Scrumpy the friendly black cat usually resides near the neighbourhood carpark area, most of the time hiding under the parked cars or lorries, looking sick, skinny and drooling.
I managed to catch him one night and sent him to Mount Pleasant (Sunset Way) the next morning, Vet Cheryl Ho attended to Scrumpy and found out he got the following problems:
1) FIV positive
2) Kidney problems (not Acute)
3) Open wounds on his tongue, thus he can't eat much and eat well
4) Fleas and furmites, coz he can't use his tongue to clean himself up
5) White blood cells going up
Currently he's still recuperating at the clinic, since then they have given him shots and medicines to tackle the fleas/furmites and tongue's open wounds problem, booast up immune system and also drip him to keep him hydrated. Vet says he's showing improvement on his appetite, fleas problem subsiding and I can see he looked much brighter and alert than before.
Vet says since he's FIV positive it's better he not roam back as stray again coz it might spread to other community cat should they get into serious fights. I am against putting him to sleep coz he's not that sickly and clearly shown strong will to live a good second life.
I hope to find a good fosterer/adopter to keep Scrumpy, coz he's a cat with special needs, he would require an experienced person to take care of him. After he's discharge, he would have to be on IV drip once every two days (or as and when he's not drinking enough water and dehydrating), he would have two kinds of pills medicine, one is antibiotics, and the other to control his illness which he would have to take permanently. He would be required to take in a type of special diet for Kidney problem cats, and would also need to be brought back to Vet Ho once every 3 months for review.
Ideally, prospective fosterer/adopter should have no other cats at home, if they have any, they should be aware of the risks of FIV transmitting (only through aggressive fighting +open wounds+exchange of fluids, or through mating), and take proper precautions. Scrumpy isn't aggressive at all, and he's spayed, so basically there won't be any possible fighting or mating problems caused by him.
Temperament wise, which is a huge bonus point of him, is that he's superly affectionate and loving, everytime I visit him he will come straight to me and let me pet his head and neck, and after a while he will got sooo cozy and simply just fall asleep...while standing lol. Vet Ho and vet techs there commented he's so gentle and nice that they have no problem feeding him meds or syringing him.
I will be letting Scrumpy stay at clinic till this Saturday (30 April), hopefully by then I would have found him a good home to go to, if all else fails, I might send him to a cat shelter, where he would be kept in a large cage permanently, that would be my very last option, coz he's not that sick and can't move, and being a community cat before, he would love to have some space to walk around and explore, he might require some guiding and coaching to be an indoor cat, but given his sweet loving nature, it definitely won't be a huge task to the caregiver.
His medical bills, which comprises hospitalisation since Sunday (24 April), comprehensive blood tests, drips, meds till today sums up to around 900+, a few more days of staying at the vet (till this coming Saturday 30 April) and doing more blood tests might up the amount to over $1200, me and some of my friends do think Scrump deserves a good second chance, so we would be raising money among ourselves to pay for this med bill.
If the prospective fosterer/adopter have concerns over medicine/special diet money for Scrumpy, we would definitely help out with it, we just hope he would go to a loving home and would shower him with loads of TLC, coz clearly he himself have loads to offer. :)
[sun 1 may 2011. shared on request. source: email, 28 apr 2011.]
fri 8 jul 2011
scrumpy's now being boarded and is still looking for his human.
23.9.11
unfortunately Scrumpy crossed over the rainbow bridge last month :"(
but at least he's happy with the last fosterer he stayed with...
