Zelda’s Health Fund

For those of you who don't know Zelda, she's incredibly loving and affectionate despite living a challenging life — She was born with Cerebellar Hypoplasia; she was bounced between 4-5 adoptive families before we fell in love at the Whatcom Humane Society; in the three years since, she’s battled skin sensitivities, a fungal infection, an ear infection, dental issues, a nasty bone infection, and more. She’s a resilient kitty with SO much love to share.

She was officially bone infection-free about 10 months ago and has thoroughly enjoyed this prolonged period of health. Sadly, last Thursday evening, she was unable to urinate and kept straining and straining at increasing intervals throughout the house before we brought her to Animal Emergency Care. They did some tests and found that her bladder was infected and contained crystals; they were also concerned about what appeared to be a blockage on the ultrasound. They had us leave her there for monitoring and fluids overnight. On Friday morning, we took her to her regular vet at North Shore Animal Hospital for closer examination. Until this point, the vets had needed to remove urine from her bladder via syringe as she was still unable to urinate on her own; however, Dr. Kim Barron was able to break through the blockage by inserting a catheter as far as it would go and manually expressing the bladder. We were sent home for the night with instructions to monitor her for any straining. On Saturday morning, after two successful urinations, Zelda began straining to pee outside her litter box again. At the advice of North Shore, we took her back to AEC for additional tests and monitoring.

I have been fortunate enough to be able to financially support Zelda through all of her health issues thus far; but having no savings at the moment, I’m hoping that our community of animal lovers will help us through the cost of treatment for her current health issue. 

We’re still in the process of diagnosis and treatment. As I write this, Zelda is curled up on her lambskin rug in a fashionable chevron diaper, a bit doped up on pain meds, face a little messy from liquid antibiotics, while we await the end of her course of medications so that she can hopefully urinate normally again. We also await the results of a culture that will let us know exactly which bacteria are present and to which antibiotic(s) it will respond best. (Zelda's history of infections and antibiotic use may make this one difficult to treat.) We have also, to Zelda's dismay, had to switch up her diet to a prescription food designed to prevent crystals.

I’m doing all I can for her, but at this point, I’m already almost $1300 in — not counting our follow up visit with North Shore this week. I’m asking for $2000, which I’m hoping will fully cover the remaining visits, treatment, medication, prescription diet, and everything else needed for this current issue. If there is any funding left over, it will be put into a separate bank account for Zelda’s continued health.

Thank you, from Zelda and the humans who love her, for your support.

Following are some photos and videos I hope illustrate a bit of Zelda's journey -- the fun she had and the love she shared -- through both sickness and health.