After surviving a 50-foot fall, Maple fought to keep her leg. Now she’s facing the heartbreaking possibility of losing her tail.

Maple is a 2-year-old cat whose life began with a traumatic accident. In 2024, I witnessed her get dropped nearly 50 feet from a tree. The people responsible never showed up to help at the emergency vet, leaving me with a tricky choice: surrender her to a shelter where her broken femur would almost certainly be amputated, or take her in and fight for her chance to keep her leg. Despite only a 70% chance of success, we chose to try our luck with the femur repair surgery. Thankfully, luck was on our side and the surgery was successful. However, we are still paying off the $3,000 procedure through CareCredit, which has limited our ability to afford the urgent care she now needs.

Maple has developed a severe and progressively worsening condition called Feline Hyperesthesia Syndrome (FHS), becoming significantly concerning over the past 6 months especially. This complex and poorly understood disorder causes extreme skin sensitivity, compulsive behaviors, and psychological distress, often focused around the lower back and tail. Episodes can include rippling/twitching skin, frantic biting or scratching, aggressive tail chasing, loud hissing and vocalizations, and intense fear, as if she’s being attacked by her own tail. The exact cause remains debated and can sometimes be multiple factors, but theories suggest it may be neurological, dermatological, or psychological. If left unmanaged or if management methods are not working, it can lead to self-mutilation and tail amputation.

For Maple, these episodes have become constant. The longest time we can go between episodes is 3 hours, which does not provide much time for a restful night of sleep. Once the episodes start, the aggressive tail chasing and attacking behaviors last for hours.

She was once a playful, energetic cat who loved playing with her younger sister, Cirrus. Now, she is often too consumed by her tail distress to play. She experiences frequent episodes day and night, crying out in distress, running from her own tail, and becoming so worked up that she has difficulty breathing. I rarely sleep more than a few hours at a time, and leaving home for school and work makes me anxious because she needs ongoing care and supervision to prevent her from possibly hurting herself.

We have consulted multiple veterinarians and an animal chiropractor, trying to rule out pain, inflammation, dislocations, subluxations, anxiety, boredom, dietary issues, and more, but nothing has helped. We are currently trying the last method the vet can provide, which is steroids.

Some veterinarians on our team have suggested amputating her tail as early as next week, but this is a drastic and irreversible step. There is no guarantee it will even resolve the issue, especially if the root cause is neurological, possibly stemming from an issue before the tail begins. It could even lead to complications, such as overlooking the source while removing the way she is communicating possible pain, developing phantom pain, or causing her to redirect the behavior to other parts of her body.

One veterinarian is hesitant to jump to amputation, and has given us hope by recommending a veterinary neurologist to better understand what’s happening before making such a life-altering decision.

The nearest specialist is a 3-hour drive away, with an initial consultation fee of $250. Additional diagnostics, such as bloodwork, imaging, and potentially an MRI, could cost hundreds to thousands of dollars. If amputation becomes unavoidable, the estimated cost provided by my local veterinarian is $700–$950.

We will start with the goal of $3,000 to cover the cost of the neurology consultation and anticipated testing of blood labs, radiographs, and an MRI based on the average price of these services. (Average costs: blood labs $150-300, radiographs $200-500, MRI 2,000–4,000+) We will update the goal if specific estimates become available or new recommendations are made. If the goal is exceeded, the extra funds will go toward paying off Maple’s outstanding credit payments from her $3,000 femur repair surgery from 2024.

Our goal is to give Maple the best chance at a pain-free, distress-free, stable, and happy life. If you know me, you know that my cats are a part of the family; they are not just pets. Sometimes I care for them better than I care for myself. Maple’s physical and emotional wellbeing is a top priority.

We are asking for help to cover the cost of her neurological consultation, diagnostic testing, and any necessary treatment. Every donation, no matter the size, brings us one step closer to answers and relief for Maple.

If you’re unable to donate, sharing her story would mean just as much to us.

Thank you for taking the time to read Maple’s story and for supporting her journey toward healing. ❤️

04/18/2026 UPDATE:

Hello! I wanted to give an update on Maple. Thank you to everyone who has shared and donated so far in support of Maple seeing a neurologist to try to get a better understanding of her Feline Hyperesthesia Syndrome. Last Friday I had one vet telling me amputation may be the final thing we could try, while another told me I should try to see a neurologist before doing a drastic, irreversible surgery that may not actually benefit her. I was feeling so conflicted because I knew neurology would be expensive, and it's quite the trip to make it to the nearest one, about 3 hours away.

Thanks to all of you sharing and donating, we are at $740, which is 25% of our generalized goal of $3,000! With this much, we can definitely do a consultation appointment, which is now scheduled for the earliest opening they had, May 18th! This will also cover the blood labs they will most likely order before they consider doing an MRI. My vet thinks that will eventually be ordered, but since it requires anesthesia, I believe that will probably be done at a second appointment. This means I will have time to get an actual estimate to provide a more specific fundraising goal. I will leave the GoFundMe up and running for those who feel comfortable donating in the meantime, but I also totally get it if people want to wait and see what the actual estimate ends up being. The average cost of veterinary MRIs are $2,000-6,000.

Also, I did a lot of searching on Feline Hyperesthesia subreddits and found recommendations for a person on Etsy who hand makes $50 tail covers based on personalized measurements, and they had amazing reviews that the tail covers significantly helped other cats have protection against harming their own tails, or even lose interest in attacking their tails entirely. It arrives today and I am so excited to see if this will finally make it so that I no longer have to chase Maple around with blankets 24/7... especially since I will need to try to keep some sanity until our neurology consult in one month.

And remember how I said the steroids weren't working? The vet told me I should have been able to tell by last Saturday or Sunday if it was working, with those dates initially being when I was going to decide to make the call for tail amputation. Thanks to the GoFundMe making me feel like it was less urgent to make that call, I started to notice on Monday that there was a slight improvement in Maple's tail attacking episodes. It's very slight, but it's giving me hope and further confirms that neurology may actually help us figure this out.

Thank you all again so much, I appreciate it and will keep you all updated!