Kind Words Stationery: Vet Bill Fundraising

Yikes. It's been a harrowing few weeks, let me tell you. Today, I'd like to tell you what's been going with Luna. I know I haven't addressed how Luna came to join our menagerie yet, but let's skip over that for now and talk about her relationship with Butters.

Ever since he was a tiny kitten, Butterscotch has been fascinated with Luna. I'm really not sure why, since Luna is a bit skeptical of all the cats roaming around the house. Not only that, but Luna is big, 73 lbs big, and oafish as well. She's kind of clumsy and doesn't realized how big she is or how LOUD she is. Yeesh. But still, Butters has always loved her.

I thought it was adorable how they'd play, so I just let it happen. It never occurred to me that there might be ill effects for either one of them.

(please ignore the voice over from both my mother and I)

It turns out, I was horribly wrong. One day, I noticed Luna had some small growths on her chin, and a few on her eyelids. It looked like kitten nibbles that punctured the skin a little bit, so I carefully cleaned them and thought they would heal up. They didn't.

After a week, Luna's muzzle looked like raw ground beef. It was disgusting. I should have taken a picture, but I didn't think about it at the time. I took her to the vet instead, and what followed was months of tweaking medication doses, constant vet visits, and some peeing inside the house and ON MY BED (a side effect of the meds).

Last week, I realized the medication was no longer working. Luna was developing a lot of swelling on one eyelid, a growth on her opposite eyelid, and her chin was dotted with small scabs. I took her in to the vet again, and he walked me through the options. We had tried everything already, and the last thing on the list was a biopsy, which he hoped would give us a more targeted idea of what is going on in Luna's skin, and what meds would be helpful. Unfortunately, the bill was going to be $750 CAD plus post-surgery medications, which are never cheap.

I wasn't happy about it, but what could I do? I scheduled the biopsy for the next day. I decided that since she was going to go under sedation, now would be a good time to get her teeth cleaned. I used to have to give her anti-anxiety herbal remedies that stained her teeth pretty badly, and sped up tartar build up. I was eager to get that removed, and the cost savings for doing it now would be about $500. It only added $200 + tax to the bill. In for a penny, in for a pound, right? Besides, the pre-surgery blood work and one round of heartworm meds had already left me with a $375 vet bill for that day. I figured I was in so deep already, I may as well go for it.

I was nervous about putting her under sedation. There is always a chance that something can go wrong and the next call you get is the vet telling you your pet died on the table. Thankfully, my poocher made it through with flying colours. Although given how spaced out and grumpy she was afterwards, I'm not sure if she thought that was a good thing. She can't eat or drink by herself with that huge cone on, and she mainly stands around with her head drooping under its weight, looking up at me mournfully. I hand feed her three times a day, and give her water orally with a 10 cc syringe.

She had two stitches in her eyelid, holding closed a v-shaped gap where they removed a chunk of flesh, and two more stitches in her chin. They gave her back to me wearing a huge Cone of Shame. The vet advised me to go next door to the pet store and buy a collar, since the cone needed to be really secure. If she managed to scratch her eye and pull out a stitch, it would cost me another $600 to sedate her again and close the hole. I bought the sturdiest collar the pet store had in stock.

Over all, just the surgery alone was $1039 CAD. The pre-surgery vet bill was $375. I really can't afford to absorb that, so I have to sell things to make up for the cost. I'm got some hairsticks I can sell, but I'd also like to try and sell some stationery. :)

So, I'm going to have a fundraiser sale! I've been working on different sets of pin up, and I've decided to create a limited release set of pin ups with animals, called A Girl and Her Faithful Companion. I'll sell these designs only when I need help with vet bills - 25 sheets for $8.50 USD.