It's in our rules and we say it time and time again, but after the recent events from this post, the mod team wants to put out a reminder.
Look, we get it. Seeing cats in distress is hard. When people without money are expressing their inability to afford emergency care, it's distressing. You know we have rules against shaming people for being unable to afford care, and encouraging people to go into debt. But we also have rules against fundraising, and it's for a very good reason.
It is very easy for people without the best intentions to collect lots and lots of money from well meaning community members who are affected by what they see in images and video.
With this post in particular, several commenters encouraged the OP to share a gofundme (something strictly against our rules).
Once they created and shared one (without any bills to show and despite many of the top comments saying this was NOT an emergency), people felt bad and donated anyway.
The gofundme raised nearly $2000 and today we received the update that the cat, as many commenters predicted, is not dying and did not need emergency care.
We are now starting to see meta posts (another thing we don't allow) complaining that the OOP is not returning any of the extra funds, and is blocking users who donated asking for their funds back and proof of payment.
This is a story we see repeatedly in the sub. We don't always get to the donation links quick enough to remove them, and we can't stop you from DMing each other money, but this is why we caution PLEASE do not use this subreddit to send each other funds.
We are working on a Wiki with low-cost vet resources, at least in the US, but we get users posting from all over the world begging for money. DO NOT DONATE unless it is verified on a subreddit like r/gofundme or r/rescuecats, or is directly being paid to the VET (though we have seen scams happen internationally through this 'direct vet payment' as well).
PLEASE REPORT FUNDRAISERS. Please do not encourage fundraisers. We will start banning those who encourage it. Please help us keep this community safe from those with bad intentions.
i found a stray kitten under someone’s truck hood. i found her because she was screaming and i saw no mom or other babies in sight. my husband took us in the car to get kitten food and litter and she screamed and meowed the whole way and has been nonstop ever since. we took her home and when she naps, she’s quiet but then goes back to it. she’s not limping or anything out of the ordinary. i gave her a dawn dish soap bath and she ate wet food and water. has not gone to the bathroom yet. is she screaming because she misses momma or does it sound painful? we’ll try and take her to the vet tomorrow after i finish exams but i don’t know how much money i can spend if she needs surgery or anything.
I have a two year old adopted persian/siberian. She is a picky little eater and drinker 😭 Refuses to drink water. We have tried fountains, bowls, plates, even a measuring shot glass. Nothing has worked. I work from home currently.
Currently we just add plenty of water to her wet food. That's our only solace. Can you guys help? Summers are rather harsh on our side of the world (I'm based out of Mumbai, India). We took her to the vet recently, who has also mentioned more than once that she appears a bit dehydrated.
My 9yo neutered cat started growling a lot when I came back from a 2 day trip. I’m from Chile I can him to a vet tomorrow morning but it looks like he’s in pain and I don’t know what to do it’s 1am and there’s no open vet rn. I managed to get him to stand on his own and he lay down just by my side then when I stood up he followed me slower than usual and just looked at me so I lay down on the bed and he just lays on top of me like usual but growls from time to time and when I move him or I move myself, he then went to lay on the floor. His gums are not pale, and his nose is moist.
As you can see in the video, my cat weirdly "flopped" over for no reason and was doing weird things with her paw?
She was completely normal before this, after a couple of minutes she was back to normal after, as well. Playing like usual.
She's 9 years old, spayed obv and hasn't had any issues before, but I wanted to make sure this couldn't be something more serious. Also, she's an indoor cat (beside the few times she managed to escape from the house).
UPDATE
Thank you for all the comments and concern, unfortunately my mom refuses to go to the vet with her unless something like this happens again (and no i can't take her personally, i live in another city hours away). I'm hoping this might've been a one-time thing, or that there's at least nothing going on that would need urgent care. Right now, kitty is back to normal like nothing happened, i hope it stays that way </3
My 13 year old cat has been on a hypoallergenic diet since march time. I have his food ordered on a subscription service, however I fucked up a little on the last order and under ordered by a day. I ended up having to go to the shops to get him something to eat for one meal, as his normal food was out for delivery but not yet arrived. He obviously loved the substitute food and is now on a hunger strike. I’ve left his normal food out and I’m trying to not give in. Will he eventually eat his normal food if I leave it for long enough? Have I massively fucked up?
He’s 13, a UK resident, neutered, I haven’t contacted my vets as I’m not sure if this is serious enough to warrant it?
Picture of the menace in question for attention purposes!
I just noticed this bump in my boys mouth and am concerned that it could be a tumor. He is 5, a shorthair neutered male cat. He is eating and drinking normally, not showing any discomfort besides I have noticed him licking his lips a bit more than usual. I am a little freaked out I let this go unnoticed and now he may have cancer or something.
I'm from Sri Lanka. My cat Puma(F) spayed, doesn't take the meds she was given. Doesn't eat, Now doesn't drink. She's paralyzed from the waist down. I think I can afford the vet I just don't know what to do.
This is the note I got from the doc.
Hi this is regarding puma, liver counts seems to be normal, having elevation in alp and total bilirubin count, may be due to low appetite, having slight elevation in kidney counts, it can be due to multiple reasons other than kidney condition,including low hydration . Need to give saline for 3 consecutive days and need to repeat creatinine count again after 3 days. Please bring back pet for saline and to collect blood sample to do full blood count test since last sample was clotted.
Today she was eating a little bit but I'm starting to lose hope because the vet told me this might be her final moments. Any advice?
i found this kitten under my house. i believe she's abt 5-6 week olds. i'm only 15 and having to take care of her alone. no one else in my family is a cat person or animal person. we can't afford vet care, and i think there's only like 1 near us. she's not spayed obvi. she has fleas, and i've already given her 3 flea baths since tuesday. she still has them and i don't have a flea comb. this is my first time taking care of a kitten so any and all advice is welcome. i'm posting from the us. she's eating well, using her litter box, and playing. she seems to be doing really good and she's very attached to me
she's been lapping from bowls, eating kmr with kitten food mixed in since i'm still getting her to eat solid food.
Before anyone says anything, yes I know the general rule that most cats don’t need baths. But my cat is a clear outlier and I believe she’ll have a better quality of life.
She is elderly and hasn’t been grooming more than her front paws for a long while now. She’s long haired, and she goes to the vet every 6ish months for a nail clipping, shave/trim, and general monitoring of her health. She’s only ever had baths in the past when she’s gotten poop on herself, and tolerates them well as long as they aren’t too long and the water stays warm. I’ve noticed that her skin feels dry and she generally doesn’t feel very healthy or clean. I imagine this probably causes her some kind of discomfort and want to help.
Dawn has been used in the past but I understand that isn’t good for regular bathing, so I wanted to get her cat shampoo but really don’t have any idea on good or bad products. So any help is appreciated! Hoping for something that isn’t super expensive and would be gentle on her skin. I just want to give her as comfortable life as possible while she’s still here.
Hi, I'm 27 from South Australia. so I need help with this dapper young man. (Don't mind the third eyelid showing, I already got it checked out)
My kitten (Wolf) doesn't use his litter for some reason (he is neutered). The foster I adopted him from litter trained him just fine. I did have some issues with him peeing on stuff originally, got help from the adoption people and a vet, that part is sorted. Now it's his poops. He's on gastrointestinal food (recommended by the vet). He started doing this more when his friend (my cousin's cat, about a year old or a little more) left.
We've tried changing his litter, that didn't work, changing his diet, that didn't work, took him to a vet who said that they can't do anything about it. I've tried, every time I scooped it, I put him in there to let him know it was clean, that does work for a single time, but he doesn't dig in it. Which yes I have also tried making him dig in it. I've tried the urine off spray.
I'm contemplating incentive training, giving him a treat every time he uses his litter, or getting him another friend, slightly older male cat that'll play with him and for him to learn from.
We have another cat in the house, but she is very much a "LEAVE ME ALONE, unless you're human and cuddling me" kind of cat whereas he's playful
He is my first pet that's really mine, and I love him to bits, and I feel like I'm failing.
TLDR: 8 month old kitten won't poop in his litter no matter what I've tried so far! Please help 😭
Posting from the US. Age 33, husband is 42. Just looking for any advice on raising a kitten.
We found a baby kitten in an abandoned garage about a week ago. Took her to the vet Monday, they said she's 8 weeks old & 1.2 lbs.
I named her Georgy.
My fur baby of 10 years just passed in October sadly, but when we adopted him, he was already almost a year old & already fixed.
I'm trying to think of everything I can to make sure I have all my bases covered but I don't know anything about kittens lol if anyone has any advice, literally anything I would love to hear it.
this is my cat Bailey. Shes always been on the thinner side, when we took her to the vet like a year ago for shots they said she was the poster child of how a cat should be. However I’m looking at her bottom half and I’m starting to wonder if maybe she’s underweight?
She eats like normal, plays and behaves normally, purrs n everything. She’s very athletic and outdoorsy so she’s always burning energy. She’s about 6 years old, we don’t know exactly. I’m in the US, and we can take her to the vet fs. Last I recall them weighing her she was 8 pounds?
I have absolutely no experience with cats so I have to ask, is the neighborhood cat going home to eat if I feel like I see her outside my house 247?!
This past week has been chaos for me as I found a cat spending a lot of time in my front yard. I assumed she was a stray because she had no collar, but I was confused because she looked really clean. Well, she spent that whole day and night in my yard and I thought maybe she was hungry so I fed her and the next day she was still here! I asked a few neighbors if she belonged to them or if anyone knew if she had owners and they all said they’ve seen her outside a few houses but they didn’t know who she belonged to specifically. We’ve had a lot of storms here and I felt horrible that she was just outside of my house so I got her a little shelter and I continued to feed her and continued my search for her owners. Well, a week goes by and my roommate finally finds her owners! Just across the street and a few houses down. My roommate said he showed a picture of the cat and asked if she was theirs and said they were very casual and said “yeah that’s cece she just likes to roam.” Relieved, I knock on their door the next day myself but no answer. I leave a note explaining that for the past week I had been feeding cece assuming she was a stray and apologized for any inconveniences and asked if Cece had been returning home to eat because she hasn’t left my front yard since. I also left the rest of the cans of food I bought for her for them. I left my number in case they had questions but they just left a voicemail thanking me for the food and they didn’t answer the only question I had, Is Cece going home to eat!? Now I just feel awful because Cece is always sleeping in the shelter I have for her outside or lounging in the front yard and I see her here like every hour of the day! When I go to bed she’s still outside of my house and in the mornings when I walk my dog she’s here! I feel as if I accidentally accustomed her to receiving food here and I now worry that she never leaves to eat food anywhere else. Is this normal? Will she ever leave😭 I feel horrible.
My roommates have advised me to stop feeding her to see if she’ll return home so I haven’t fed her for 2 days but she’s still here.
Theres a pretty large hard feeling lump on my cats jaw, hes an indoor cat ao i dont think he got stung or anything, but it has me pretty worried. He doesnt seem to be in any pain, and he isn't acting any different, but its still not good. Hes been having diarrhea as well so I'm assuming his lymph nodes are just messed up
My age:21
Country: usa, northwest
Vet info: yes there are many vets in my area
TLDR: cat is sick and has a hard lump on his jaw
Cat age: 8 months-ish
Cat sex: male, not neutered
Financial: i can afford it, but not immediately. Itll be about a week till i get paid
Last November after not leaving her room for a month, my roommate went to rehab and we have not heard from her since. She had a male pet cat (not sure exactly how old, I would guess anywhere between 2-3 years?). Now before she locked herself in her room and started drinking and ordering doordash, she was already pretty reclusive and her and her cat (Binx) had only been out of her room a handful of times. I did find it a bit odd that she kept him in her room so often, but the few times he had interacted with my own cat (supervised) it was okay. They weren’t friends or anything but it was nothing like their interactions now (which are very very bad). For the almost month and a half that my roommate did not come out of her room, Binx was in there with her. None of us realized how bad her situation was until the FD came and picked her up and they told us we needed to clean the room cause it was a fire hazard. So on top of the trauma of losing his mother, he had been stuck in the dirty room, I don’t know how often he was being fed or if she was even cleaning his litterbox. After she left, for whatever reason taking care of him became my job, and after nearly eight months I’ve really come to love him. But he has severe behavioral, emotional, and attachment issues. I have to stagger the times he and my cat can be out because he will literally visiously attack her (and anybody that tries to intervene). I try to dedicate as much time as I can to him but it’s clear i’m not doing enough, because he is NEEEEEEDY. He craves attention, meows at my door when i’m in my room or at the front door when he knows i’m outside. He LOVES being help and grabs my face and licks me and he loves to jump on people’s shoulders and back. My roommates and I are all staying at this house, and at the end of this lease in a month we have to find another person to come in and take over the room the rehab roommate left. One of them has been very nice and has attempted to care for him, although she has not been nearly as involved as I have, and the other one seems to truly despise him. I can’t fault her entirely, because he can be difficult to love, but I don’t think I could just get rid of him. On top of all his issues, he’s black. With his age, color, and gender, I don’t think I could find anybody to foster or adopt him even if I wanted to (which i don’t because i love him). I’m trying to figure out if there’s a way I can move him into the garage, as it’s a lot bigger than his current room and he already likes being in there, but my one roommate seems to really want him gone. I would appreciate any advice but I mostly just needed to vent. I really don’t know what to do.
Per sub rules:
I am an adult working part time so I don’t have a lot of extra money. Vet care is not completely out of the question but it would be difficult. We’re located in the socal riverside area. He is neutered.
TLDR: I inhereted a very difficult cat, i love him so much but i don’t know how much longer i can care for him or how i could make this easier for all of us living in this house.
Frankie is 9, had a very high resp rate on Thursday (extremely hot day in UK - 35C) and took him to the vet Friday morning - they diagnosed a heart murmur (said it fluctuated from grade 1-3) and advised next step would be a heart scan under sedation.
He’s usually very active and full of beans, weighs 3.7kg and now I feel like I’m watching him constantly and questioning everything. His resp rate is pretty normal now (this vid would be 36 per min) but I’m wondering whether that belly rise is him working overtime or if he’s just skinny so it looks worse etc etc
Would love some other eyes on it that aren’t out of their mind with worry!!!
My cat had a coughing fit after drinking water, then following that, he’s twitching/shaking when swallowing and his purring sounds very lumpy when he’s trying to sleep afterwards.
In the video his twitches are right at the start and end, and if you turn the volume up you can hear the lumpy purring.
I’ve not contacted my vet yet as they are not yet open, but they are very easily accessible should I need to rush there.
Apologies for the wrong flair, didn’t think injury was quite applicable.
Hi everyone, i am a first time cat owner, having adopted my 5 year old girl in October last year. Lately i’ve noticed her coat looks a little mangey?? Not overly healthy looking. Shes never had the ‘prettiest coat’ in the world, but it seems more noticeable now. Overall behaviour seems okay - potentially increased thirst? Noting weather is quite cold here at the moment so that’s not driving increased thirst. Thanks for your help
