Abbey's Battle vs Porcupine Quills

Hi everyone. This is Abbey's story and I wish she, we, could omit this chapter from what has been a wonderful life, but the unfortunate reality is that she had a horrible nightmare of an accident occur while camping Sunday Oct 1st 2023. This picture was taken about an hour before this attack happened.

A porcupine entered our campsite and Abbey got free from her leash when spooked by the rogue porcupine. She ran deep into the darkness of woods after the critter. We all ran after her and had hoped her leash would snag a tree, but ultimately, her blood curdling yelp rang out into the night telling us her fate was far from benign.

It was so dark it was hard to tell if I was following the right path to find her, but with her call out I instantly raised my flashlight finding her in the light. She was approximately 15 feet in front of me, laying on the ground facing my direction. The porcupine was waddling away behind her, her body covered in quills. Most notable was her face.

I've never seen Abbey's eyes look so scared, anxious and unsure. None of us had ever dealt with a porcupine. Somehow we knew this was going to be a fight to save her life and time was of the essence.

She had taken direct hits to her face, torso, legs, belly and even her tail. We did our best to remove as many, as quickly, as we could with pliers to make it safer for her when we carried her out on a blanketed tarp. The quills are so sharp that they would easily glide into her had they the chance to push against anything. She kept reinjuring herself, trying to lick her lip and mouth full of quills or from trying to paw at the foreign objusts causing her so much pain.

We drove 2.5 hours to Ithaca from our campground. By the time Abbey was seen at Cornell University Hospital she was showing respiratory distress. She had a pneumothorax, air escaping her lungs, and our quick education on quills and the damage they can cause began. We were told she would need major surgery to explore her vital organs and remove as many of the quills the surgeons could find.

Abbey's surgery was successful in the sense that they found over 27 quills (they stopped counting), was able to remove 3 quills from her liver, some from her right lung and 5 penitrating her heart. A lobe of her right lung was removed due to severity of damage. They ran their hands throughout her cavity to inspect and remove any quills they found. She came out of surgery on Monday and for the next few days made improvements. Her pneumothorax seemed to have closed on the remaining lobes of her right lung. She was beginning to come off of some of the medications and lessening airflow assistance. It was a slow process, but the issues they were seeing were being managed like low albumin and low BP. Both were helped with corrective remedies.

Two days ago she began to show signs of pneumothorax in her right lung again. She was having more respiratory distress and she needed more oxygen again.

The collective of Doctors working with Abbey feel that there is a likelyhood that quills have migrated into her lung again. The only possible remedy is removing them. She is having what will be our last attempt to remove quills and possibly more lobes of her right lung if they have become too greatly diseased from the original punctures.

We wanted to give Abbey this one last chance to come home. The road is long regardless of making it through this surgery as the threat of quills hiding out inside her and migrating will follow her for the rest of her life.

A little about Abbey:

she's the "big kitty" of a house with 8 cat siblings. She loves and adores them, let's them cuddle on her and is very protective. She gets her pack head-bumps from Tynder, one of our cats.

She loves car rides. She's not suppose to have ice cream, but between us, she sneaks a lick or chomps a cone right in half on ultra rare occasion. Her favorite place to be is with her 3 moms & her siblings anywhere and anyhow. She particularly enjoys livingroom family movie nights, camping and recently she really enjoyed meeting lots of doggos at her first Buffalo Bisons AAA baseball game.

Her favorite spot to nap is either under our feet so we almost trip on her or under the cot we put up for her in the livingroom. It's her doggy cave.

When she was younger she loved to hike and climb mountains. Her favorite season is winter. Abbey loves to dive face first into the snow, roll around making doggy angels. She loves the water. She swims like a fish zooming around. Her moms love that she enjoys to be with them in kayaks too.

She's curious, gentle. A leaner. Don't stop petting her or you'll be told by her to keep going. Her favorite treat is whatever you're willing to give her.

Her mom's favorite nicknames for her:

Abbey-kiss, Abbey Doodles, Abbey Dooo, Doodle Bear, and Love Bug. ❤️

We've placed the charges for her care on a credit card and as the estimate changes we give more. It's absolutely our choice and our burden that doesn't much feel like a burden to us. No matter what the sun will rise tomorrow and we will figure a path forward.

If anyone would like to help reduce the amount that we are responsible for the University Hospital doesn't allow direct individual payments from people calling in. They suggested a Go Fund Me and then we personally transfer any funds to the bill. Our high end estimate is $25,000 with us already having paid $12,500.

I'm adding the list of procedures that have been completed up until the surgery she is having today. They cannot add things to the bill until they are complete.

Thank you for stopping by this fund, for your compassion and any support whether it's through the power of positivity, prayer, or donation to the fund. Any and all kindness is greatly appreciated by my family.

A take-a-way for us all...porcupines are deadly dangerous to our furkids. I had no idea how often vets were attending to quill emergencies. Early morning and dusk are the most dangerous times of day near wooded areas. Fall and spring are the highest rate of attacks, but it can happen any season. If what happened to Abbey can save just even one other furbaby it would make our hearts happier.