Case Studies

We were alerted to Aska by a lovely lady from Sweden , Amanda, who had been feeding him for a few days next to her hotel in Agios Nikolaos.

Amanda messaged us asking for a trap so she could get this boy to a vet .

However, by the time Aska showed himself the vets had closed so we made him comfortable for the weekend. To look at him, you’d think he was a real bruiser but he’s not .

Aska was about five years of age and for sure he has had a hard life on the street but when he looks at you with those eyes you just melt .

On Monday we took him to Vetcare for a general check up and took samples for a fungal culture. He also had a bad ear mite infection and had been scratching badly the back of his ears .His ears were cleaned and treated straightaway.

We then took him in for neutering and to have two teeth extracted. The results of his culture test were in by then and he was prescribed medication. Once he was well he flew to Amanda in Sweden – lucky boy!

Kanello first came into contact with VOCAL when he was neutered as a young cat in July 2018. We met him again when he was brought in for a check-up in a poor condition because of respiratory problems. Investigation by our vet confirmed he had fluid on his lungs, so he needed to stay with us to be treated.  Further tests showed that he had stomatitis (a mouth condition, where the gums, the inside and back of the mouth swell and become very painful) and was FIV (Feline immunodeficiency Virus – commonly known as cat AIDS) positive.  He was such a sweet natured boy we really wanted to do our best for him, so he stayed with us for some months receiving therapy while we looked for a permanent home for him. In this time he also had all his teeth removed which gave him great relief from the mouth disease.

After 7 months the perfect home was found for him in Germany by Kretapfoetchen, our German partners and he has become a much loved family member.

This is rather a long story, but a very lovely one. At the end of October we were contacted by Martyn, who was on holiday with his wife and daughter in Analipsi, 45km away from where VOCAL is based in Agios Nikolaos. Their daughter, Leah, had fallen in love with a small kitten at their hotel, but it was in very bad condition – could we help?

This is how we first met Midnight, a tiny, scrawny little black kitten who eked out an existence living under a rock in the hotel grounds and was reliant on scraps fed to her by hotel guests and sympathetic reps. When we saw her it was immediately apparent there was more going on than just inadequate food – she was skin and bone, a tiny hunched thing who seemed barely aware that she was alive.

So began Midnight’s time with us. Our vet confirmed that although she was the size of a 4-month old kitten, she was at least 7 months old. Further investigation and an x-ray sadly confirmed that she had a diaphragm hernia, either from birth or from when she was very tiny. The diaphragm, which is a muscle that separates the chest cavity from the abdominal cavity not only had a hole in it, but was hardly developed at all, meaning that her organs had pushed up into her chest and her lungs were squashed. This condition is fatal, and it is amazing she had survived so long.

However, our vet Yiannis is always up for a challenge. He was willing to operate to try to save Midnight, but warned that her chances of survival were tiny. However, we and Martyn decided that even a small chance was better than no chance at all. In the middle of November Midnight had a long and complicated operation carried out by Yiannis Fouskis and Tzina Kiriakaki, our local vets, where a rib was removed and used to form a new ‘diaphragm’. The first 48 hours after the operation were crucial, but she proved to have an enormous will to live in her tiny body – she survived and after a few days came back to us for nursing.

… and she went from strength to strength. She suddenly began to grow and blossom, to play with toys for the first time, to run around and jump, to enjoy life. She developed into an independent young lady who would only allow us to pet her when she felt like it. Finally, in early January, she travelled to the UK with Ambers Hope Animal Rescue to join  Leah and family and hasn’t looked back since. Within a day of arrival she was allowing them to rub her tummy and pick her up – we are convinced that she remembers them. To celebrate her new life she also has a new name – Mystery.

Poor little Spud. Not even 8 months old and his leg was broken after being hit by a car. Our vet tried conservative treatment first – we kept him in a smallish cage for 3 weeks in the hope the bones would fuse together, but the injury was too old, so he had to have a big operation and come back to us for cage rest for some weeks.

It is always a difficult decision to make in circumstances like these. What makes most economic sense would have been to have his leg amputated. But he is a young, very friendly boy with his whole life ahead of him so we decided to go for the pin in his leg and the amazing Yiannis Fouskis of Vetcare spent 3 hours doing the operation.

Spud was lucky. We had two volunteers last winter – Greg and Julie – who were overwintering on their boat in Agios Nikolaos marina. They visited Spud regularly and fell in love with the little guy. When they left on their travels around the Mediterranean in the spring, Spud, now known as Finn, went with them!

In the beginning he was a little seasick, but we hear that he has now found his sealegs and is enjoying all the fresh fish! You can follow Greg and Julie’s sailing adventures here.

One afternoon we received a report of a paralyzed cat seen by the side of a road in Ammoudara earlier in the day. Without a lot of hope of finding her we set out to take a look and found her straight away. She was unable to walk and was pulling herself along dragging her useless back legs behind her.

Although not optimistic about her chances we took her to our local vet, and luckily he could find no permanent damage. We were advised to let her have cage rest and medicine and see what happened.

What happened was our own small miracle. Over the next few weeks Trixie, as she had been named, gradually began to move around and try to walk. Her back legs were very wobbly to begin with but improved every day.

A local couple, Tessa and Tony saw her at our clinic and fell in love with her – and in no time Lady Trixie Wigglebottom moved in with them. We know she will have a wonderful life there; she is such a lucky girl, she has gone from scavenging in the dustbins to premium cat food, her own soft bed and a lot of love