Memorial Fund for Iggy

Our little black kitty, Iggy, didn't make it. We are heart broken that we lost this little guy. He had a rough go of it, but health-wise his little body couldn't withstand what it had to go through since July 4th. He was 3 years and 4 months old. Here is the original story we put up here when Iggy was alive. Thank you to all those who contributed when we thought we could save him. We were so hopeful.

My partner and I are both 40 and live in Los Angeles. I have been unemployed since October 2022 and my partner since February 2023. The full story with all the details at the time is below, but our kitty was diagnosed with FIC and had repeated urinary blockages early in July. We spent over $10k in emergency veterinary visits and still couldn't save him. The money has already been spent we just don't have our cat anymore. Any assistance is greatly appreciated. Here is what happened to Iggy.

When we got him, he seemed perfectly healthy but that soon changed.

Being that it was 2020 and everything was so slow with vets it took us almost 2 and a half months to get him diagnosed with neurological Feline Infectious Peritonitis, or FIP. Prior to 2018, there was no treatment or cure, only euthanasia because the disease used to torture the kitties that came down with it. Then veterinary doctors discovered a miracle treatment. It doesn’t always work, but it usually at least gives the cat a period of relief and a return to their personality. It is not yet FDA approved so pretty soon we ended up getting illegal cat injections from a network of complete angels committed to helping cats be cured from FIP.

The medication, known to users of it as GS, is viscous and acidic, meaning it hurts the cat when you inject it. Because it's thick, you have to use a large needle. All of the treatment was unpleasant, but every time we were unsure of his recovery, Iggy stepped up and showed us he wanted to be here. After 84 days of treatment and 84 days of recovery, Iggy was declared cured of FIP by his specialty vet at the amazing VCA West L.A. We are so grateful for their amazing care and how awesome his vet was with him. The treatment and vet care were expensive. The medicine ran us over $2000 and the vet was another $1000. We used some of our nestegg and never asked for help. We figured that was a one time thing and FIP health wise, Iggy never looked back.

However on Valentine's Day this past February, we had to take Iggy back to VCA (they are 24 hours and open on holidays) because there was blood in his urine. We caught it before a full urinary blockage happened but Iggy is one of those male kitties that has urinary crystals that can block him from passing urine. We got a specialty diet for him and he seemed to do okay on it.

Then on the 4th of July, he stopped passing urine completely and we took him in a panic to VCA. His kidney numbers were through the roof! They were able to clear the blockage and after 2 overnights and $4,500 (bill in updates) worth of treatment, he was released. We were warned that if we caught him straining to urinate or if we saw him dribbling urine, we should bring him in immediately. 8:30pm July 9th, he started to dribble urine everywhere and we rushed him back. They discovered a partial blockage but were able to clear it immediately. As this is considered an emergency, we left him to stay overnight to put him in a good place for the surgical team to work on him sooner than their next available appointment, weeks or more than a month away.

With these two visits in a week, Iggy has run up an $8000 vet bill with the pending surgery estimated between $6000 and $10,000. Our nestegg is in pieces over the care of this precious little kitty.

We don't like to ask, but we need some help. This past 12 months have been the collective worst year of our life together. There's been a suicide of one of my friends, we both lost our jobs me in October 2022, my partner in February, we both have ADHD (mine is about to get an official diagnosis, my partner got his in May of 2022), and I just got diagnosed with early onset arthritis in 2 places in my left foot and I broke my left patella the weekend Iggy passed on top of my 2 autoimmune diseases.

A share would help so much and be greatly appreciated. This has really taken a toll on us. If you made it to the end of this, thank you. Just you reading this means the world to me. I hope you and any animal in your care/life has a great day and gives/gets so much love. Hug them for us since we can't hug Iggy anymore. From Marty and I, thank you. We love you.