Help Delilah's Heart Health

TLDR: My best friend and 16 year old senior cat, Delilah, needs an echocardiogram to ensure her medical needs can continue to be met sufficiently. More details below.

Delilah (aka: Big D) has been a part of my family for 16 years. Adopted when I was in 6th grade, she has seen me through every single milestone. She's met every friend, lover, and even enemy of mine, and has seen me through the good and the bad times. 

When I moved to New Orleans in 2021, my mother (Delilah's primary caretaker) moved in with her boyfriend. My mother and her boyfriend are both very busy healthcare professionals, so Delilah stayed under the care of my late uncle, who was good with animals and had more time to give her the attention she deserved. However, a turn of events led him to run away with a catfish, taking his dog with him, but abandoning Delilah in my mother's house without notifying anyone. Delilah was left alone, abandoned and scared, for several weeks before it was uncovered what my sinister uncle had done.

My mother was fortunately able to recover Delilah, and my sorority sister and roommate at the time, Sydney, agreed to drive Delilah the 7 hours from Atlanta to New Orleans, where I would become her permament caretaker. When Delilah arrived in New Orleans in the beginning of 2023, she was on the brink-- no life, no energy, she didn't even seem like a cat. I nursed her back to health slowly and she became her old self again.

Delilah was later diagnosed with renal failure in late 2023, and prescribed a prescription diet. Receiving consistent blood work every six months, she was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism in 2024. On top of her kidney diet, she began to take methimazole twice daily. On the methimazole, she became almost kitten-like. Playing with toys, having the zoomies, even jumping! Everything was going great.

Until January 25th, 2025, when I woke up and Delilah was not asleep beside me, as she is every morning. Instead, she was under the bed making low meowing noises. I knew immediately something was wrong, pulling her out from under the bed and immediately checking for signs of injury and/or dehydration. Caring for a senior pet means hypervigilance, and when I noticed she had white gums and cold paws, I immediately rushed her to the vet that has been there for her since she first arrived in New Orleans in 2023, Avenue Wellness and Emergency on St. Charles.

The prognosis has devastated me. While she is not at the end of her life quite yet, she is at risk and is requiring very expensive testing. On top of renal failure and hyperthyroidism, Delilah has been diagnosed with high blood pressure and testing has shown abnormalities of the heart. On top of methimazole twice daily, she has now been prescribed Amlodipine once a day for high blood pressure, Pimobendan twice a day for her heart, as well as Clopidogrel once a day for her heart. However, these two heart medications are general, as Avenue does not have a machine to administer the expensive test she needs to determine what exactly her heart abnormality is: an echocardiogram.

I have been quoted a range of $1,000-$1,500 for this test from a board certified cardiologist. On top of the price I have already paid the emergency vet, plus the cost of maintaining her four medications and prescription diet, this is unrealistic for me. By the time Delilah got to my care, she was too old to qualify for Trupanion insurance, which my younger cat has. All of Delilah's medical expenses up to this point have came directly out of pocket. I believe that with the right medication regime, and the continued quality of care I have consistently provided and am dedicated to continuing to provide for her, Delilah can make it to her 20th birthday. But I need your help. I cannot do it alone. Yes, she is 16, about to be 17 in March, and you may even think "She's so old, hasn't she lived long enough?" My answer to that is, she's no normal senior. She has a young spirit and LOVE has kept her alive. I grew up with this cat, she is FAMILY. I will fight for her for as long as I can, the same way I would do with a human. She is the reason I work as hard as I do. She is my everything.

So I ask you, even if it is just $1, to help me continue to provide the best quality of care for my best friend. If we can find out the specific heart abnormalities, we can ensure that the Pimobendan and Clopidogrel are the correct medications she needs. 

Big D thanks you!!!

Much love,

Valerie