Kittywampus Maple has a broken heart

Many of you already know Kittywampus Maple, but for those who do not, her whole story is below.  In summary, this sweet kitty has been through a lot in her short life of 1yr from maggot and cuterebra infestation, being emaciated, being deaf, and having neurologic deficits. Now on top of that, she requires heart surgery to fix a very rare and life threatening heart defect that if not repaired, will take her life in a few short years.

Kittywampus Maple (formerly known as Maple Syrup) was brought into our St Paul Emergency Clinic by a Good Samaritan who found her infested with maggots and cuterebra (bot fly larva).  She was emaciated, extremely weak, deaf, had a severe inner ear infection, and was ataxic meaning she had neurologic deficits “drunken walking” with head wobbles.  She had many clinical reasons to be humanely euthanized but her loud purr and extremely affectionate nature made it impossible to lose faith in her.  She was hospitalized and the following day I took her in through Last Hope Rescue as my foster. After many months, she was finally ready for adoption but I needed her to be homed with a veterinary professional due to her neurological status.  A wonderful Veterinary Intern at work, Dr. Lindsay Berg, took her home on a trial basis and she and her husband instantly fell in love with her.  A few days before we were to finalize Maple’s adoption, Lindsay (as a new DVM) decided to do a physical exam and detected a very soft heart murmur.  The following day our Cardiologist confirmed the murmur and was able to get Maple in for a same day echocardiogram.  The echo unfortunately showed that Maple has a very rare heart condition, a large atrial septal defect, meaning she has a large hole in her atrium.  At only 10mos old, this congenital condition had already caused Maple’s heart to be enlarged.  Since this is such a rare condition in cats, there are no studies or literature that would give us a prognosis, life expectancy, or medications that may help.  After recently losing a cat to cancer, Lindsay was not in the market for a sick cat that she may not be able to have for long. The adoption was put on hold. We felt completely lost.  After some thought, and with Maple’s perfection, Lindsay decided that it’s not the quantity, but the quality of time we have with our fur babies that matters and she was back on board to adopt Maple, even though she knew her time with her may be short.

Being a recent Veterinary graduate from the U of M, Lindsay contacted the Cardiologist there to see if he had any experience with this heart condition.  He was quickly interested in this unique little kitty as she could potentially be able to ***help in research for not only Veterinary Cardiology, but Pediatric Cardiology as well***. He evaluated her, repeated an echo, and was “boggled” by Maple’s rare and bizarre heart changes.  He said that he thought he could surgically correct Maple’s heart defect which would make her heart go back to normal size and she would be considered “cured” of her heart disease.  Without surgery, she was given a 2-5 year life expectancy.  Since the cardiologist at the U had never seen a case like this, and could use it as a research and teaching aid, they were able to perform the initial echo and a recheck echo (to make sure her heart disease hadn’t progressed rapidly) at no cost.

Lindsay and her husband have been the best kitty parents to Maple and Lindsay kindly lets me co-parent her so I am still involved in her life and medical decisions.  We are extremely grateful to the U of M for their generosity in performing exams and diagnostics at no charge. However, going forward with the heart surgery that Maple requires, we are looking at $3,000+ out of pocket.

 A vet intern basically works for “almost” free for a year so funds are tight but we are not giving up on Maple and want to go forward with her necessary heart surgery.  We are asking for donations to help offset the cost of her surgery.  Anything helps and we very much appreciate all donations. If you are unable to financially contribute, please send positive and healing thoughts her way and please SHARE THIS FUNDRAISER! She is scheduled for surgery June 24th 2020, wish her luck!

Thank you so much for your support!  Maple has been through SO much already in her short life and she deserves to live a long, happy, healthy life.

Sincerely,

Kittywampus Maple and her mamas Lindsay and Sam <3