Mum left with $50 a week after spending Centrelink money on vet bills

A Melbourne mum has been left with $50 a week after spending Centrelink payments to save her daughter's cat.

Frances Micallef, now aged 19, was in and out of hospital two years ago. At the time, she had just finished high school and was in a "very bad state of mind and health".

That was until she met Truffles - a 10-week-old shorthair female tortoiseshell who had been rescued from train tracks.

Ms Micallef told Yahoo7 the family adopted the kitten as her "mental health therapy cat".

The teen said "she saved my life".

"She's my best friend," Ms Micallef said.

"She would come in my room and she's learnt how to open the door to come in there to be with me."

But on February 3, Truffles was attacked.

The cat was walking along the back fence of the family's yard when she was attacked by a pitbull.

The attack left Truffles with a shattered spleen, two sets of broken ribs, a dislocated hip, groin tears, multiple muscle tears in the chest cavity and a leaking lung.

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Ms Micallef said she felt "devastated" and "like my heart had been ripped out of my chest watching her lay there not breathing on her own".

Truffles was rushed to the Lort Smith Animal Hospital Intensive Care Unit and while she's undergone one set of surgeries and is now breathing on her own, the feline still needs money to fix her hip and will require 24-hour care for a while longer until she fully recovers.

The cat needs help getting around and going to the bathroom but is back home.

Ms Micallef said her mum, also named Frances, who's on Centrelink receiving a disability pension, is contributing all but $50 of her weekly payment to pay off a $5,000 vet bill plus more for the cat's ongoing intensive care.

The teen is also contributing by working as a waitress at a local pub while her father "is doing everything he can" to help the cat.

Mrs Micallef told the Star Weekly, she gives $100 of her $150 Centrelink each week to pay the vet and the $50 left over is to "feed me and my daughter".

She added that it didn't bother her as the cat had done "so much" for her daughter.

Ms Micallef added she planned on starting university this year but had to defer "because of all the financial and emotional stress".

"I'm heartbroken," she added.

"I'm just so down."

The family now hopes they can save Truffles just as she saved Ms Micallef years ago and have made a GoFundMe page appealing for help.

The Pet Medical Crisis Fund, a charity which contributes to vet bills for people struggling to pay them, has already contributed $1,000 and is accepting donations towards helping Truffles the cat.