Bhodi’s medical costs

Hi, my name is Channa, and the sweetheart in this photo is Bhodi. Bhodi is a two year old Bengal, born 31 July 2014 and has been living in my heart and my home since I brought him home from the breeder. When his mommy was pregnant with this litter, she suffered a serious fever and had to have anti-biotics. All kittens had a bit of neurological damage when they were born, but at least for Bhodi, most of it is gone now.

When he was really young, he could not jump and would miss even the smallest distance. That is much better now, but he wants to climb so badly and he is still afraid to do that. Bhodi will remain the eternal kitten though. In the beginning it was hard for him to learn his name and the meaning of 'No", but so what if he is a slow to learn things. He gets them in the end. So now I am left with an ADHD turbo-kitty, who loves to cuddle but is too busy with everything and too easily distracted to stay very long. He has become a fly-by cuddler.

During the summer of 2016 my sweet Bhodi managed to fall from the top of the (open) stairs, falling flat on his side and damaging the ligaments that keep his kneecap in place. He had to have surgery to repair the damage.

That happened on August 12. Bhodi had his surgery and it was looking good at first. He needed some extra medication but other than that, everything looked fine.
During the second week after surgery, Bhodi started to limp again. Even though I gave him a smaller kennel, he still managed to do his daily calisthenics exercises and it isn't helping his recovery. He uses his leg too much and it is undoing the repairs that have been done.
We're going back on Monday to the vet to have him look at it, but it looks like he will have to go back in and do more repairs.Bhodi discovered his sutures Sunday night. He spent yesterday at the vet to get stitched up again. Medical pet shirts are pretty expensive so now he wore an onesie. You can see how he felt about it. Nuri almost fell over laughing when he saw Bhodi.

So a second operation was planned for September 23. Everything went well at first. His little doggy friend came to visit him the day after, so they could not play, but they were happy to see each other.

About a week and a half later we it didn't work out either. The surgeon saw him again and proposed a 3rd solution, which means he will have to be opened up again.

October 12 was the day of the third surgery. After that he just kept eating his sutures. After the first surgery he kept taking off his cone, regardless of what we did, but he got a new one now and it seems this one is not so easy to remove for him. It didn’t work out either. He is too active and keeps tearing up the surgeon’s work.

Fourth attempt on 14 November. He stayed at the vet’s for 8 weeks. He did have a limp but was able to put weight on his leg. He came home for a few days for Christmas, but had to go back after that because he tore up the sutures yet again. And this time the leg was completely bandaged, so we have no idea how he managed to do it.

He’s been home now since the middle of January, and it all looked good. But he is limping again, can’t put weight on the leg. His scar is healing nicely, just a tiny scab left. Hopefully we can take off the cone soon.

We will leave him as is for a while. He will need time to heal, to get his strength back, in his leg and overall. Then we will see how bad the limp is, and if the leg bothers him.

If it hinders him too much, we will have to make the ultimate decision and have the leg removed.

Meanwhile the bills have been adding. My vet has been really good about it and has allowed me to pay in instalments. But we are roughly at 2000Euro now, so whatever buffer I had for these medical costs is gone now.

So I am giving it another try. This site allows payments via PayPal, in addition to payments via credit card. I hope it will make it a bit easier for some to help out. I would be so grateful for any help you are able to give.