Cinderella's fighting for her life

Cinderella is an 8 week old kitten found tucked up in a car engine, extremely malnourished, and riddled with fleas. After a really good wash and some food it became clear that she was struggling to breathe, so she was rushed to the vet where it was discovered she had a diaphragmatic hernia – meaning her organs were poking thru a hole in her diaphragm into her lung cavity and making her breathing laboured. This was a medical emergency requiring urgent surgery. The vets believe this injury has been the result of trauma – she wasn't born like this.

Thankfully she has come through her surgery this afternoon, but has a long road ahead of her to make a full recovery. The hole in her diaphragm has been repaired, and the vets also did an exploratory laparotomy to check her intestines: there they found bone fragments too big for her to pass on her own, so they were removed. How starving did this wee darling need to be to be eating big bits of bone?

What comes next depends on how she heals, but we'll be looking at vet bills of close to $2,000 to get her through. With kitten season in full swing our finances are already under huge pressure – our vet bills for December were $19,881... they'll be higher this month with more kittens in care – we need your help!