What a day...

So today I decided to let Lunchbox out of his bathroom prison/recovery room and let him walk around my room a bit. However, he had a much different idea of what he wanted to do. He slowly walked over and crawled under my bed. Normally this wouldn't be a problem I would just grab him and pull him out, but he decided to crawl to the dead center of the bed far out of my reach. I tried a variety of retrieval methods such as pushing him with the broom, making chirpy noises, and offering him pets. He just stayed there like a rock, refusing to budge. I ended up lifting up the mattresses, which was a sight to see as I am very small and also clumsy. I had to carefully pick him up and set him down while holding up a very heavy box spring. I was pretty proud of myself. After all that work I sit down to feed him and he beings vomiting. He has been throwing up so much the last two days, I am really getting worried about him. He even throws up between feedings now, which doesn't seem like a good sign.

Tomorrow morning he goes back into the vet for a physical and to have his blood work ran again. I am very nervous about his results as his ears are much more yellow than before and while more alert, he is also vomiting a lot more. It is really started to wear on my ability to try to feed him when he keeps getting sick. I feel so bad seeing him retch and be in pain.

I am going to send out personal thank you letters to all those who donated, so if you donated and would like the card shipped to a different address than the one listed on paypal, please send me an e-mail: bleachedshirt@yahoo.com.

I am sorry I don't have any new pictures today he has been throwing up a lot and I don't really want to bother him more than I have to.

Cannot say thank you enough!

Wow I just got flooded with donations! This is amazing. I am almost in tears, thank you all so much for your generosity. I'll post new pictures and a full update after I finish his feeding.

<3

Another day

So another day of long feedings and frustration roll by. Every 6 hours I have to prep and feed Lunchbox this process takes about 40 minutes to an hour. We have him up to about 45mL of food slurry every feeding. We've also been trying to give him little snack type meals in between with his medications. He is looking a lot brighter today, though he is still very nauseous.

Sorry this post is so short, it has been a very very long day for me. A better update with photos tomorrow.

Thanks to those who have donated! The funds you've provided will almost completely pay for his next panel of blood work which will be ran on Monday.

Save Lunchbox Begins!

Hello, my name is Sarah I'm a 23 year old college student and I've created this blog in order to raise money for and share the story of my cat Lunchbox.


Lunchbox is a 3 year domestic short hair that was adopted from the Oregon Humane Society about a year ago. His favorite activities include lounging, meowing, eating, defending the house from spiders, and flopping on the floor to receive pets.

Usually a voracious eater, Lunchbox developed an upper respiratory infection while I was visiting my b/f in Seattle and suddenly completely lost his appetite. Because I have two kitties, it was impossible for my kitty sitters to know that Lunchbox had not been eating. When I returned home from my trip Lunchbox was looking sick, so I took him to the vet who diagnosed his URI and sent us home with some antibiotics and appetite stimulants. However, the next day he was looking much worse, very lethargic and sad. We brought him back and they ran some blood work, that is when we got the bad news that the vet suspected he was suffering from Feline Hepatic Lipidosis.

Upon hearing and processing the news, I immediately took Lunchbox to the emergency clinic with a specialization in internal medicine. The doctor checked him in and put him on IV fluids, they discussed our options, and recommended a series of tests and treatment which would result in a $2,700 dollar vet bill just for a 48 hour period. We were not able to run the diagnosis tests due to the large costs, we did however decide to treat the most likely cause of his liver failure Feline Hepatic Lipidosis. Lunchbox had a feeding tube surgically implanted and spent 3 days on IV fluids. When his liver levels had improved slightly the second day we felt hopeful, but over the next two days he showed very little improvement. Being that it costs $250 dollars a day for 24 hour monitoring, tube feeding, and IV fluids we decided to bring him home and try caring for him ourselves.

Lunchbox has since incurred a rather large vet bill, over $2,500 dollars. He still isn't doing well with the tube feeding, and often vomits after/during being fed. We brought him in after the first couple times he couldn't keep his food down and they switched him to a new food and upped his anti-nausea medication. Unfortunately he still cannot keep this food down and is beginning to get weaker and weaker from lack of nutrition, esp the dietary colesterol that his body needs in order to reverse the Feline Hepatic Lipidosis. The vet recommends that we run more tests in order to determine for sure that he is suffering from Feline Hepatic Lipidosis. Here is where we need your help.

I cannot afford the liver biopsy/ultra-sound, the total just for the procedure and post care is about $700 dollars. I am going to update this blog daily with photos and stories of Lunchbox's battle for survival. If his diagnosis confirms that it is Feline Hepatic Lipidosis, he has a 90% chance of recovery if we are able to continue aggressive treatment via tube feeding calories into him. If it is something else we will be able to take appropriate measure to insure his recovery the best we can.

By clicking the button below you can send donations directly to me through my Paypal account. All proceeds will be going directly to the care of Lunchbox, if there is any extra-money after all is said and done it will be donated the the Oregon Humane Society.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and for your generous donations.