Nelly was rescued by a few groups of passers-by. One couple helped find our contact information so they could reach out for help. One brave uncle used a broom to shoo away the dogs. Eventually, Lynn and her family managed to grab Nelly out of the melee and brought her to a 24 hour veterinary clinic. It cost them a fortune of course, but they got an antibiotics shot for to last for a day. The off hours vet also suspected that Nelly had more than a flesh wound as there was a lump on her abdomen.
When Lynn contacted us we realised that we needed a plan for Nelly as she was not going to be able to return to the streets till she recovered. We are very grateful that Lynn is willing to foster Nelly, so that is a huge burden lifted and savings on resources.
Next, a veterinary action plan. Because Nelly did not receive surgery immediately, she had to go on antibiotics first. This is because if the surgery is not immediate, the wound will become swollen and inflamed, which requires antibiotics to bring down before surgery, otherwise the stitches would open and the wound ruptures. The antibiotics also prevents infection, abscesses from developing. Because Nelly's first antibiotics dose was only a 24 hour jab, she needed a new course before surgery.
Secondly, the strange bump on her abdomen. Dog attacks can cause hernias, which is essentially that the internal organs get pushed out of position, causing a distended abdomen. A serious diaphragmatic hernia can cause a cat to not be able to walk, even fainting spells, and needs surgery to repair. So this also needed to be looked at as soon as possible.
We brought Nelly to The Animal Clinic on Monday. Dr Hsu confirmed that Nelly had a hernia, and manually repositioned it for her. We had to make sure that the hernia did not recur, because if the lump came back, or grew bigger, it will need to fixed in surgery. Nelly wasn't eating well but Dr Hsu believed it to be stress. She did not show any other symptoms. Because of her poor appetite and needing to observe if the hernia returned, surgery was scheduled for this coming Tuesday.
So far Lynn has been taking really awesome care of Nelly. Nelly's appetite returned, Lynn and her family have been medicating her with the antibiotics, and she is now relaxed in her foster home. The hernia has not returned. So the surgery will go ahead as planned on Tuesday to stitch up her leg. After that she will recuperate at Lynn's.
We would like to thank many cat angels have already given to our Stray Cat Fund to help cover Nelly's expenses. Because of your gifts, stray cats like Nelly have a rescue option beyond SPCA, which would not have been able to tend to cases like Nelly's because they do not have a hospitalisation facility. Also, gifts to the Stray Cat Fund aid in sharing the resource burden that every cat rescue requires. Many cat lovers want to rescue stray cats in need, some like Lynn even open their own homes up to foster them, but not everyone can pay the veterinary fees required upfront before appealing for donations either via Cat Welfare's Special Appeals or on their own.
Setting up the Stray Cat Fund, to pay for veterinary needs of injured or ill stray cats in emergencies where rescuers do not have enough capital themselves, has added a new dimension to stray cat rescue in our country, thanks to all of you cat angels who have given before. We are passionate about continuing work like this. Join us in making a change for the cat rescue climate in Singapore, by making a financial contribution today. Make a deposit to POSB savings 188-52652-7 and email us to indicate your gift to the Stray Cat Fund.
NB. If you need a receipt we can mail one to you, just provide us your mailing address! Hard copies only. We cannot receive financial gifts for a single named cat alone, contribution will go into the targetted fund, in this case, Stray Cat Fund. You can read more about Stray Cat Fund here.
Thank you for being a big part of our rescue mission.
