The first year we got Shayla we noticed now and again she would sort of "gulp" for air. We asked our vet about it and they assured us nothing was wrong. We trusted that. Well a year ago we moved to Greenville, SC. From a new home to a older apartment. By older I mean one or more families had already lived in the apartment before us.

A few weeks after moving Shayla started to have these weezy breathing problems so we took her to the vet. They thought it was allergies and gave us Benadryl to give her. That did nothing for her and she slowly started to get worse. Over the next few weeks they put her on steriods twice, had a Trans tracheal wash (TTW), several minor appointments for blood samples, other cultures and many various x-rays. The vet assumed after the TTW that it was something in the environment or the apartment that triggered this, so in an attempt to help her, we took her to stay with my parents for a few weeks. Which she had stayed with many times before and never had problems. That turned out to do nothing for her. So we moved back to Charlotte NC to our house which we hadnt put on the market yet. Figuring if she was fine there and it was the environment, this should fix her up. Well several months later still nothing, we get yet another new vet who put her through the same series of miserable tests and x-rays. And were still ending up at zilch.

Four vet's later, $2500.00 in the hole, and Shayla unable to play or receive love for more than a couple minutes at a time without having to situp on all four's gagging and weezing while turning her head to and from for air. They refer us to see an Internal Medicine Specialist. And were doubtful but hopeful. The first appointment the vet seemed very much willing to do everything he could for her. And after an initial consoltation was certain she had a polyp, which could have easily been plucked right there that day. So we leave her with the specialist for the day hoping it was a polyp and that when we picked her up things would be well on their way to normal.
Well we were crushed again to learn it was not that. But he did know what the problem was.
He informed us half her trachea was paralyzed, from some unknown trama or possibly birth. The skin on the paralyzed side was getting "sucked into" the working side. Over a course of time its obviously gotten worse. We suspect the TTW probably did not help since it involved cramming a tube down her throat to insert the saline solution she had to then cough back up for the tests. But thats neither here nor there. He tells us the good news is that it is fixable. A surgery that would basically sew the skin back to the wall should do the trick. The sad part is that the price can be anywhere from $1400.00 to $2000.00. With all our moving and now paying rent + mortgage we're in a bind.

That is where you and this webpage comes into the picture. A friend on IRC (Chat Network) suggested taking donations. At first I was very put off at the idea and kind of insulted to stoop to that level. But after thinking about it for a few days I thought, he had a good point. Other cat lovers would not look at it the same way I was and so I swallowed my pride and decided to make this website. I figure. Im no worse off with it than before. At best I get a few extra dollars to get this surgery done for Shayla sooner.
The vet is fairly confident this will renew Shayla but there is a chance it may not, and the only other option will be another surgery for $1500.00 where basically the will put a hole in her neck and she will no longer breath from her nose. We are hoping it does not come to this.