Please Help Me Save Kunka
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Hello! I'm Angel. Megan is my sister. I've created this fundraiser on her behalf.
Megan knows fully that she's responsible for her own life, and she does not want to be a charity. However, Kunka, her beloved feline companion needs your help to stay alive.
She has been paying for nearly 2 months of vet visits, urgent care, extensive tests, treatment trials, medications, fluid injections for dehydration, different types of prescription food, and more. None of it has been enough to get him to eat let alone cure what is ailing him. Something else is going on. We aren't going to give up until we figure it out and get him the medical treatment that is actually going to work.
During all of this madness, someone recently ran a stop sign and totaled Megan's car. She has been missing a lot of work and funding a rental out of pocket, all the while juggling the fear, financial burdens, and stomach-turning worry for Kunka's survival. You can't just...not eat. You won't survive.
But let me be clear- she is not asking for help with car accident costs. She is only asking for help with saving her beloved sweet Kunka, her best feline friend in the whole universe. He just won't make it through this if he doesn't get all the needed treatment.
Megan adopted Kunka as a kitten and he almost immediately had urinary tract issues. After years of treating his bladder crystals, he has been a super healthy boy for 4 years.
And now this.
If you are in the SoCal area and aren’t planning to donate, she’d be happy to do some photography work for you instead.
Here is a word from Megan:
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Hi everyone! Thank you for making the time and space to read this.
Since March, things have been unbelievably tough. They’ve been full of questions, worry, uncertainty, nonstop rapid decision-making, and a scary emotional rollercoaster, to say the very least.
The short story is that my 7 year-old kitty, Kunka, has not had an appetite. He has lost approximately 4 lbs as of late. We have done extensive blood tests, imaging, medicine trials, fecal tests, tried tons of different foods (some being prescription only, and some of which I've had to throw out because it sat for too long without being eaten).
We've also tried the holistic route. We have cooked for him and tried raw, limited-ingredient meals. We've also tried appetite stimulant toppers.
The last, but most expensive and most promising resort, is exploratory surgery.
After draining my bank accounts, maxing my credit cards, and a worrisome amount of paid work, we are at a stand still.
I need to save my baby, so I’m swallowing my pride and fear of judgment and asking for help so Kunka and I can do this surgery and get a soft handle on the accrued medical bills.
The long story is:
My cat, Kunka, stopped eating 2 months ago after knocking over a purple Tradescantia Zebrina plant from above my bathroom sink (which I strategically placed there to be out of his reach). We are almost positive he chewed on its leaves overnight.
This plant was said to NOT be toxic to cats at the time I purchased it, and though his regular day vet confirmed it’s not super harmful, we have learned from the ASPCA that it does cause some digestive upset.
Two days later, he had a bowel movement with some purple color in it. What followed was extreme lethargy, no interest in playtime, and an alarming lack of appetite.
After a day or so, he gained a bit of energy back but he still wouldn’t eat. Not even treats! So I scheduled him a vet appointment at his go-to clinic.
We did basic blood work and a urinalysis, as well as a heartworm test. All was normal and clear. Liver, kidney, bladder (no sign of crystals, which he has had trouble with in the past), thyroid, white blood cell count…all normal. He was sent home with some expensive Rx food but he wasn’t eating anything so it didn’t even matter. If any of you have had to give your pets Rx food, you know that it can be 2x or even 3x the cost of you standard relatively healthy pet food.
We were then sent to Pacific Care ER in Irvine, CA where they had top board-certified doctors and surgeons (which are expensive as hell) where they performed specialty imaging of his intestines and did some X-rays. It did not seem like there were any obvious bowel obstructions or foreign bodies. They did see some bowel loops that were normal, and some that were irregular. They suggested a possible case of bowel obstruction or a foreign body. They sent us home with Miritaz, an appetite stimulant (which sadly did not help one bit).
Exploratory surgery was recommended urgently, but not critically, because though they could not definitively give proof of bowel obstruction or a foreign body, they knew that if there was a possibility of it, it would be fatal.
With exploratory surgery they would be able to rule out bowel obstructions and foreign bodies. Additionally, we'd be able to do a biopsy for IBD (irritable bowel disease) or Lymphoma, even though they did not see any tumor-like masses. However, not being able to see them does not mean they aren't there.
The surgery at Pacific Care would cost $8,000-$10,000. You can imagine how terrified I was trying to find a way to make this happen!
Since I could not afford the overnight hospitalizations at Pacific Care ($3,000-$4,000/night) I took some days off of work to transport him back and forth for fluids and to recheck by doing ultrasounds and bloodwork.
They then told me “you need to decide now if you want to do this surgery, or if you want to go to a low-cost clinic that offers this form of surgery”.
With the help of the vet there, I found one safe option at Anaheim Hills Pet Clinic where they can do this specific type of surgery. They have overnight techs and nurses who can perform surgery for bowel obstructions if it is needed to save a life. Many other clinics do not offer something like this.
We transferred Kunka to Anaheim Hills Pet Clinic the week of April 17th, where they gave him Barium in hopes to get some insight into his intestines. The Barium liquid travelled all of the way to his colon, and the imaging showed that most likely there was no bowel obstruction. However, we still couldn’t rule out a foreign body.
The bloodwork indicated that we could rule out pancreatitis, and fecal tests ruled out bacterial infections. So we started him on a low-dose steroid.
After one dose of the steroid, Kunka started to eat here and there for 4 days, but then he stopped again a few days later, leaving us to again consider the option of exploratory surgery.
I’ve now spent the past 3-4 weeks travelling back and forth to Anaheim Hills in Anaheim, CA with Kunka after spending weeks travelling back and forth to the local Primary Vet Clinic and Pacific Care in Irvine.
I’d love any help at all with paying for his recent vet and ER care so we can prepare for the surgery or other trials of care. I need to save my friend who has been there for me through thick and thin.
Many of those close to me know I’ve had Kunka since he was a kitten. We travelled across the country together from Baltimore to Los Angeles almost two years ago. He’s my little mans, my kunkernut, my nutter butter, my child and my soulmate. He is one of the brightest lights in my life, and I love him so much. Whenever I’m at my lowest of lows, I turn to him and remind him, “It’s just you and me kunks. We got this.”
Even if you've only got $5 or $10 to spare, it will help make the possibility of saving his life a reality. I wish it didn't have come to this, but I am determined to do everything in my power to get him healthy again, and I need some help doing that.
Thank you so much for considering helping me.
Love,
Megan and Kunka
P.S. Below is all the proof I have of Kunka's expenses. I've rounded up a little because I need to take him to the vet this Saturday and I may need to miss more work for medical care.
We will update the goal amount if he ends up getting surgery, which is likely.
Proof of medical bills can be found here:
Organizer
Angel Marcloid
Organizer
Round Lake Beach, IL