Hey all,

About two months ago, my sweet baby girl, Sophie, began having breathing issues. When I took her to the vet, we discovered that she had a partially collapsed lung. She was given some steroid medication to try and help, and it seemed to be reducing the frequency of her wheezing fits. The other night, her breathing, especially when purring, changed and showed signs of struggle.

After another round of (expensive) testing, they have ruled out cancer as the cause, and it seems to be some sort of infection. They are going to need to anesthetize her and take an ultrasound so that they can try and draw some of the fluid that is gathering around her lungs in order to determine the exact cause.

If all goes well, the total cost of this is going to be somewhere around $2000-2500, just for the diagnostics, assuming these next tests don't reveal anything worse. It's possible she will need a CT scan, which could be another $2000-3000 on top of that, but I'm really hoping it doesn't come to that. My financial situation is pretty dire at the moment—I've been unemployed since the beginning of January and have only recently started doing some part-time work.

I'm asking for help so that I don't end up being faced with the impossible decision of not being able to get her the help she needs.

Sophie, her brother and sister, and I thank you for any help you can provide.