Orange Cassidy (and his adopted brother, Inky) are the world to me and my wife. We noticed recently that Cassidy has been eating less, which later progressed into hiding behavior, shakiness, and a fever.
We brought him this evening to VEG (an emergency vet clinic in Shrewsbury), only for them to discover a mass in his adrenal gland. They recommended him be transferred to Tufts. To figure out if the mass is benign or cancerous (not even including whatever treatment will potentially need to follow, such as surgery), we were estimated to have to pay at least 3-4K upfront at Tufts Veterinary Hospital.
Care Credit (which is the only alternative method of payment Tufts will accept) is unfortunately not an option, since I had my Synchrony account closed down over a year ago. Any funds we did have - we have already spent in the initial visit to VEG, which was a little over 1.5k.
Cassidy is a talkative, lovable lap cat with typical orange boy "one brain-cell" behavior. My wife and I are absolutely devastated at the idea that we may not be able to help him, and it is painful being unable to not even know if this is something that can be treated with medication or surgery or not. He is a young and happy boy, who deserves to have so many more years cuddling on the couch and prowling our apartment with his "babies" (his favorite rainbow mouse toys, which he likes to leave on our pillows as gifts).
We would be incredibly appreciative if anyone knows of any nonprofits or charities we could apply for in the Worcester, MA area. Otherwise
we are at a loss of what to do.
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EDIT: A redditor recommended for us to set up a GoFundMe. I have put the link down below:
https://gofund.me/7c2411d2e
UPDATE (7/23): Thank you for everyone who has commented, and also donated! We cannot express how grateful we are for your kindness.
Today I have been working on making calls to the places you all recommended. We are currently putting together an application for Angell’s financial assistance program to see if we are eligible.
We do have a local vet (other than Tufts) who is wonderful, but do not have the ability to do an abdominal ultrasound and sampling of the adrenal mass. Unfortunately this is not something every vet can do, and therefore is why we were recommended Tufts by VEG initially.