Please Donate to Help Cover a Fraction of Lily’s Vet Bills

Hello! We are Veronica and Jason DeLoach and we are currently raising money for our cat’s vet/medical bills.

TLDR: Our cat, Lily, got sick and it spiraled into over a week’s worth of vet visits, overnight stays, lots of tests/treatments, and eventually an emergency surgery.

FULL STORY: Our girl, Lily (who we also call Willa Girl), got sick one Thursday night. The next morning, she did not eat (which is very unlike her) and wanted to hide from us. I brought her to our vet who gave her fluids and anti-nausea medicine. They also did bloodwork that came back fine. They sent us back home in hopes it was just a stomach bug, but said to contact the emergency vet if symptoms got worse.

Friday day she was very lethargic and still didn’t eat or drink. Same with Saturday. On Saturday, she threw up again and we immediately called the emergency vet who instructed us to keep her in a confined space overnight, and to bring her in if she threw up again. Sunday we did not see much improvement with eating, drinking, using the bathroom, or energy levels, but she was coming around to us more so we thought that maybe she was starting to feel better. Unfortunately, on Monday, she started getting worse. We brought her into the emergency vet where they took an xray, but did not see anything but fluids and gas in her stomach. They said it could be gastric ileus, so they again gave her fluids and anti-nausea medicine and we went home for the night. They told us if she did not improve within 12-24 hours we would need to bring her back in for an overnight stay. On Tuesday, she still hadn’t eaten or drank water, so we brought her back to the emergency vet for an overnight stay. She was hospitalized Tuesday night and Wednesday night. In this time, they had done bloodwork (multiple times), and two POCUS (point of care ultrasounds). Neither showed anything obvious. They hired and outside company to come do an ultrasound, where they took pictures of her. Again, nothing came back obvious besides a potentially inflamed pancreas. The snap test came back negative, but because there were no other signs, they began treatment for that. She got a tube put down her nose to help drain some of the fluids and gas. They also hoped to begin trickle feeding her with the tube. This did not work, and she began to throw up again. On Thursday morning, they suggested us taking her to a specialist. We did, and they immediately suggested another ultrasound that they were able to perform and review in real time. They spotted a shadow and thought it would be best to perform and exploratory abdominal surgery. We suspect this was a bit of an emergency, because they rescheduled other surgeries so she could go first. They ended up finding some kind of thread/string material in her stomach and intestines. There were 10 incisions through her small intestine that they had to fix, as well as one by/in her stomach (which was causing the inflammation in her pancreas). They also suspect the thread was stuck to her tongue at some point, because she had a wound underneath her tongue. The surgery was successful, and they kept her overnight. We were able to see her Friday, and she was so happy to see us. She was finally beginning to act like herself. They kept her overnight again to monitor her. On Saturday morning, the specialist clinic was closing, but they suggested one more overnight stay for monitoring. So we were transferred back to the emergency vet. Fortunately, they allowed us to stay with her all day and all night. We could see obvious improvements this day with her eating, drinking, using the bathroom, and wanting to walk around the room we were in. We also got plenty of head butts, which are her specialty! Haha. Sunday morning, we finally brought our girl home! After a week and a half of what felt like the scariest time of our lives, we were going home. We are two crazy cat people - our cats are our babies. I cannot imagine having lost our Willa Girl. I am so so grateful for the doctors that saved her life.

We have been home for almost a week and a half now, and also close to 2 weeks post surgery! There have been a few hiccups, but she is recovering well! With Willa being healthy and young (5 years old), we were obviously willing to do everything we could for her to keep her comfortable and alive. This, of course, accumulated a lot of medical bills. Much more than we were anticipating. We are fortunate and feel guilty asking for any kind of help right now with so much going on in the world, but these events have set us back quite a bit. We are hoping to raise just a fraction (25%) of the costs to make the blow a little less.

Veronica is also a photographer and she will be hosting mini sessions in the Orlando area in order to raise the rest of the money! Please get in contact with us if you are interested!

Thank you so much for your time reading this and any donations! Anything helps! <3