Hey all. I’m starting a GoFundMe page for Onion’s medical bills. The whole story is posted on the link here, but I’ll also put it under the cut just incase you may miss it some how…
THE STORY:
Hello. My name is Caitlin (Yoshi) Killough. Last week a devestating occurence happened to one of my fuzzy babies.
The victim of this story, is my ferret, Onion.
I have had him and his little sister Marshmellow for two years now.
They mean the world to me. And I go out of my way to do/give them the best I can. Feeding them a balanced raw nutritious diet, making sure they have plenty of love, play time, and treats. And I try to have them roam outside of their cage as much as possible while supervising them. In that short amount of time, we’ve traveled from New Mexico, to New York, and now Oregon. They are my family, and I never will leave them behind.
Last week is when the horrible occurence took place. Onion was having problems going to bathroom that night. It was the first time I had noticed it, but just assumed he was consipated. I gave him some water (which he drank and played in) , and a tablespoon of pumpkin puree (which can be used for constipation in ferrets in small amounts). When I awoke the next morning, I knew something wasn’t right. He was still attempting to go to the bathroom every 5 minutes. He was clearly straining from contracting his muscles all night. And he was very, very tired. I picked him up, and noticed how tight his belly seemed. He whimpered.
Immedeatley me and my fiance went to the closest vet…
It was 7:00am, so they had just opened. However they told me that no doctor had arrived yet. And worse yet they only saw cats and dogs. They referred me to another place nearby, but took 20 minutes to get to in traffic. DoveLewis Emergency Animal Hospital. We checked in quickly, but they deemed him stable enough for me to fill out paper work before they saw him. I told DVM Katherine Earl,
“I think there is a blockage of some kind.”
The doctor performed a simple examination. She said that ferrets rarely ever become constipated. That the fullness seemed to be in his bladder. She told me they don’t usually perform on ferrets, seeing as they were more experienced with cats and dogs, but graciously still offered further examination and possible treatment… with the cost of it being steep, and just as expensive. She was very kind and up front with me, as well as the women at the front desk giving me a large list of places that did specialize in ferrets. But just having that simple emergency examination and giving him some pain medication had cost me $139.69.
From there, my fiance had to leave for work, so I was forced to wait with Onion at the Animal Hospital for a Lyft ride.
We had to go to the next town over at Southwest Animal Hospital. At least there they speacialized in ‘exotic’ pets and pocket pets. After filling out a very detailed form, they took my Onion and begun the examination. After some X-rays, and my go ahead, the DVM Mark Burgess showed me what the issue was.
It was a blockage of sorts, but in his bladder and urethrea. He had bladder stones. Large ones. And male ferrets apparently cannot pass them. His urine was literally being backed up into his bladder and was on the brink of bursting. The cause of these bladder stones?
Peas.
After moving to Portland we were very tight on money, so I had decided to temporarily switch my ferrets to Marshall’s Premium Ferret Food for awhile.
The doctor expressed to me how deathly they are, and how multiple petitions and customer complaints had gotten other company’s to remove peas from their ingredient list. Apparently the largest company in ferret breeding and nutrition SOME HOW didn’t get this memo. Thus I had been serving my poor babies a death sentance.
They had to do emergency surgery. The only grace I had received payment wise was that they miraculously had zero surgeries to perfrom that day due to multiple cancelations. Because of this they were able to wave the emergency fee (which apparently was also substantial). I had to pay a deposit before hand of a percentage. It cost $605. $382 of it was thankfully saved to be put towards the final cost of the surgery.
After 2 hours of surgery, he was out. This is what they found:
These are the stones they extracted. The size of nerd candies. He had to stay over night for examination, and I got an unfortunate call from the doctor explaining how everything that could go inconvenient in the surgery, had. So… this raised the price.
I went back the next day to pick up my brave boy and bring him back home after paying the final bill. Of $1463.50.
They could not allow me a payment plan due to people lying and ducking out of their bills in the past. And I wasn’t eligable for the veterinary payment card I had applied for. So without hesitation, I payed it all and depleted the entirity of my bank account. It has been 5 days since than. And Onion is in recovery mode.
He has 4 different medicines to take, and cannot hang out with his sister until his 18 sutures from the surgery are removed in the next on coming nine days.
He and his sister are needless to say on different ferret food perscribed by the doctor. Natural Gold Ferret Food. But as I’ve stated, we are completely broke after dropping a total of $2206.19. Not evening costing the amount of money I was not able to make due to missed work for these two days.
I don’t want to ask for more money than I need. I just want to be able to live with my fiance and my two wonderful ferrets in pain-free peace. And now with the threat of losing my job, I cannot risk doing nothing.
THE REWARDS:
Like many of you I do my best to make an honest living for myself and my family. So I am prepaired to work to reward those who donate to our cause.
For those who submit $15 or over, they receive a free print of my sweet little Onion as a thank you. It will also be hand signed, and mailed right to your door.
For those willing to spend $50 or over, I will graciously do a thank you digital art commission of a bust of their own pet.
that, is the entirty of our story. I am potentially jobless by the middle of this month and would perfer to be able to support my family until than doing whatever I can. I do have a couple of potential interviews, but I need to cover every base I can think of. Having the funds to atleast recover from these medical bills will give me a chance to look for more work and be able to provide food and shelter for my family.
So please, share this with ferret lovers, pet sympathizers, Marshall haters, or just ANYONE and EVERYONE you can think of. Any support you can offer, even a dollar will go MILES in helping us. One dollar for us, is 30 loads of fresh clean ferret bedding!! So please don’t consider even such a tiny amount as insignificant. Even your thoughts, and words are go so far. Just reblogging and sharing. Please, please share this story with those you love.
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Urgent update: my lease is up on Monday and despite constant searching, I have been unable to find an affordable place to live, so I am having to stay at a hotel close to work until I find a home. I also have no one to help me move, so I have no choice but to hire movers to help me get my things to a storage shed.
I am very low on funds. Due to my insurance throwing a fit over my dosage of Lexapro, I had to pay out of pocket for 7 days of pills and it cost me 65 dollars. Between paying the last of my rent and my last round of bills and insurance, my funds are in dire straits. I need at least 200 to move this weekend and check in to my hotel.
Any help is greatly appreciated!
Hi there everyone! $200 is the minimum goal – but let’s be a little more specific. The current total saying $70 is wrong, that’s from last month and October combined. To hit $200, that page really needs to be saying $270. $1000, though? That’s a stretch goal. That’s a fancy goal. That’s the ‘move into the next apartment and be able to eat’ goal.
Did you know that if you occasionally have migraines, and you have to live with people who smoke weed all the time, and you yourself don’t smoke weed, that your migraines will get worse? Because it’s a thing that makes the blood vessels in your brain expand – most migraine meds make them contract, that’s why you get them with caffeine in them. Passive smoking, not active.
Nik went from having a migraine once every month or so, to typically twice during the working week. Every week. For the whole year. Coincidentally, his roommates decided they’d start smoking weed really really frequently.
These aren’t just ‘bit of a headache’ things, they’re the kind of migraine that mimic the effects of a stroke. Every once in a while docs get him into an MRI to make sure it’s not a series of strokes, just in case. Literally half his body becomes incapacitated.
Plus the weekend migraines, and the postdrome (that’s when the migraine has finally gone, but you’re left feeling tired and drained and everything. Think like the moments after you’ve thrown up when you’re sick. You’re shaky and drained and you hurt even though the thing that was causing you pain is out).
For this whole year, he’s missed an (this is a low-estimation) average of 1.5 nights of work per week, due to migraines. That’s 73.5 nights, or ten and a half weeks of paid work. I think he’s gone one single pay period without needing to take a night off work due to migraines, this entire year.
To add insult to injury, here’s what’s happened this year:
Car 1 died. Ignition wouldn’t go, and the cylinders were on their way out for a while anyway. It costs $250/week for Uber and Lyft rides for Nik to get to work ($25 each way), in a place with no public transport. Finding a replacement car took a bit over three weeks. That’s >$750 in transport in the meantime to get a car which cost another… I think it was $550. My figures may be slightly incorrect, it’s been a long year. This event wiped out all the savings he’d made throughout the previous year.
Nik had to file for FMLA. That means that he can’t be fired for taking nights off work because he has a migraine (maximum two nights per week). That also means that unlike a sick night, he doesn’t get paid for the night off. Just in time too; his work performance review was glowing, but the number of his absences due to illness was noted as high (though this was mitigated by his already having filed the paperwork for FMLA).
A surprise student loan through the VA, about which he didn’t know, which he shouldn’t have been required to pay as it should have been covered under the GI bill, but the person starting it out out had filed him as ‘spouse’, rather than ‘served’ and refused to change it, suddenly fell due. Nik had to pay that at $92/pay. This also ate his entire tax return.
When the above surprise loan was finally dealt with, another student loan, which he’d been paying off, decided that $10/month wasn’t enough, and automatically deducted from his bank account the entirety of that fortnight’s pay (the night he got paid), and all his savings from the year to that point. The company said they did this because it was less than $500 and therefore they could. This was done without prior authorisation.
Nik called his car insurance company to arrange a late payment (late as in a couple of days after when it’s due, but within the company’s payment grace period) because his money had essentially been stolen per above. The insurance company agreed to accept money after his next pay, a few days from that point. Nik was pulled over by a cop and charged with not having insurance on his car, during those few days. The judge who heard this case, despite being presented with proof provided by the insurance company of the phonecall having taken place, and with proof of current insurance fully paid, gave Nik a several hundred dollar fine for ‘failing to maintain financial responsibility’.
Someone started deliberately laying nails in Nik’s apartment parking space. He lost a tyre to this and has started checking his parking space before leaving, and before parking there when he gets back, and has found a number of nails and screws, all sticking upwards, all placed where tyres go.
Another tyre blew on the freeway, which wrecked car number 2. That was another >$500 for interim transport, plus the cost of car number 3 (another several hundred dollars), which- -has turned out to have a vastly faulty transmission and shouldn’t have been able to be sold. This car is not going to last. He’s going to spend all next year saving up to replace it.
And now this moving thing. This moving thing was expected. It’s the only thing on this list which was expected. This entire year, Nik’s been saving for two things: Moving, and Attending his best friend’s wedding. That’s it. And he has not got enough money for moving, let alone attending the wedding. It’s breaking his heart that he can’t go to his BFF’s wedding, but thankfully she understands. That’s in a few days, and he can’t go.
The lease on his current apartment is up two days before his next pay. Two days. I don’t want him lifting his desk and getting injured (again – he’s already injured himself this week lifting a box full of medical textbooks), let alone his bed. His friends and coworkers have other commitments and are unable to assist.
What you can do to help: Reblog. Maybe give a dollar or two if it’s within your budget to help at all. Anything.
Would you please be Obi-Wan Kenobi, and help him?
holy fucking shit. Throw a dollar at this dude, everyone, and we’ll have him covered. ❤
Okay so I’m sure you’ve all heard of the quiet place project. Well if not I am going to tell you because it has stopped me from doing serious damage more than once.
This gem right here is where you can literally create a 100% anonymous username and just absolutely spill your guts. Then people can read it and give you advice, and it honestly is so helpful. Because the other people on it are in the same situations as you, and they understand. You can comment and give advice on other peoples posts too, and it’s just really great.
This little beauty is similar to the comfort spot. Except instead of posting your thoughts, you type them into the box and then when you press enter they disappear and turn into stars against the blue sky. There is a whole bunch of different languages to choose from at the start, so if English is not your first language then you can probably find it here. There is the most comforting music that plays in the background as well, which is so great.
Which is so good for panic related things because it silences all of your other tabs and when you make it full screen it talks to you very calmly and then literally forces you stop for just 30 seconds and do nothing and just breathe.
Okay, so this is my actual favourite, it’s called the dawn room
The dawn room is so great for stopping you from self harming. It begins by telling you that its going to be alright, then it asks you to write something about someone you love. After that messages from other people, just like you, appear on the screen, one after the other, and the background slowly become brighter and happier. This page has genuinely stopped me from hurting myself more times than I can count. I’m not suggesting that it will work for everyone, but it is an absolute gem.
This page runs for about 5 minutes, and it is basically a typing simulator that tries to convince you that everything is going to be alright. It is very calming, and good for lonely times.
I can honestly say that this website has done me so so much good. I appreciate it with every bit of my being.
please reblog
this sounds so lovely
I love this
if you wanna help people, please.
reblog it.
So I reblogged (rebloged?) it before using, and now that I used I can say.
Hey what the fuck happened to all the net neutrality coverage
This shit is still happening people, and all of the sudden its disappeared from my dash almost entirely over night
I don’t know why, but I think people are automatically being unfollowed from the Net Neutrality tag. It happens to me every time I try to follow it. I’ll follow the tag, come back 20 minutes later & I’ll for some reason have unfollowed the tag automatically. I think this may be happening to a majority of people in an attempt to silence the resistance. Please take a screen shot of this post in case it gets deleted.
hey yeah can yall reblog this cause this is very important. Tumblr is ACTIVELY trying to silence out outrage at this by making us incapable of seeing coverage of events. We’re all gonna have to come together and step up about this.
Every little note counts, spread the word, dont give in so easily
I just checked this and i can CONFIRM that tumblr AUTOMATICALLY MAKES YOU UNFOLLOW THE NET NEUTRALITY TAGS AFTER 20 MINUTES
Please spread the word! Screen shot this post just in case it gets deleted!!
There is a reason that happens. Tumblr is OWNED by Verizon who is a leader in throwing money at getting rid of Net Neutrality. They have spent literally millions to bring it down so that they can charge you more, slow down your internet and block you from sites they do not deem appropriate. Keep sending in letters, emails and making phone calls. IF you post about it ADD links for FS!
I see people making posts about what will happen if net neutrality is killed, and I wanted to add to that by showing how the fandom side of the internet would be affected.
You’ll have to pay extra to catch up to your favorite shows. The usage of streaming services such as Netflix and Hulu will require fees.
The usage of Tumblr will require extra fees. It’ll make it harder for fans to connect with each other.
Fanfiction writers like me won’t be able to post our work without paying. That means that we can’t read others’ work either.
You want to stay tuned in to what your favorite celebrity is doing online? Sorry, you’ll have to pay.
If the bill to take away Net Neutrality passes on December 14, you’ll have to pay to stay in contact with all the friends you’ve met online through your fandoms.
If you’re not able to afford increasing rates, you’ll be cut off from everything you love about books, tv shows, movies, and more.
That’s why I’m urging you to take action. If you are part of a fandom on here, we need to join forces with each other and advance as a family to fight this. This sounds super cheesy, but I don’t care of you’re a Superwholockian, a Potterhead, a Star Wars fan, a Star Trek fan – we need to put our differences aside and fight for the right to keep enjoying what we enjoy.
Hell, if you’re not in a fandom, fight for your own rights to the internet, to this unique website.
If you can’t help out, signal boost this and spread it everywhere.
I’ve also reached out to Misha Collins on Instagram, providing him with information and asking him if he can help spread the word. It seems futile, but we need all the help we can get. If you feel comfortable with it, try talking to your favorite famous people to ask them to help spread the word as well.
Ways to help:
This is a link to a petition. The goal is 300,000 signatures and we are nearly there. International users, you can help here too!
We only need to convince one of the three people below to change their vote to ‘No.’ Be smart, formal, and respectful in your emails. If we are rude, we’re no better than them. Check out the net neutrality tag on the explore page to find letter templates that people have put up.
Ajit Pai – Ajit.Pai@fcc.gov
Michael O’Rielly – Mike.ORielly@fcc.gov
Brendan Carr – Brendan.Carr@fcc.gov
You can also text “RESIST” to 50409, which is a bot that will help you fax a letter to your senators. Remember: smart, formal, and respectful.
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