Help Kiki Save Her Indoor Kitties From Bird Flu

I thought Tuesday morning was the worst day of my life. I was crying as my sphynx Gandalf was put to sleep. It was sudden, and she had been so alert the day before! But she was 13.

Tuesday afternoon I was back at the vet with my cornish rex girls Hattie and Sekhmet because they were running heavy fevers (104 and 105.7). Both were given fluids and cerenia. They had eaten only a little bit that morning and I felt scared.

By Wednesday afternoon I was being ushered in through the back door of Dove Lewis with 2 suspected cases of bird flu and 2 girls with advanced pneumonia. My nightmare had just started.

My name is Kiki, and I'm an artist who makes animal and cat art to bring joy to people all over the world (Purrmaids.com & Kikidoodle.com). Cats, however, have always been my passion, and I do what I can to share educational content, and I love my whole cat clan with more of my heart than I can ever express.

To be told that my girls are dying of bird flu and that there's nothing I can do other than put them in the hospital and just HOPE has made this the worst nightmare I can imagine and something I wouldn't even wish on my worst enemies.

I made this Gofundme because while I've always kept a sizable chunk of money aside for emergency vet care, I'm stretched to my absolute limits with everything that's happened and there's potential for MORE vet bills. Samples from three of my cats have been collected by the ODA, and are being tested for bird flu, and I've been told that both the symptoms, rapid deterioration, and advanced pneumonia all match what they've seen from other people. There's a 10 day window from exposure where any of my other cats might start to advance into rapid decline, so I have to be constantly vigilant and be ready to rush them to the emergency clinic.

Edit: It IS in fact bird flu.

Honestly, I hate to ask for anything, but this is just too much and too fast for me to keep up with. I'm terrified and scared, and hoping against hope that my two beautiful ladies will come home. Sekhmet is a grandmother at 5, and Hattie is her daughter at only 1.5 years old. Both are SO young and have so so many more years and greatness ahead of them. They are truly one of a kind and can never be replaced.

Bill breakdown (rough estimates on the first few days)

$300 for emergency care for Gandalf (Friday)

$200 for emergency care for Gandalf (monday)

$700 for home euth for Gandalf (tuesday)

$1300 for emergency care for Sekhmet and Hattie (Tuesday)

$9,970-$17,334 Overnight hospital stay for Sekhmet and Hattie (Wednesday-Friday? We already hit the low limit and are at 11K as of this afternoon)

$900 for Pig to have an xray to confirm NO pneumonia and samples taken for bird flu testing at Dove Lewis.

$600 for xrays of Jiji and Heihei (my boys) to make sure they have not started to develop pneumonia signs at my standard vet.

Up to $1200 to xray the other cats if they show any symptoms as catching the pneumonia EARLY can save them.

Edit 2-15

We lost Hattie... Sekhmet is still in need of oxygen and additional care at an estimated 2K per day.

$1300 for a home oxygen cage to give continued care for Sekhmet if she is able to be discharged, and for Pig who may have developed asthma from the bird flu, or for any kitties who show signs of illness so we can stabilize them until we can get them to the hospital.

$3,000-4,000 per day to hospitalize baby Bebop who started developing pneumonia on 2-17

$? cost for euth, and memorials. I'm not allowed to get my girl's ashes as the state wants to claim their bodies to test. I asked for fur clippings so I can bury my girl in my yard and have her be a part of our home. I'm going to buy memorial stones with the names of all of my lost girls.

$$? Grief counseling. Lost wages.

$$? Continued vet care. It's about $800 for a HCM scan and considering some surviving cats developed HCM I need to run scans on any of my clan who test positive for bird flu just to be safe, as catching it early can delay heart failure.

Raised the goal to 30k from my estimate of 24K, which covers potential additional vet care. Don't feel the need to donate if you can't spare anything. Spend it on your own pets. But I really appreciate how much easier this has made continued care feel. I'm still really afraid for my other cats.

/edit

All of my cats are indoor so we don't know how they caught the virus, but there is suspicion it was their food, but it could have just as easily been carried into the house on our shoes when we picked kiwis for the neighbors.

Edit:

The food was Wild Coast Raw, and has since been implicated in the deaths of multiple other felines in the area who ate from the same batch. My food has been turned in for testing, but we do believe this is the source of infection at this time.

I'm broken.

I took this photo on Tuesday feeling excited to get a photo of all my cornish rex together

I can't believe only 1 day later I'm crying at this photo of the missing placemats.

I'm broken and scared. I'm lost and hurt. But I'm so so thankful for the amazing cat community who are offering support in this extremely dire time.

I'll be updating where I can on Bluesky (kikidoodle.bsky.social) and in my cat Discord.

We are expecting the results from bird flu back by tomorrow.

I'll try and make updates and also, despite being broken, try and continue to educate and offer insights into everything I learn and how to best protect your feline friends from this terrible terrible illness, because I care.

And I'm going to cry a lot.

Thank you, friends <3

Kiki