GoFundMeow for Izzy's Dialysis

This is the story of a little cat with a huge fighting spirit and an abnormal amount of bad luck.

Just over 12 years ago, Izzy and a littermate, just 5 weeks old at the time, were dumped at the barn where I board my horses. After one of the horses stepped on her sibling a couple weeks later, I decided the other kitten was too young to be horse savvy and wouldn't survive either. I trapped her and brought her home.

Izzy was an infuriating kitten and fully lived up to the term "tortitude" (she's a tortie tiger), but she grew up to be 8 pounds of the sweetest, sassiest, loudest purr machine you've ever heard. She had a brush with serious vet care in 2020 when major dental problems and a pandemic shutdown-related delay caused a severe abscess in her jaw and the trigger for her allergies. The prolonged steroid use she received at that time resolved her suspected IBD, but may have set her up for the events of the past year.

The last year has been like a warped version of the children's song about the old lady who swallowed a fly. Izzy dislocated the end of her tail last year, and in addition to pain meds, she was given a couple rounds of steroids to reduce inflammation. The steroids kicked off diabetes, so we started giving her insulin and switched her to a high protein diet to help control her glucose. Her diabetes went into remission, but the high protein diet triggered a severe flare of her IBD. By the time we realized the progression of events, the inflammation had spread to her pancreas and was starting to affect her other organs, and her kidneys were fully on strike.

Izzy was referred to a clinic with a nephrology department and we discussed the possibility of dialysis. She also needed a blood transfusion as she was extremely anemic (common with kidney issues). Unfortunately, Izzy drew yet another short straw, as it turns out she is type B. Only 5% of cats in the US are type B, so donor blood is incredibly hard to find. After much calling around, the clinic found the ONLY bag of type B cat blood in the state, and we drove her to Fort Collins to receive a transfusion at Colorado State University's veterinary teaching hospital.

After two rounds of dialysis and two transfusions, Izzy started to recover, but after being home a couple of weeks her kidney values rose again. She had a third round of dialysis Friday, November 1st, and is scheduled for at least one more. The doctors can't find anything "wrong" with her kidneys, so they believe that if we can keep her kidney values down and treat her other issues, her kidney injury will heal. This means that unless she exceeds expectations again after the next dialysis and starts keeping her numbers down on her own, she may need outpatient dialysis 2-3 times a week while we work with internal medicine to resolve her IBD, pancreatitis, and a suspected gallbladder infection that has since popped up.

Unfortunately, this whole journey has been expensive, and we've thrown all our resources into just getting her to this point. We don't want to give up when she is on the upswing, but we'll need your help to give Izzy a chance to heal. I'm setting our goal high enough to get us started with internal medicine and buy her a couple more dialysis treatments if needed. Every little bit helps, and if by some miracle we get more than our goal, the extra will be held in reserve for any further dialysis treatments and/or paying down the debts we've acquired throughout this ordeal.

I know these are tough times to be asking for donations, so we appreciate any way you can help, even if that's only sharing Izzy's GoFundMeow link or kicking a few bucks our way. With the help of some crafty friends, I'll be sending out Izzy stickers to anyone who donates, and I'm also starting an IG account for her. Follow her recovery at @izzypurrtato.