Help for my family…

This is Bailey.

Bailey is approximately 5 years old, and lately she has barely been eating or grooming herself and we don’t know why.

She has moderately severe mats in her fur around her belly where she doesn’t let us pet or groom her. She has lost a little weight, she is hungry enough to beg (very uncharacteristically, because she’s never been the sort of cat who does that) when we’re eating something fragrant, but she ignores the dry food we give her.

We’ve had to start giving her canned food instead, and still she barely eats any of that. She hasn’t vomiting back up what she attempts to eat; she just. isn’t. eating. The other night she vomited up some white foam, which suggests that her stomach was completely empty. Not even bile.

We suspect it’s a dental issue, possibly a tooth abscess. We do know she has a tartar issue we’ve been procrastinating on addressing for financial reasons. We need to get her teeth cleaned and get dental x-rays. That will cost us about $400-$500. We took her in for an exam and bloodwork today. That was another $300. Hopefully that $700-$800 in vet expenses will be the end of this issue and no further treatment will be needed.

Christmas is coming up and it was already going to be a very lean holiday for us. My sister was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor; she’s going to be meeting with her neurosurgeon this week, and depending on how much support she needs during her treatment and recovery, I may be required to travel back home and help take care of her, which will be another expense we just can’t afford.

I don’t like doing this. I’ve never asked for money before, but I don’t see how we’re going to get through the next couple months with all of this going on, unless we let Bailey’s care go unaddressed.

I know it’s the holidays, and things are tight for everyone. But please, if you can, maybe contribute a little to my Ko-Fi account to help us get Bailey the care she needs?

Thank you.

UPDATE:

I scanned in the receipt for the exam and bloodwork on Friday, and the estimate for the dental work and x-rays.

The Pet Health Club membership made the exam free and saved us 10% on the bloodwork (so an $85 savings) and will also give us a discount on the dental work that isn’t reflected in the estimate. So ultimately the total will be less with the membership than without.

This is the estimate for the dental work and x-rays. The handwritten $22.52 is for brushing out the mats in Bailey’s fur that formed because she hasn’t been grooming herself, which they figure they may as well do while she’s under anesthesia.

Her bloodwork came back Friday evening with an elevated white blood cell count, which is indicative of an infection. That, coupled with the slight inflammation at her gumline, reaffirms the working theory that there is a tooth abscess, but we won’t know until we get the dental x-rays. I did go back and pay $35 for some antibiotics which will hopefully reduce the swelling and make it more comfortable for her to eat, but it’s a just stop-gap measure.

Thanks to contributions at the link above, I’ve raised $270 of the ~$800 needed. Thank you to everyone who has helped.