About the Campaign
Bella is a sweet senior kitty, with a severe medical condition now under control. But the monthly cost of her prescription diet and medication is more than her senior mom can afford on her limited income.
She has been stable from irritable bowel syndrome for more than a year on a strict prescription diet and supplements, and her vet at Animal Medical Center in San Jacinto says she needs to stay on them for life, with bloodwork once a year to monitor her condition. The diet and supplements cost $200.20 a month. The annual bloodwork is $440. Her owner Bonnie is 79, lives on Social Security alone, and cannot keep payingn her income of only $1500 a month.
Bella’s illness started in 2022 with severe bloody diarrhea, vomiting, and episodes where she screamed in pain. It took many vet visits, several of them emergency visits, to get an answer. She was finally diagnosed with IBS in early 2024 and started on Hill’s z/d dry food and Royal Canin Selected Protein wet food, plus Cosequin, FortiFlora probiotic, and a B12 supplement. On that regimen she is thriving. Off it, she gets sick again. There is no cure, only management, and management is expensive.
Bonnie took Bella in at four months old from a family who kept her outside because the mother was allergic. Bonnie asked if she could have her, and they agreed. Bella has been her cat for nearly 12 years.
Bonnie’s only income is a $1,568 monthly Social Security check. She rents a bedroom in a friend’s house in Hemet. The two years of diagnosing Bella’s illness cost more than $14,000, all of it on credit cards, and she pays about $500 a month toward that debt. Most months she runs out of money before the month does and puts groceries on the same cards.
Bella is one of the good outcomes: a sick cat who got a diagnosis and a treatment that works. Donations will cover Bella’s prescription food and supplements at about $200 a month, and her annual bloodwork at Animal Medical Center, paid only to the veterinarian for Bella’s care and prescriptions.
