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Case of the Month
Help From Angel Fund Puts Max on Road to Better Life
Not long after Rachelle Cruz Alban and her husband, Thomas, rescued a beautiful year-old tabby cat from an Orange County shelter, they discovered that he was dragging his hind legs.
They consulted a veterinarian recommended by the shelter, who told them they could consult a neurology specialist but that treatment would be expensive and it might not fix the problem. The tabby, Max, did not seem to be in pain, the problem didn’t seem to be getting worse and he was getting around well. They decided to live with it.
A year later in the fall of 2017, Max had another problem. “He was having a hard time urinating,” Rachelle said. “So we took him to an emergency hospital. They did an IV catheter to help clear his urinary tract. It helped but he kept struggling and we took him back two or three times and they hooked him up to the catheter. It was expensive.
“Eventually, we took him to the Cat Care Clinic in Orange and the doctors there suggested surgery that basically would open the way for him to urinate normally. The result was not 100 percent guaranteed but we decided to do it. We really couldn’t afford it after the multiple hits we had at the emergency clinic but it was sort of a last-ditch effort to help him. And it worked!”
Dr. Elaine Wexler-Mitchell performed the surgery. “What was weird was that they still wanted to put him on the catheter because, the doctor said, his bladder was the size of an orange and they wanted to make sure it could work on its own. So he was in the hospital about five days.
Today Max “is totally great and he’s totally recovered,” Rachelle said. “He has so much more energy.”
Angel Fund stepped in to help with a $250 grant, matched by the Cat Care Clinic. “We’re so grateful that he’s OK,” Rachelle said. “He’s chasing around his ‘sister,’ Catnip, who’s about the same age. . . . Angel Fund was really supportive and definitely understanding of our situation. And we’re really grateful that they provided funding.”
Rachelle teaches at Orange Coast College and Thomas is a financial analyst. They live in Anaheim.