Let’s first start by introducing adorable Grayson, a 6 months kitten based in Jersey. Myself and my partner Luke took over the care of Grayson only 4 weeks ago. I received a written vets handover (one page) and verbal from the owner. Last week I took Grayson be registered at the vets and a health check prior to getting neutered and microchipped on the Tuesday. At the appointment I raised some concerns as over the two weeks of having Grayson I noticed some things that didn’t quite match up. Grayson is one of a kind. He is significantly smaller than what he should be for his age and he the clumsiest kitten I’ve ever know. He walks like he’s on a tightrope & nine times out of 10 he lands on his belly. When standing, his legs could shake. He’s either a gentle giants or has bouts of aggression, dribbles a lot, drinks a lot, the list went on. As the previous owner hadn’t mentioned any of these symptoms, we wondered whether it was Grayson settling into his new home. While at the vets Grayson wasn’t demonstrating any of these signs, so the vet decided on a blood test and using dip during surgery on Tuesday What happened next we weren’t expecting…. Graysons blood test results demonstrated high levels of creatine, phosphate and ammonium. High results in all these chemicals is suggestive of liver issues. Graysons blood test results combined with his symptoms were suggestive of a liver shunt. A liver shunt means he’s unable to remove toxins from his blood his body naturally makes as his blood isn’t filtered or cleaned through his liver. This means this toxic blood is re-directed back to his heart and pumped into his brain. This became very evident when Grayson was trying to come round from his surgery. Due to his potential liver shunt, it took Grayson >16 hours to overcome the medication from the general anaesthetic that most cats recover from within a couple of hours I then contacted Graysons previous owner and previous vets to email across Graysons previous vets records. Unfortunately, there was already concerns raised over 2 episodes where he went really weak, couldn’t stand or walk and falling off things etc - the vet ?metabolic/CNS disease. We weren’t told any of this when we took over Graysons care, and the vets notes given by the previous owner didn’t include his last appointment, there was a page missing. Grayson returned to the vets last Wednesday for a bile test - this is another test for animals with a potential liver shunt. A blood test is taken while the animal is fasted, the animal is feed, and the blood test repeated. Vets are assessing for the uptake of nutrients from his food, of which Graysons was poor. Again pointing towards a liver shunt At this point we had to make a decision, continue investigation to see whether Graysons life can be saved with surgery, or whether his shunt was inoperable. We’ve already saved this little one once, we had to continue to know we were doing the best for our fur ball Yesterday Grayson had CT scan to see whether there is only one shunt or multiple. One shunt can be treated potentially surgery which comes at a huge cost. The smaller ones cannot be treated. If left alone he will deteriorate and start seizuring. Thank god today - we have received a phone call to say Grayson case is operable. After the initial post-op care, Grayson will lead a completely normal cat life with a normal expected life span. All of his symptoms will settle. The only thing what will remain are his gleaming bright orange eyes The downside - As all this is already on his record (although we weren’t aware), his insurance isn’t covering his treatment. Vets bills up to now are sitting at a total of £1800. The cost of his surgery and after care will take this up to approximately £5k. Times are tough for us all, but we can’t help but feel the need to give Grayson a shot at a normal healthy life. Please help support us, any donation to cover even a fraction of the costs helps us significantly
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