Fresh fish?
"Yes, please" said the cat ... and little did he know that he would end up in the hospital in Karpathos and Rhodes. This story serves as a reminder that fish hooks are extremely life threatening to our beloved stray cats, who undoubtedly love fresh fish. Thankfully for the cat you are about to read, Animal Welfare Karpathos was able to go above and beyond in spite of the costs, thanks to the Alison McEwan Fund for the Diafani Cats, The total cost of the adventure you will read below was 1335 euros, and a number of people were involved to make it all happen.
The story
An elderly wild male cat from Diafani was seen with a fishing line hanging from his mouth early in February 2024. This isn’t the first time we hear of or have treated such cases, as cats will often eat fish that have been thrown away with fish hooks in their mouths. The cat was trapped and transported to the local veterinarian, Dr. Elias Pochos, who did his best to locate the fish hooks at the end of the line, but they were way passed the pharynx of the cat.
Animal Welfare Karpathos arranged the cat’s transportation to Rhodes, and thanks to our collaboration with Mr. George of the Rhodes Animal Welfare Society he was picked up from the boat and transported to the clinic of Dr. Papageorgiou. The doctor obtained radiographs, which showed the location of the fish hooks and was then able to remove one of the fish hooks via endoscopy. The other required an abdominal exploratory surgery. Luckily for the cat, all foreign material was removed and he recovered well from his surgery.
Thanks to the Mr. Giannis Spanos, who escorted the cat, he arrived back to Karpathos and received by Dr. Katogiritis who was running the spay/neuter program in Othos at the time. At the end of the program, and since the kitty needed more time to heal the cat was hospitalized again at Dr. Pochos’ clinic. Our board member Maria Pavlakos was always by his side during his recovery in Karpathos, offering her nursing care to the wild kitty.
Along with his surgery/endoscopy/neuter the cat received a much needed dental cleaning and dental extractions (4 rotten teeth removed), vaccinations, anti parasitic therapy... and a bath!
When his wound fully healed he was returned back to Diafani where he was released in a safe location. Unfortunately, due to his wild temperament he was not a candidate for adoption.
We cannot thank everyone who contributed to this case enough. Without the Alison McEwan Fund we would not have the funds to help this kitty.
