Just when donations are hitting an all-time low, three of the shelter residents have become ill. Kajac has been coughing and wheezing for days and has been diagnosed with bronchitis again, thus he is being giving antibiotics and is being kept in the cage which he hates, so he’s sad and miserable at the moment and feels betrayed. We are not sure why his airways are so over-reactive and what kind of inciting agents he responds to, although he's undoubtedly overweight and therefore he’s more susceptible
to breathing problems, but regardless of the cause, antibiotic treatments are expected to help him. He is not very people friendly, which makes him difficult to be treated at home, but he behaves nicely at the vet's – he is calm, reasonably cooperative and
utterly unhappy.
Silvestra has stomatitis, gingivitis and periodontal disease; her infected gums are being treated aggressively and once the infection calms down, she'll need to have at least three teeth pulled and all of the plaque and
tartar removed from her remaining teeth. She's essentially a healthy, tough cat but even the toughest get sick sometimes, and the problem is that she becomes literally hysterical when she’s struck in a cat carrier or even worse, in the cage. Anyway, what needs to be done
needs to be done, and if she was able to overcome the stress of everything that had happened to her before she arrived at the shelter, she will certainly succeed in coping with these new and unexpected problems.
Ali is in the worst
shape of all. He’s been losing weight gradually but steadily over the last few weeks even though his appetite is very good, so we dewormed him again and his blood test showed nothing out of the ordinary. Nonetheless he kept becoming skinnier and
skinnier; his coat became messy and dull, he had continuous diarrhea and it was clear that he had some serious, yet undiscovered health issue. After repeating all of the diagnostic tests we could think of - X-rays, UV scan, analysis of his blood sample in a
laboratory in Belgrade, fecal examinations etc, the vet has finally come up with an accurate diagnosis – Ali has Giardia infection. He is painfully, gauntly thin and frail, his once luxurious fur has lost all of its former splendor, his liver is enlarged and there’s mucus in his duct bile, but he is eating, fortunately, and is being given two different antibiotics three and two times a day. Considering he is a young cat who has been healthy and strong all of his life, the vet thinks he has excellent chances
to recover completely, even though the treatment will be long.
We really need your help! Monthly donations are not even covering the costs of food for ten days now, much less for the entire month and we can only dream about paying
the vet bills! We usually spend at least 1600 euros on cat food and litter every single month, and when we add the costs of vet care, special food for chronically ill cats and the wages for a helper that we have to pay cash in hand our expenses are
enormous! We have no support from the local community, as people seem to think that we exist exclusively for when they want to get rid of the cats they are not interested in taking care of anymore, but after that we sink off into oblivion until they come across another
unwanted cat or kitten. We don’t threaten people with chucking the animals out of unpaid wild boarding places or rented sheds, we are not able to look at a sick cat or kitten and do nothing until all of the money necessary for treatments arrive but as far as the
public here thinks, our cats are safe and they can probably live on air.
Please, help us with anything you can possibly afford! If you can’t donate, we hope you wouldn’t mind sharing our plight until it reaches someone who thinks even
shelter cats’ lives matter! Please take a look at our
project and
fundraising page and get to know our kitties a little better, maybe you’ll be touched by their sweet faces and you will feel compelled to do something for them. Carefree and happy as they seem,
they all need to eat and from time to time some will become ill and need extra help. They really have no one else that cares but those of us here - and you.
