Mabel is our beautiful, spicy 3 year old mini daschund who means the absolute world to us and she is in desperate need of help.

Mabel is the biggest personality in our house even though she is the smallest and loves running around playing with our other two Furbabies. Our hearts were shattered last Saturday afternoon, when completely out of the blue she was suddenly unable to stand or use her back legs at all- even though she had been walking normally that morning. We immediately rushed her to an emergency vet who diagnosed her with IVDD- intervertebral disk disease.

The Vet referred us to UC Davis near Sacramento because, in our city of Reno we wouldn’t have been able to see a neurosurgeon specialist for 3-4 days and it was too risky to wait that long, given the rapid onset of the paralysis. We immediately drove down to UC Davis for an emergency appointment early Sunday morning. We were hopeful because when Mabel had been examined in Reno she still had sensation in her back legs. Unfortunately, by the time we got to UC Davis she had further declined, having no sensation in her back legs and was incontinent -so she went from showing no signs of discomfort to suddenly being totally paralyzed within 20 hours, which highlighted the immediate need for medical intervention.

Mabel had scans and the neurologist confirmed that she had a broken/exploded disk along her spine which had ruptured a couple of blood vessels in her spinal cord, putting extra pressure on it, which explains the rapid decline and the pain she was in. Surgery was the only option to save her life, relieve her of the pain she was in and give her the only possible chance of walking again, so we authorized them to do the surgery.

Mabel had surgery that Sunday, which went well. For dogs at her stage of paralysis the surgeons expected to see a significant amount of bruising on the spinal cord but thankfully Mabels appeared to show only a small amount of discoloration, which we’re hoping means that she has a better chance of recovery, even though her spinal cord clearly suffered severe damage to cause the paralysis. Mabel made it through the night after the surgery and is awake, alert, and comfortable. Mabel's strength and spirit for life is amazing and confirms to us that we made the right choice for her.

We are at the point where we have maxed out our credit cards and used our emergency savings for the consults, scans and surgery, which has already reached $13,000 and is adding up to overwhelming financial pressure. The next year to come will also be challenging as we will still need to find funds to support Mabel's ongoing care and rehabilitation therapy courses. The road ahead will be a long, uncertain one but all the help we can give her will be vital for her recovery. We are trying to do everything we can for her and now, having exhausted our own means, we need to set up this page to help with Mabel's hospital stay, rehabilitation costs and for us to adapt her home environment to make life easier for her, as much as we hate to ask for help. We’re people that never ask for money and don’t accept monetary help if offered but this isn’t about us, it’s about giving our baby the best quality of life she can possibly have. If you can donate anything it would mean the world to our little family. As dog parents we have both been emotionally destroyed, as we’ve raised her from a tiny puppy and given her the best life we possibly could.

We are extremely grateful for any donation to help us with our little Mabel’s vet bills and rehabilitation care, even the smallest donation means the world to us.