About the Campaign
Mink is a 4-year-old female cat with a feline injection-site sarcoma on her left back leg, an aggressive cancer where a cat received a vaccine or injection. Chest x-rays and scans show it has not spread anywhere else in her body. Her vet has recommended amputating the leg to remove the tumor completely, which is the standard treatment and best method to prevent any chance of spread.
Three weeks ago Isabel found a bump under Mink’s fur that had turned into an open wound. She assumed it was an abscess and took her to urgent care, where the vet suspected cancer right away. That visit was $1,400. Then came a biopsy and later x-rays and more tests. Over time the bills add up just getting a diagnosis, but Isabel has also raised $960 on her own through friends and family.
Injection-site sarcomas send roots deep into surrounding tissue, so a simple lump removal almost always leaves cancer behind. Taking the whole leg removes the margin problem, and cats adapt to three legs remarkably fast. Mink is otherwise young, healthy, and acting completely like herself.
Isabel rescued Mink and her brother Ollie as kittens during her sophomore year of high school, fostering the whole litter and keeping two. She still fosters for the Humane Society and has five cats now. Mink is the social one: rubs her face on everything, licks everyone within reach, and tears around the house with her brother. Isabel says her cats have gotten her through every major event of her life and she cannot imagine the house without her. Kitten Mink and Isabel:
Isabel is 20, a college student, and works part-time for her parents’ painting company, which does commercial and residential jobs and is going through a slow stretch. She has already spent everything on Mink’s diagnosis. What she needs now is the surgery that makes those tests count.
Amputation for an injection-site sarcoma that has not spread offers a real chance at a full recovery. Donations will cover Mink’s surgery, anesthesia, pain medication, biopsy of the removed tissue to confirm clean margins, and follow-up care. All donations are paid only to the veterinarian. The vet report is below, click to enlarge:
