Cw: Animal health, amputation, cancer

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Hello everyone. I’ve got an update about my cat, Jelly, and his surgery situation. As a refresher of the events, Jelly has a lump on his left hind leg that has been present for about a year. The vet attempted surgery last year, but he developed a sudden heart murmur and his breathing slowed too much to be safe while undergoing anesthesia, so the surgery was suspended until deemed necessary. I was told to monitor the leg mass, and if it showed any changes we would reassess at that time. Jump to earlier this month, when it became apparent that the mass was suddenly and rapidly growing in size, and he could no longer walk on the leg. I took him in to run tests and it was confirmed that the lump contained abnormal tissue, essentially cancer.

I took him in again after raising $500 for the full blood work, heart scan and X-ray examination, and the results are as follows:

High levels of an enzyme were found in his blood which indicate the abnormal tissue is not isolated to just the mass, but is also present in his bone. There were no signs that the abnormal tissue is present anywhere else in his body, it is apparently isolated to just the hind left leg. The rest of his body is very healthy, and his right hind leg should be able to comfortably support him. The heart murmur is a 50/50 issue, there is no telling if it will present a problem during the next surgery, or if it will be dormant that day. They can do a preliminary heart scan before the anesthesia to assess the risk.

All of this together means - Surgery is possible, we know ahead of time to go forward with amputation of the leg, rather than risking removing only the mass and having it grow back, and the rest of his body should be healthy while he lives a hopefully long life.

Objectively, this is good news. The situation went from terrifyingly hopeless to actually possible recovery. I… still find it difficult to celebrate. I have a lot of mixed feelings knowing my cat is about to lose his leg, with no way to communicate this to him beforehand. I’m scared something will go wrong during surgery, or anesthesia. I’m worried he won’t recover post-surgery and there will be complications. Please understand that if I don’t sound over the moon about this news, it’s because of these things, and not because I don’t want to help him. I’m just very scared for my little guy and what kind of life he might live after this.

So, all that said, we move on to the big old stumbling block of cost and time. The vet recommended I try not to wait more than a month to get this procedure done, since there is a risk the abnormal tissue will spread to other parts of his body in that time. The cost of the procedure is $2,200. This includes the pre-surgery heart scan, the surgery, and pain medication for afterwards.

To raise this money, I’ll be doing everything I can think of, and if anyone has suggestions for how to raise more, like donation incentive ideas or the like, I would love to hear them! Straight up donations are of course very welcome, and anything you can give, even a single dollar, brings me one step closer to this goal. I will be working on commissions in my queue, to open room for more, as well as holding weekly stream commission days where I take orders and deliver them the same day. I’m still brainstorming other ideas about what else I can do, and will post another journal with those details by tomorrow night.

Thank you all for reading, for your support so far, and most of all for the kind words and condolences. This has been incredibly painful to go through already, and I don’t anticipate it being any easier for the next little while. If you can’t donate, it’s okay; leave me a little kindness and that will be just as welcomed, with gratitude.

TL;DR My cat is able to undergo surgery, and needs his leg amputated or he’ll die slowly. It costs $2,200 to do this, and I have until the last week of April.

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