About the Campaign

Surgery to Save His Eye.

A dark spot is growing on Nate’s eye. It’s called a corneal sequestrum, and he needs surgery to remove it before it gets worse.

Nate is a male Bengal, a little over a year and a half old. His owner Kathy first noticed redness around his eye back in September. She thought allergies. It came and went. By January it was getting worse. The vet thought it was a scratch, gave her drops. A few days later the vet called back after doing some research. Corneal sequestrum. A dark spot was forming. Kathy got him to a specialist six days later, and that confirmed it. He needs a procedure called a lamellar keratectomy.

The specialist thinks stress caused it. Around September, Kathy had knee replacement surgery and a friend watched Nate. Right after that, they had to leave the apartment for fumigation. That was likely the trigger.

Kathy got Nate from a friend in Arizona who rescues cats. She had lost her dog Falcon to a brain tumor, and her other cat Kiki got so depressed she needed a companion. Nate was sweet, loving, full of energy.

A vet in San Diego quoted $6500 for the surgery. We connected Kathy with MexiVet Express, which transports pets to veterinary specialists in Tijuana for a fraction of the cost. Nate is heading there today. The surgery will likely be under $2000, and we’ll update with the exact cost once we know.

Why can’t Kathy afford this? Four years ago she got COVID and almost died. Hospitalized. Lung damage. It took four years to recover. She’s a hair stylist and just recently got back to working full time. She spent $100,000 in savings just surviving. And the same day she found out about Nate’s diagnosis, her mom had a stroke.

The good news is that this surgery has a good prognosis, especially in a young cat. Nate can keep his eye and recover fully. All donations are specifically for Nate and paid directly to the veterinarian. The original US estimate is below, we will update with the lower cost once we receive it. Click to enlarge: