Help Benjamin Sisko Recover from Surgery

Renae Bouchard is organizing this fundraiser.

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We are asking you for help with an unexpected vet bill amounting to nearly $9,000, before recovery expenses.

Let me tell you about our cat Benjamin "Benji" Sisko, he is the fluffy brown tabby with the large ear tufts and stunning green eyes. He is turning 3 in March, and he was a from a litter of 3 kittens rescued by a kind friend running a grassroots cat rescue in her home in NC. He was named after my favorite Star Trek captain and is very shy and sensitive but an absolute lovebug when he gets comfortable with you.

Sisko watches from afar and his love is earned not guaranteed like his orange tabby brothers'. He loves catnip and charcuterie meats (we've learned) and has the most assertive meow when asking for food. His mane is the softest around and he hates being touched on the belly, but has a cute white circle right in the center.

On to the hard stuff after this adorable video of him playing with a toy just last week.

On Saturday Jan 20th, after being fed dinner Sisko instantly threw up the entire thing and then proceeded to vomit four more times. Reflecting, he had been throwing up once a day all week but he has hairballs somewhat frequently and has a sensitive stomach so I hadn't put much weight into it before then. He resumed normal behavior after he threw up the fourth time, and came to cuddle on my warm lap as usual. The next morning, he was at our bedroom door like normal waiting for breakfast with his brother Hobbnobb, but when we set food down for him and he approached it vomited another four times. With concern mounting, I called our vet and left a message to get him in first thing on Monday, and he did not come out for dinner on Sunday - growing lethargic and still throwing up at the sight/smell of food. Our own vet did x-rays and bloodwork on Monday which found nothing, they suggested an appetite stimulant, anti-nausea medicine and fluids but at that point he was still drinking water so we just took the anti-nausea medicine and went home hoping he might feel better with some time to digest. When he still wasn't eating, we returned to the vet and they gave him all three of their suggestions and attempted to force feed him which he instantly rejected. We were sent home with a suggestion that if he continues refusing food, we should take him to an emergency vet for an ultrasound. Within a few hours, I was convinced we had to do that after posting on social media and speaking with a friend who had something similar happen to their long haired cat.

As soon as we got him to the animal hospital they redid x-rays and blood work, identifying his heart had shrank from dehydration and his intestines were bunched up indicating an object was stuck and pulling them together. He was admitted overnight to rehydrate and wait for an ultrasound in the morning to confirm before going into surgery and they identified a "string" in his intestines. He came out of surgery in the early afternoon of 1/25 and is recovering but is expected to have a difficult journey ahead. They were able to dislodge the object through his stomach but it was serrated and had cut up some of his intestines and they had to remove 10cm of them.

The object he ingested:

A toy that he loves, and that I typically supervise playtime with because he loves to chew and destroy. The first month we had him, he found, killed and fully ate a mouse and we learned this because he threw it up right next to his food bowl and I could only identify the tail in the heap... Cats, am I right? But we keep all their toys in the hammock at the food of their cat tower so while we were away one day he must have gone in and found it, and ate the whole thing. When I bought this toy, it was advertised for cats as a rabbit fur rawhide toy (it's about the length of my two fists put together).

Anyways, while we are preparing to welcome him home for a long stretch of recovery from an invasive surgery, we would really appreciate any support you can offer to help us get our little man back to health so he can keep cuddling with his brother and bringing joy to all those who meet him! I mean, look how happy Hobbnobb is when Sisko is cleaning him - if that's not pure bliss for a cat, I don't know what is.