Birdie’s Rescue Fund

My name is Kat and I’ve been a cat lover all my life. I have 3 cats of my own and frequently foster and bottle feed teeny tiny orphaned kittens. On Sunday 11/12/23, my partner and I were up in McGrath, MN looking at wedding venues. We had just left and were starting the 2 hour drive home, when I noticed a group of birds on the side of the highway. I told my partner to slow down since the birds were close and I didn’t want one to walk out in the street in front of our car. As we drove past, the birds flew away, but I noticed a familiar looking small ball of fluff still on the side of the road. I yelled at my partner to turn around, and we pulled up by a tiny little kitten. I stepped out of the car prepared to chase her down, but she ran right up to me, fully ready to escape the busy highway and hungry birds. I immediately noticed that she had a huge ball of crusted fur over her left eye, and she was sneezing and drooling, and extremely skinny. She had clearly been on her own for a while, but she happily curled up on my shoulder and spent the entire 2 hour drive purring in my ear. We jokingly started calling her Bird Food, which morphed into Birdie, and the name stuck.

Unfortunately, the rescue I usually work with only takes kittens that still need bottle feeding, and Birdie falls right outside that age range. So far I’ve contacted 5 other rescues, but they are either all full, or have not yet gotten back to me. With her eye issues and upper respiratory infection, we didn’t have time to wait for weeks before getting medical care for Birdie. Having done kitten rescue before, there are some basic care things I am able to do, but Birdie clearly needed attention from a vet.

We immediately brought her to see some friends of ours who also work in rescue. We were able to get the large mat off her left eye, and found a pretty gross looking eyeball underneath. We also checked her over for any other injuries and got her started on a basic oral antibiotic to fight her URI while we waited for a vet appointment. Based on her teeth and eye color, we’re estimating she’s around 8 weeks old, although she’s currently the size of a 5-6 week old.

We were able to get Birdie in to see our regular vet today, Wednesday 11/15/23, where she won everyone over by making biscuits throughout the entire visit. Her left eye has a massive ulcer, and is protruding from her eye socket slightly. This may be due to swelling and irritation, or it could be that her eye has ruptured and the lens is poking through, but she is currently too small to tell. We are starting her on a topical antibiotic for her eye, in addition to a new oral antibiotic. We also gave her dewormer and flea treatment since she’s been outside for a while. We have a recheck on Monday, where we should learn more about the prognosis of her eye, but there is a significant chance it may need to be surgically removed. The good news is that she appears to be a healthy cat other than the Upper Respiratory Infection and the eye issue, and she’ll be just as cute with only one eye.

Because we have not yet found a rescue to take her, all her medical care costs are being paid fully out of pocket by myself and my partner. We are committed to getting her healthy and old enough to be adopted, but she has quite a few medical bills ahead of her. Today’s initial vet visit was $244.04. We also received a quote for a spay, eye removal, and microchip that amounts to $1912.59. This does not include any follow up appointments, or her necessary vaccines (3 rounds of Feline Distemper plus a Rabies vaccine). We’re hoping to raise $3000 to cover all her medical expenses before she is adoption ready.

Birdie is an absolute sweetheart who is loving her time indoors. She’s super intrigued by our resident cats that she sees through the door, and she’s always coming up to us for snuggles. Her appetite is incredible and she’s already put on half a pound in 3 days. We’re hoping to get her through these next few months of medical treatment, so she can go on and live a long life as a happy, healthy cat.