Please Help Our Sweet Selene - MRI Scans and Treatment

We are Autumn and Alexander, and our cat Selene needs your help.

About Selene

Selene is a 14-year-old black indoor cat who loves her cuddles, her treats, and her naps, but lately she hasn’t been well. She has been struggling with ongoing ear infections for a little while now, but we thought they were finally under control until she developed Horner’s syndrome — a condition affecting her left eye, making her eyelid droop and her pupils to appear asymmetrical.

Horner’s syndrome is only a symptom of something larger. In the past few weeks, Selene has been struggling to eat solid food (despite a healthy appetite) and, most recently, she is struggling to balance. We feared the worst — Horner’s syndrome can be a sign of more nefarious conditions, like a tumour. But, of course, we wanted to do everything we can to help our furbaby.

That brings us to today. We’ve brought Selene to her neurologist, who confirmed that Selene has developed partial facial paralysis on the side of the Horner’s syndrome, but that it sounds like she has fluid in her middle ear. This might explain everything — her problems with balance, her Horner’s syndrome, her paralysis, and her trouble eating.

Good news, right? Well, not exactly.

As I type this, Selene is having an MRI to determine what’s going on and if there may be something more nefarious, like the aforementioned tumour. There are two outcomes:

They find something else, like a tumour. This would be the worst, but her insurance would cover anything that needs done.

They discover no tumour, but that everything is related to her ear. This would be the best outcome, but… the insurance won’t cover the scan or ongoing treatment, such as surgery or medication, since she once had an ear infection, pre-insurance, so it’s considered a pre-existing condition, even though it is now a disease.

What Selene Needs

If the vet finds everything is related to her ongoing ear problems, this would be the best outcome for Selene’s health, but the worst outcome financially.

Selene’s MRI scan costs around £3000, which doesn’t include any treatment she might need in the future. The insurance won’t cover this.

We simply don’t have this money, but we want to do the best for Selene. We don’t have high-paying jobs. Alexander works for a mental health charity (which, if you know charity jobs, aren’t high paying). Autumn runs a small business selling jewellery but has a disability, severely limiting how much she can work. We both struggle with our mental health.

We’re desperate to help our Selene recover. Please, anything you can give would help us offset the cost of Selene’s MRI scan and any treatment that might come after. We are truly hoping it’s “just” ear disease (and not something far worse), even though this would be impossible for us financially.

Thank you from us, and thank you from Selene.