I found tapioca last friday, february 16th 2018, by the side of the road while coming out of my internship.
He was really weak, barely moving. I took him to the vet and they told me his temperature was 34ºC (93.2F) when the normal body temperature for cats is around 38ºC (100,4F). The vet also told me that he has a broken femur, is extremely malnourished and dehydrated. This is him on the day he was found (i’m a terrible photographer i’m sorry):
He’ll need surgery, but there’s no way he can undergo it while in this state. I need to nourish him back to health so he can be in conditions to make it out of the surgery and have a good recovery.
He’s already feeling much better. These are some pictures of his progress:
Taking care of Tapioca is costing me a lot and it’s going to cost me a lot. I never asked for money online before but I really want to help him get better. He needs to undergo surgery as fast as possible because the vet told me today that his injuried bone is too pointy and there’s a risk it might perfurate through the skin and become and exposed injury. He also told me that Tapioca has really good chances of recovering completely of his injury.
I’ve been nursing him and giving him special food for animals who suffer from anorexia and he’s already so much better.
I don’t get paid a lot and I’m still in college, my mom can’t work anymore because of her breast cancer so she’s receiving help from the government that goes directly into her medicine, treatments and transportation.
Down below I’ll list my expenses so far wih Tapioca in BRL (Brazilian Reais) and put the amount in dollars on the side with the conversion rate as it is today, february 20th 2018. I”ll try to offer as many receipts as I can, but some of them I don’t have. If someone needs them, you can contact me and I can try and get them with the vets that took care of him.
PS: I had to take a cab because I ended up 13km (8.07 miles) away from home to take him to the right vet clinic where they had a specialist who wouldn’t charge me the full price. We can’t take pets on the subway and I had no idea where I could take a bus from there since I had never been on that part of town before.
Day 2:
Vet: 80 BRL = 24.5680 USD
Special food (4 cans to last me around 2 weeks): 79 BRL = 24.2609 USD
This is the food I bought as reccomended by the vet:
Estimated expenses for the upcoming vet visit, exams, x-ray and the surgery are around 550 BRL = 168.9050 USD, that’s more than half of my monthly income.
Vaccines and neutering: 390 BRL = 119.8080 USD
All my expenses with Tapioca will amount to approximately 1233 BRL = 378.7776 USD, more than my monthly salary.
I would REALLY appreciate it if anyone could lend me a hand. I’m doing it on PayPal because I honestly have never done anything like this before so I have no idea which sites are recommended for doing so. (my paypal e-mail: pirpurian@gmail.com)
Anything you want to know, anything you need me to tell you before you make any donation please feel free to ask me and I’ll explain everything the best way I can. My English is a bit wonky but I’ll do my best to do so.
This is him today:
He’s around 2 months old, a complete daredevil and a sweetheart. I have two other cats that are getting used to him. I look forward to having him with me for many, many years. Thank you, everyone for taking the time reading this.
Hey everyone! Quick update before I have the time to sit down and make a proper update with receipts and more pictures.
First of all, thank you SO MUCH for spreading the word and for the people who donated!!!!! I got 300BRL which helped me a lot with the food and vet expenses, and because of that money I was able to get his x ray exam that he needs for the surgery. I’ll post it here when I have the time to translate it all so you can all understand what it’s saying (I know I had a hard time understanding and it is my lenguage lmao).
Tapioca is doing amazing. A friend of my friend got me some kitten food and he’s eating a LOT, he’s gaining weight and he’s playing around just like a normal kitten! I really love him and I’m so happy to see his improvement!!!
My mom will go to the orthopedist on Monday, that’s the only day we could manage to get there and then I’ll know more about his surgery and how much it’s going to cost me.
Thank you all so much for caring, thank you to the people who donated and to the ones who couldn’t donate but spread the word, it means a lot to me and Tapioca. Here, have a picture of him taken in one of the rare moments he wasn’t moving around like a lunatic:
Hey everyone!
On Friday, March 2nd my mom took Tapioca back to the vet to see the orthopedist. Tapioca was immediately admitted to surgery because his bone was starting to solidify all the wrong ways. He was admitted at 10am and the doctor said he would be ready to leave at 6pm. We paid for the surgery and it turned out it cost more than what previously stated. Keep in mind this was the cheapest clinic I could find, another clinic I got in touch with told me his surgery would cost around 2.8kBRL. We paid 900BRL.
APASFA is the association of veterinarians where he had his surgery. Because it is an Association they are able to charge way less than other conventional clinics, and because it is an Association the way you pay for surgeries is different. I paid 400BRL to APASFA and 500BRL to Renato Marques, the orthopedist responsible for Tapioca’s surgery.
As of today, March 6th people donated me a total of 601BRL and a 1kg pack of kitten food. This amount has helped me a lot and I have no words to say how much I’m thankful for everyone who took their time to care about Tapioca and decided to donate a bit of their money to me. I thank you all so much for trusting me, too. I owe all of this to the kind strangers and to my amazing friends who helped me get Tapioca’s word around.
I would like to update the expenses I’m having with him and update the total.
on my OP I said :
Estimated expenses for the upcoming vet visit, exams, x-ray and the surgery are around 550 BRL = 168.9050 USD, that’s more than half of my monthly income.
The real price of the x ray was 130BRL and the surgery was 900BRL, which amounted to 1030BRL = 316.30USD (I’m using the conversion rate of February 20th to keep it in the same range value.)
My old total in USD was 378.78, or 1233BRL. My new total is 526USD, or 1712BRL. That’s way more than my monthly income.
Up to today I was able to get 601BRL (or 184,56USD) in donations, which leaves me with a total of 1111BRL or 341,18USD left in expenses with him.
If anyone else wants to donate I would be so thankful. But if you can’t, just a reblog is already a big help. Also, please feel free to PM me, I’ll answer any questions you have regarding this, and I’ll send you all the Tapioca pictures you want! lol.
Again, thank you all so much for helping me. I’ll leave you now with some photos of post op Tapioca.
He literally acts like there’s no bone broken in his body. I cannot wait to see what a absolute huge darewdevil he will be once he’s completely healed lmao send help.
I love him so much and I really really have no words to express my gratitude to all of you who cared about him.
Hey everyone!
This sweet and awesome artist @cantflyup offered to do a sketch to the people that donate to Tapioca! If you donated and you want one sweet sketch from her, let me know and I’ll tell her!! She just asked everyone to be patient as it might take a while since she has work and is currently taking comissions (which, check them out!!!).
I never thought I would get this much support online, thank you so much for everyone who donated, rebloged and who helped in any other way they could, and thank you for cantflyup for offering to do something nice to the people who donated!
I’ll take the opportunity to update on Tapioca. He went to the vet today to take his bandages and in 10 days he will go back to the surgeon to remove the stitches and check up on his leg!
His surgery scar healed really well, it’s all clean and well closed. He’s in a bit of pain but he’s a really tough baby. He’s asleep if now so I wasn’t able to take a lot of pictures, but here’s the one I managed to take when he fell asleep on my lap!
A Force Sensitive Phasesixer 