did not improve. Instead, the weakness in her back legs was getting worse and she was eating less.

 

I brought her back on February 24th and they did blood work to check her thyroid, but not a full blood panel. Her thyroid function came back normal and they said that the weakness in her legs was due to arthritis. They prescribed an appetite enhancer and gabapentin for the arthritis pain and said to resume taking the thyroid medicine. They said that even though she had been off of it for two days, it brought her numbers to where they were supposed to be.

 

Two days later, on Saturday, February 26, she was not eating; she would literally fall over when I tried to stand her up and hadn't had a bowel movement in three days. I took her to the Emergency Vet, and they discovered that she had a bite wound in her back leg right at her tail. My cat Jack must have bitten her (which doesn't really surprise me because sometimes he likes to mess with her). But never has there been any kind of a knock down-drag out fight that would catch my attention.

 

This bite, became an abscess that did not become raised and noticable, but was running down her leg and along her back. The vet discovered it on the x-ray while looking to see if there was a reason why she hadn't moved her bowels in three days.

 

She was excited, because it pretty much explained everything that was going on. Lucy had a bad and painful infection that was causing her to be unable to walk and made her feel awful. The vet drained the abscess as best she could, put Lucy on antibiotics and sent us home.

 

I cared for her practically around the clock, putting warm compresses on her three times a day, hand feeding her, giving her pain medication and loving on her as much as she would allow.

 

She did not improve. I took her back to the vet the following day, on Sunday, February 27th, and they said that I shouldn't expect an improvement yet because she had only been on the antibiotic for less than 24 hours.

 

Yesterday, February 28th, when I woke up, I called the first vet to get a copy of her blood work emailed to me and I discovered that there was evidence of infection on February 9th. Her Neutrophils and her White Blood cell numbers were off, but there was no mention of it at all. So she has had this infection brewing inside of her for over three weeks. I immediately took her back to the Emergency Vet and she was admitted.

 

She is in Septic Shock.

 

Her blood pressure is low, her extremities are swelling up, and the antibiotic is not working. She has been put on a blood pressure medicine, IV fluids, and being a stronger antibiotic.

 

I spent $900 for her visit to the Emergency Vet on Saturday.

 

Yesterday, in order for her to be admitted and treated I had to give them a $2100 deposit and $1,700 of that has been spent on one day and night. Now with the blood pressure medicine, a different antibiotic and another night in Intensive Care, it is going to be 1700 more, and if she needs any more days in which is likely, it could be upwards of $5000.00.

 

I just don't have it. My bank account is dry and if I can't pay it, putting her down is the only option there is. They said that because all of her organ function is good and because she is eating, she has a good fighting chance. But at 1700/day, if she needs three or four days, I can’t pay that without your help.

 

If you can help me with ANY amount, I would be forever grateful to you. I have never asked for money before and feel like such a loser because I can't do this myself.

 

I want to call the original Vet and tell them that their oversight could cost Lucy her life, but I can't focus on that outrage right now. I need to focus on getting Lucy well.

 

Her very life depends on me coming through for her now when she needs me most, and I really need your help.

 

Thank you SO MUCH. Your generosity and compassion humble me.

 

Blessings,

 

Becky