Help With Lucy The Cat

Lucy, our six-year-old cat, is very badly injured. Possibly consistent with having been kicked in her face and thrown around, she has multiple fractures in her jaw, and a shattered tail. There are likely broken ribs, and internal injuries. She has since developed pleurisy, an erratic heart rhythm, and very serious anaemia. If she gets through, she'll need her tail amputated.

Extraordinarily, it's still possible that she could recover. But it's also getting extremely expensive. And I do not want the decision over her life to be made by whether we can afford it or not.

This is further impacted by the effort she made to get home. She was missing for three nights, and then somehow crawled back to our house, dehydrated after being unable to drink during that brutally hot weekend, and barely able to move. She put so much effort into staying alive.

We've no way of knowing the exact cause of her injuries. The vets say being attacked by a person might explain the nature and location of the injuries, but can't rule out a car accident. We'll never know for sure.


Ordinarily I'd not ask, but right now I don't have a job, and while we have savings to get us through this time - while I'm developing/looking for the next permanent gig - that's obviously a lot harder if a significant proportion of it goes toward Lucy. Our insurance covered the first £2500, but we're already way past that, with a final bill that will be at least £5000, and potentially an awful lot more. (It's costing around £250 a day to keep her in the animal hospital, before the far higher additional costs of her multiple surgeries, lung draining, medication, etc.)

I also get that it's "just a cat". (Frankly, she's a rude and annoying cat. But she adores our 4yo son, and he adores her.) And honestly, I would far rather you give money to Go Fund Mes that keep humans alive than to this. But if you've something left over, it'd be appreciated.

There's every chance she could die today, or tomorrow, or get better enough for the next wave of surgeries, and then die after that. She's in a very critical condition. And we may have an incredibly difficult decision ahead either way, of whether to keep her alive but miserable for possibly weeks on end, or let her go. But, grimly, we get the same bill either way.

Any extra money beyond the cost of the treatment will be given to Cats Protection, who are an excellent bunch who help 200,000 cats a year. https://www.cats.org.uk/

Thank you.