Donate to Save Indy: Urgent Medical Care Needed

Indy is a 5-year-old orange tabby needing your help!! He developed a decrease in appetite around Sept 18, and eventually stopped eating entirely at one point. He showed discomfort in attempting to eat but otherwise remained unchanged in his behavior like the few animals out there who do not like to show weakness. Luckily, we have a camera feeder to monitor which cat eats, and we caught on that he hadn't eaten for two solid days.

We took him to his primary vet, who performed several hundreds in x-rays, blood, urine culture draws, and fluid pushed through his system. Through this, we learned he had an enlarged kidney. From there, we took him the same Friday evening to urgent care where he continued to be monitored for his elevated levels as fluids were flushed through his system until Sunday. This cost us two-thousand plus, and we reached the deductible for his insurance. The urgent care urged us to take him home because he refuses to eat but he may eat at home. Unfortunately, he did not change, and Monday we took him back to primary care who told us the urgent care facility performed a fast ultrasound to confirm the enlarged kidney.

More fluids were passed, and he was given additional medication, and we took him home. Again, he refused to eat, and the following day, I learned to administer IV fluid at home so his system could be flushed. The same evening he ate for the first time. Everything looked promising, but he stopped eating again the following day. We returned to the vet, who set a referral to specialist emergency care. This was today--

Indy got a number of tests done and a full ultrasound. That same evening we received a call with the specialist being optimistic. Instead of there being a chronic and congenital kidney size issue, there seems to be an active blockade in his ureter (passage between kidney and bladder). However, there are only a few places in the US that perform the necessary surgery to remove this blockade via a sub-bypass. One such facility was at a university some three hours away. The quoted surgical cost is $8,000, which is far more than what Indy's insurance will cover.

We paid the specialist $2300+ for his diagnosis and scans, and we drove immediately to the facility with Indy inside a cone, his little paw attached to a catheter, and his nose sutured with a feeding tube in preparation. We stopped by a pet store to get a better carrier so he didn't get injured by hitting his cone into the standard cat carrier and went straight to the medical facility.

There, after some examination, it was discovered Indy may have some further post-surgery needs, including returning to the specialist care for up to a week-long stay and monitoring. Then, he will need flushing of his permanent sub-attachment in increments of daily, weekly to eventually, every 3 months for as long as he holds on.

Update

A call prior to this post came in from the facility stating they want to hold off on his SUB installation and another ultrasound was pushed forth to rule out the potential for infections in his kidneys which may make the SUB function poorly off the start with further obstructions created through the infection. Now the proposal is to have him go through treatments for his infections, active monitoring and fluid administration for days-to-weeks as necessary before going into the SUB installation.

Unfortunately, this is where I'm unable to cover his continued care even though we made it this far on savings and insurance. I can't cover the full $20,000+ and I'm unable to cover the potential weeks-long stays he's needing. And we need your help to get this 5-year-old back up on his feet.

Prognosis

After these surgeries, it's assumed Indy will be good to go with routine check-ups to monitor his kidney function and to flush his SUB. He will not be out of the woods as obstructions can occur again in the future. Long-term, cats can live decently healthy lives after this treatment. However, will he live a long while? We don't know. What we do know is that fluid flushing can cause heart issues, and stress can also cause liver issues. At this moment, we are waiting to hear more from the veterinarians.

If Indy does not have a good chance of recovering, we will sadly have to say goodbye to him. While he may not show signs of pain as many animals do, he is in a lot of abdominal distress. Enough to not eat, and this can cause gastrointestinal issues which can be extreme. We do not want him to suffer. While it pains us immensely, there is a chance I will lose my baby boy. In case this leads to us saying goodbye: Any funds gathered will be used to cover the extra medical expenses, and left-over funding will be provided to local shelters and non-profit institutes who help the local area (NALA and MuddyPaws of Omaha).

Indiana Jones and Me

Indiana Jones came to me at 7 months weighing about 5 lbs and fitting in my palm. He was underweight and starving, having passed through several shelters and into my care. I fell in love with him when he climbed on my lap and was angry when I learned he was given up even after he was front paw declawed. For days I struggled to get him to eat every brand of high-end wet and dry food, only barely getting him to smell them and cry as he walked away. I called around, tracking his journey through shelters until a clinic said they documented him eating Iams kitten food. Sure enough, he jumped on the bag. At his 1-year birthday, he was a healthy 11 lbs. He had developmental challenges, but he rebounded. And for five years, he has been my special Indy. The one who refuses treats, walks away from everything except Iams and, as I later discovered, raspberries.