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Sam
I lub Dolly- Bee!! | 
 | | Barked: Sun Nov 25, '07 6:48am PST | |  | |  | | As some of you may know, Piggie and Puggie's sister, Mama Cass was tragically injured last week by an animal, and dragged herself home one last time to see her Momma before she crossed over to the bridge. Her Momma tried desperately to save her and was willing to do whatever it took, but it wasnt enough. Mama Cass died. Amie's vet bills are astronomical, and if there is any way at all that anyone could donate any money to help, it would be greatly appreciated. It is heart wrenching enough to lose your beloved pet in such a traumatic way, but the money situation is compounding the stress and heartache. Please read her story below, and if you can help at all, pawmail me for instructions. Thank you so much. ~Sam and Mom
"First let me say thank you to everyone who has sent kind words via emails and rosies. You are so sweet and thoughtful. I know that all the prayers she received from everywhere under the sun made Mama Cass live as long as she did.
I received 2 phone calls from my local vet's office yesterday on Thanksgiving. They were very upbeat and things sounded good. About 2 hours after the 2nd call, the vet herself called and said that Mama's temperature was down to 90. She said I had the option to leave her there overnight or come get her to take her to the Emergency Animal Clinic which is 50 miles away. Of course I went to get her. We left everyone and went to pick up Mama. On the way she cried a lot and actually tried to get up out of the flat container she was in. She wanted to be on my lap so bad. I cried so hard. The more I cried, the more she cried. My Mom realized this and said I really needed to be quiet. It was as if Mama was trying to comfort me, despite her own pain.
50 miles seemed like 500 miles. When I arrived, no one would help us get her out of the car, despite her being hooked up to an IV and dying. Once Mom and I got inside, the first thing I was handed was a piece of paper stating that the initial fee to see her would be $500. I didn't even bat my eyes. What could I do? I didn't get a very warm reception, but since it is a 24/7 facility, a vet was looking at her within 2 minutes of us being there. They immediately starting shearing her wounds, gave her a bit of a sedative to calm her, cut her open, and found maggots everywhere. They flushed her wound and got her into the incubator. They placed her on a contraption called a Huggie Bear which was a hot air filled chamber that aided the incubator in keeping her warm. The vet talked to me and said that we could go ahead and leave. She asked that I call her at 6:45 am. She said they would only call me if she was dying. Before I left, I signed additional paperwork that totalled her first 24 hour fee at $2000. She was probably going to need to have her rear right leg amputated. I gave permission for that and agreed to whatever expenses that would mean also.
I was up until almost 4. When I awoke to the alarm, I was happy because I knew she made it through the night. I called Dr. Sayre, and she said that Mama's temp was 102. I couldn't have been happier. She cautioned that we weren't even remotely out of the woods yet, but that it was a good sign. She purred to the girls during the night. Her liver enzymes were incredibly high, but her kidney enzymes were decent. She said they were going to try to feed her a little through a syringe and that she would probably have surgery later in the day.
At noon my phone rang, and I knew it wasn't good. It was Dr. Fowler, who is the top vet at the emergency clinic. She said Mama needed a blood transfusion and that it would be an additional $400. I said ok. She said that it might help her liver and she said her red blood count dropped from 17 to 14, which is very bad. She was anemic, and she started having trouble breathing. She doubted that surgery was possible, but said that sometimes a transfusion was the miracle an animal needs. Another wound flush was done at 8 am, and there were still a ton of maggots. She said the techs continued to pull leftover maggots out of her all afternoon. She asked me to call her back this evening around 6:30.
A few minutes before that happened, Dr. Fowler called to say that things weren't good. Mama's temp fell to 98, despite her being in those incredibly warm and sterile surroundings. She was on oxygen, but was struggling to breathe. Her leg could not be amputated because there was not enough viable tissue to close the wound. She said fluids were leaking out of her and a scan was run and two additional puncture wounds were found on the scan. They went through her subcutaneous tissue, through the muscle, and into her stomach. At that point, I became hysterical.
She told me that Mama had so many conflicting issues, that it was just too much. I asked if she was in pain and the dr. said yes. She told me that they could try to do surgery on her to close those punctures and to start to debride some of the rotting fat, but that Mama would most likely die during surgery and if she didn't die then, she would be in additional pain and still would probably die because she was going to require surgery at least every other day, if not every day, to remove the rotting fat.
I told her that I would do a 2nd mortgage on my house to pay for this. I said that I would sell my car if it meant having enough money to pay for ANYTHING Mama needed. She was honest enough to tell me that it wasn't about the money, that it was about Mama's quality of life.
I told her that I was having trouble taking all this in. I told her that selfishly, I wanted to try every surgery possible to keep her alive, and I again asked her to tell me about the kind of pain Mama was in. She and a 2nd vet, Dr. Reinholdt, talked to me for 30 minutes and helped me make the decision to let her go to Heaven. I must have sounded like Donald Trump. I kept begging them to please just tell me the truth about what was best. I said I would bring another credit card with more credit on it if that was the problem. It was like I couldn't accept that money was not the issue.
It was the hardest decision I have ever had to make.
I can't believe my little baby is gone. I have never seen such a will to live. I can't believe that she wanted to simply be outside to enjoy the warm breezy weather we've been having and this is what it cost her. I absolutely cannot stop crying. One of my other cats, Daisie, won't leave my side. I took a shower to rinse off and help me feel better. It didn't, but it amazed me that Daisie wanted to stay with me so bad she tried to get in with me. She remained on the toilet seat the entire 20 minutes I was in there while I sobbed. She wanted me to hold her when I got out, and now 55 minutes later, she is still beside me. She knows.
My total bill is $4,000. It could have been $40,000 and I would have sold my clothes if it would have made her live another day. I continue to struggle with whether this was the right decision. I can only figure that aside from being vets, they are business people, and if more money would have been an incentive, they wouldn't have told me to have her put to sleep. They told me that even if she miraculously lived through surgery, she would have endured more pain and that her little body just couldn't handle it. They said that giving her anesthesia alone would have killed her. They told me point blank: the kind thing to do is for you to just let her go to sleep. There was just too much damage and not enough medicine in the world to repair her little body.
I begged them to please kiss her and tell her how much I loved her. I find a little comfort in knowing that her last thought before she went to heaven was how much her Mommy loved her. RIP my sweet kitty. " |  |  | |  |
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