Please bear with me as this is a little bit of a story. I am going to tell you the story of Z and I am also going to tell a story of a little bit about what I do. I have attached the official estimates and his previous vet history.
Zafir means “victorious” in Arabic.
Medical issues:
This is Zafir, or Z as we call him. He is almost 3yrs old now. He has quite an extensive medical background. I met Z at Jax Humane Society in Jacksonville FL. He had just had his FOURTH entropion eye surgery. Z has what we call severe eyelid agenesis. He is missing about 75% of his upper eyelids. Entropion surgery is where cat’s eyelids (that they do have) start curling inwards and the eyelashes start rubbing his cornea. He has had FOUR surgeries to correct this specific issue (and it is STILL not corrected). Z cannot see very well, it is presumed that he can see shadows but that is about the extent of what he can see. I have advocated since I met him to do a double enucleation to help him. I have seen two specialist (same hospital and same appt) that said that they will not do enucleation because he is also a CH cat (meaning he has cerebral hypoplasia, which is also known as wobbly cat). If we were to do a double enucleation, his primary vet and specialists (and a few other vets he has seen) believe that he could potentially need to be put down, as what vision he does have helps him with his wobbliness. He has face and neck tremors with his wobbliness, and if he gets too excited or anxious, he will start spinning in circles. This, unfortunately, is not the end of what I know about him. I am his fourth (and last) adoption, he will be with me till he dies. The first two people who adopted him, returned him. The last person before me that adopted him threw him outside with a non-breakaway collar on. This ultimately led to the collar getting embedded in his mouth and around his head. So, he has had four entropion surgeries, CH, permanent scarring on his mouth from an embedded collar and been in and out of the shelter for his whole life. Not relevant but he was also a cryptor-child as a baby. Yes, he is a mess.
Currently, he must have eye drops put in his eyes at absolute minimum of 2x/day but needs to be as often as possible. He cannot blink or close his eyes all the way. He constantly has light in his eyes. He also takes trazodone and gabapentin 2x/day for pain and anxiety. Pain from his eyes and anxiety because of his eyes as well. He has recently started stalking and attacking my other cats, which I strongly believe is because of the pain he goes through every day with his eyes. He has started getting around his eyes shaved and eyelashes plucked by my vet every few months (he is put under anesthesia for this). He also gets the corners of his mouth shaved in this procedure as well. This is done at my primary vet. Due to him not being able to blink and constant issues with his eyes, it is also very very easy for him to get eye infections, so he does have antibiotic eyedrops at all times for if/when this happens.
This fundraiser is to raise up enough money to get the reconstructive eye surgery that he desperately needs. The surgery that the two surgeons are wanting to do is called a lip to lid surgery. This is going to be a little difficult as the corners of his mouth already have permanent damage. (There is an alternative surgery that would work but it is not something that is ideal.) The lip to lid surgery is where they take the corners of his mouth and graft it on to be his upper eyelid. Just to add, after his eye surgery he is going to need to do cryotherapy to freeze off the fur on the graft and freeze his eyelashes off. This will be months, or a year after his reconstructive eye surgery. If this fundraiser gets above what the goal is, all of the extra will go to future vet visits for him (including the future cryotherapy appts and follow up appts with the opthamologist).
A little bit about me. My roommate and I do rescues. We specialize in seniors and special needs animals. We have quite a lot of animals. I am in the process of getting my LLC to be able to officially get a name out there for my sanctuary. But this is what we do, and it is a love and passion that we have. The major thing that I am trying to build up for my sanctuary is education. The education for people to learn how to care for special needs animals and seniors. As well as just general education for the population on any animal.
My sanctuary email is mrjimssanctuary@gmail.com if you would like to reach out with any questions or comments.
Thank you for everything! <3
