9 Lives Rescue, Inc.: Emergency Medical Grant Report

How did this grant help your organization and the pets in your care?

We are a small organization that does not often have extra money for significant medical expenses. We would never deny an animal the care it needs to live a long and happy life, but large medical expenses limit the number of cats we can help in the future, so offsetting those costs as much as possible is crucial to our mission's future.

Receiving an emergency medical grant helped Willy the most, as it allowed us to get him a very expensive but necessary procedure. He will have risks of complications for the rest of his life, but those are nothing compared to the struggles he experienced before surgery.

How many pets did this grant help?

One

Please provide a story of one or more specific pets this grant helped.

Willy was found and trapped in a small community. He had mangled front legs and an extreme fear of people. We determined he was likely another victim of animal abuse that had brought a number of other injured cats to our care, and the vet said the damage to his front legs was “consistent with a several-story fall.”

Luckily, Willy’s dedicated foster was able to spend time caring for and healing his legs so they could be used again. In the meantime, she noticed that he had very noisy and raspy breathing and so he was scheduled for a series of tests and scans on his throat.

Testing revealed that Willy had also experienced trauma to his neck during his time outside, leading to nearly full paralysis of both of his vocal cords. This would make breathing difficult on a regular day, but any time he got sick, his throat would swell and make it nearly impossible for him to take a deep breath.

Thanks to a team of dedicated surgeons and help from this grant, Willy received surgery to “tie back” one of his vocal cords, permanently holding it open to help him breathe more easily. There are lifelong risks still associated with his condition, but these can be managed.

During his multiple visits to the vet, Willy was fortunate enough to find a loving new home with one of the vet techs who took care of him. Today, he loves lying in the sun on her bed!