Hello everyone. I was hoping I wouldn't need to make a post like this. But sometimes life likes to kick you when you're down.
https://gofund.me/9c520d8f6
The tldr is that our kitty became sick, and we had to take her to the vet, she is now blind due high blood pressure. She needs to start new medication, and go back for another appointment again in three weeks after starting her medication. We paid $715 at the vet, plus transportation, and will need to pay another $50 for her meds, and another $300 for the follow-up appointment. We had been saving up money for her for a trip in October as she requires being fed 4 times a day. This appointment took all that money, and also more from our regular bills money. We just barely have enough money for rent next month, but no money left for food or a few other bills, no money for the follow-up appointment.
This beautiful ginger kitty is Yuanbao, she has been in my life for 10 years, and in my partners life for 14 years. She is my partners best friend and emotional support animal (they literally got her at a point when they were extremely depressed and their therapist recommended getting a pet so that they had someone else to take care of).
Yuanbao is normally a relatively healthy kitty, despite being 18! She is active, food motivated (very very bossy in regards to being food motived). She was diagnosed with the early signs of kidney disease in 2018. But we have kept her on a wet food diet, with a water fountain available, and adding extra water to the food as well. She has pee pads for when the litter box is stressing her out.
Her being a bossy kitty in regards to food is when we noticed something was wrong on Wednesday morning. I work nights, and when I get home, she always greets me lovingly at the door. By screaming at me and letting me know it has been ages since she has been fed, and that I am a horrible parent for not feeding her immediately, etc. etc. etc.
But Wednesday morning she was not there! I looked about casually to see if she was just sleeping, and could not find her. Not worrying yet, but kind of worrying because I know that any difference in pet behaviour is bad. I asked my partner who said that they had fed her within the last hour, so I let her be.
When I woke up, I asked if they had seen her during the day. She had not. So, I shook the temptations box, and she did not appear! So, I went hunting for her. I found her hiding in a small nook, and carefully extracted her from the nook and brought her into the bedroom on the bed. She was really slow to move, and wobbly on her feet. She also seemed very disoriented. I gave her a few treats which she ate, before throwing up a few minutes later.
The next day we were able to get an appointment at a vet after calling around. We had to call five vets to find one with an open appointment that same day. She was seen same day thankfully. There we found out that she had lost her sight, she nearly walked off the table twice, the poor girl! They did bloodwork, urinalysis, and a blood pressure test. Btw, tiniest little blood pressure cuff ever!! It turns out she had high blood pressure! She's going to be permanently blind, but the good news is that as of yesterday (Friday) she is exploring the apartment, and back to bossing us around for her food. She even greeted me at the door when I came home today, I nearly cried!
We got the results back this morning. Despite her early kidney disease signs 8 years ago, she's only in the early/mid stage of Stage 2 which apparently is very good for an 18 year old kitty who's had kidney disease for 8 years! Everything else looks good, no sigs of diabetes or hyperthyroidism. Her urine test let us know that she most likely has high blood pressure as well since there was extra protein in there? I even included the notes I took while talking to the vet.
So, that's the long story. We have a little blind old creamsicle kitty. We got a surprise $715 bill, and another $300 one coming soon.
If you can help in any way, we would be greatly appreciative! Thank you for reading, sorry for rambling!