Look What Happened to Mabel – Got the Jimmy Legs

Look What Happened to Mabel

mabel_amc

Mabel on her way to Animal Medical Center

Update: Please visit Mabel's Donation Page to help!

Mabel just got home from the vet's. Again. Mabel has had a variety of health problems in the relatively brief time that we've had her, and the phrase we hear most often from her various doctors is "I've never seen anything like this." And it's not just one thing, it's a whole mess of never-before-seen issues, including an abnormal bulla, air aphasia, even a voicebox so riddled with scar tissue it's cutting off her air supply! And that's just the highlights.

Through it all, Mabel has gone from a ornery little bag of bones to a plump and fun-loving cat. She's increasingly friendly to people (she seems to love vets) and when she's not ailing, tirelessly plays with her toys, or gives the local kittens a hard time.

I'm putting together a page detailing her chronology with us, but for now I'll just mention her latest work. Diagnosed with nasopharyngeal stenosis, she underwent balloon dilation and stenting. This means her nasal passages have become clogged with tissue, making it harder and harder to breathe. The procedure inserts a tiny ballon-like bladder into the affected area and inflates, breaking up the excess tissue (yep, just like an angioplasty; Mabel and Jeannie's brother-in-law now have something in common). Additionally, a stent is wrapped around the balloon so when it inflates, the stent pushes out and hold the cavity open after the balloon is removed. This will keep her airway clear; the procedure has an excellent prognosis. Mabel has been full of beans since I picked her up, so I like to think she already feels better.

But of course, you don't x-ray, MRI, and rhinoscope a cat without finding some other things wrong, so it may not be long before she has to go back. In the mean time, we are mobilizing to get an online fundraiser started for her. We feel a little weird asking for donations for our own cat (I guess she technically is a foster, but you can't have her), but her bills are incredibly high and it's going to be pretty difficult for us to keep up with all our other feline responsibilities with this hanging over our heads.

So expect some web-based pledge drives for Mabel soon, plus lots more gory details about all the bizarre stuff going on inside her little body! Yea!