Yuzu Needs Your Help for Surgery

Hey Everyone!

I want to introduce everyone to Yuzu. He's an orange kitten about 5 months old that showed up in our backyard a few days ago cold, wet, and scared. Here's an album with some cute pics of Yuzu.

When we first saw him he seemed badly hurt and would not put any weight on his back leg. He was in so much pain that he wouldn't eat or drink anything. We immediately took him to an emergency vet and he was diagnosed with a femur fracture. The vet said we really only had four options: surrender him to a shelter (where he would most certainly not get the care he needed), orthopedic surgery requiring plating and screws, amputation, or euthanasia. The vet gave him some extremely powerful pain meds and he has started to drink a bit of water, but still has not eaten any food. The total cost of the urgent care vet visit was about $850.

My girlfriend and I both work in Medicine (I'm a medical fellow and she's a PA) and there was absolutely no way we were going to pick the euthanasia option especially for such a young kitten who could potentially live 20 years if he gets the care he needs. The vet said that young kittens usually do better with amputation as the pain goes away almost immediately and the recovery period is significantly shorter. In addition, there are less long term complications as compared to orthopedic surgery such as hardware infections, loose screws, and arthritis later in life. Therefore we decided to pursue the amputation route. Discussing amputation with the emergency vet, she said that here in NYC the going rate is roughly 4000$.

Currently we don't have that funding given the combined student loan debt we both have from medical/PA school. In addition, she just moved across the country from Florida and we are working on paying off the cost of her breaking her lease as well as the moving expenses.

I set up this GoFundMe to see if any caring animal lovers would be willing to donate to our cause of helping Yuzu get the veterinary care he needs so that he can live a long, pain-free, and happy life. He's just a kitten and although we have only had him for two days, he's most certainly part of the family. Saving his life with this operation would mean the world to us. Any amount of donation would be greatly appreciated, no matter how small. Thank you for taking the time for reading our story and donating to our cause!

Yuzu thanks you with all his little heart :)