Shared the following on Instagram today - it rehashes some of the posts below, but it also covers what's been going on in the past few days. Thank you to those who have helped Marmalade's journey so far, including but not limited to Dr Darina and team at Ohana Vet TTDI; Healing Pets; Yee Vet in SS2; Gasing Vet; Nicole; Elaine; Sandra and Sheela for the contributions and assistance; and Lu Yee.

Here's the Insta post:

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It's been a while since I've posted as I've been on a long social media break. But I wanted to fill everyone in on what's been happening. In December, Marmalade escaped while in heat and got herself knocked up. Yes, she wasn't spayed, largely because we (perhaps ignorantly) thought the risk of neutering when she had kidney disease was too great. She ended up getting bigger, and in February, popped out 5 little kittens!

We thought everything was going well but, at the end of Feb, Marmalade Began breathing heavily. Several vet visits later resulted in the diagnosis of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a heart condition perhaps brought about by changes in her body owing to pregnancy. She had to start on a regime of meds, which, alas, would affect her milk - making a forced separation of Mum and Babies necessary. To stop lactation, the kitties had to leave the house entirely.

It was heartbreaking but we managed to find two fosterers to take in the 5 kits. Sadly the first fosterer encountered a case of FIP in their home (they have adult cats), so we moved the kittens to a new fosterer.

Meanwhile, Marmalade begin her meds and it seemed she was getting better. But about 3 weeks ago we noticed she was losing weight drastically. A blood test revealed her CKD levels, already high to begin with, had skyrocketed to life-threatening levels. Thus began 2+ weeks of warding, IV drips, fears and worries as we witnessed our darling Bengal grow thinner and thinner and weaker and weaker. A few days ago we even had to contemplate letting her go - but we didn't.

Right now she's in palliative care at home, hooked up to machines and with a feeding tube. She SEEMS to be slowly getting stronger and maybe she'll be with us for a bit longer. But we also realise CKD is irreversible; by prolonging her life, are we just putting off the inevitable? A lot of hard, painful questions with no real answers.

But she's still here. And I guess we'll take it a day at a time. For now, pls send love, prayers etc. Also her kittens are up for adoption (in PJ/KL), so do let me know if you're keen on adding to your family. Till then... take care and much love to all.