Help us save our fur baby, Nuggie

Nugget, nuggie, nugs, nitso are all the nick names we have for this little guy. We adopted Nugget in November as an early Christmas gift for my kids. My youngest has always loved cats, ever since my dad has had them so we wanted to surprise them with a cat.

We found Nugget at Petsmart in East Peoria by accident. We were actually looking for the snakes and we stumbled across him in the back where the cats usually are. The sign said “if you see my stripes you’re my human”. My husband being not a cat person said “if you want him you can try to adopt him” so I did. 6 pages later the paperwork was submitted. I then received the phone call we could adopt him about a week and a half later.

We Surprised the boys at petsmart with Nugget! I received all the paperwork on him but nothing was ever mentioned that he received any testing prior at 6 months old

fast forward to this last few days… Nugget has stopped eating and recently started to breathe harder and hide more which isn’t his character.

I took him to the vet yesterday for them to tell me he has fluid around his lungs and possibly has FIP that has gone untreated. The procedure he is needing done is to drain the fluid with the hopes of them not nicking the lung while doing so, then doing another xray to see if it’s a heart issue or if it is FIP. It is a tricky procedure and the whole procedure will cost anywhere from 1500-2500 with the time for staying there under their care. We do not qualify for credit care or any type of scratch care loan for this. He’s only 1 year old. He has his whole life ahead of him. I have become more attached to him than I realized and can’t imagine the option of putting him down with him only being 1. I do feel like something had happened when he was 6 months old when there was heart and thyroid testing being done on a “healthy kitten” and we were never disclosed any of that information. I feel like we owe him this to try and save him. Anything helps even a share. We appreciate everyone and the hope to be able to save his life.