Heleno is a wild cat, (SOS Colónia dos Pupils) very friendly, but he stopped washing and eating. He had an infection in his mouth that would spread and he would eventually die, slowly. It was out of the question to ignore his suffering...
We are raising the value of the veterinary treatment that Heleno needed to get healthy again and for feeding, deworming and maintaining the colony's shelters. Heleno belongs to a cat colony in Benfica that has been in existence for 3 years, which is in the CED program (Capture-sterilization-return), where all 13 cats are sterilized, they are fed with their own food every day, they are dewormed. and they have 2 shelters that we built ourselves. All care is in charge of 4 caregivers, for 3 years. We paid for all 16 sterilizations - with colony discount -, we buy food that we give them every day, ration and humid, we pay for the internal and external deworming pills, we build the 2 shelters with pallets that we dismantle, we pay all the costs with vets that 3 of our cats needed: 'Pescocinho', around €100, to treat a generalized infection (which started in the mouth), 'Black', who had to be operated on because he had dirt/gravel in his stomach, around €200. We spend around €100 per month on food and €10 on deworming. In these 3 years, we only count on the following support: 180€ in purchases from Pingo Doce, in 2020, food every 4 months from Animalife (which has not been donating since the autumn of last year) and discount for the purchase price of deworming at the pet store near my house. None of our feline friends know how to make money, but they still need medicine, food and shelter maintenance.
We already had a situation similar to Heleno's and it was almost too late, luckily it had a good ending. However, some people we don't know give cats fishbones, bones and raw fish and meat, which you shouldn't give. We think that's why these cats have these problems. We didn't get free veterinary assistance, both because of the type of care he would need, because of the time it could take, because it's something that doesn't exist in Portugal. We had to go to a private veterinarian to treat Heleno, the cat, who unfortunately doesn't know how to make money.... Heleno had to be operated on for a gray matter he had on the back of his teeth, and they had to take out a lot of rotten teeth. He had to go to a private veterinarian specializing in dentistry. He also couldn't stay in the foster family much longer, after being under observation and on medication for about a month, as he could run the risk that, when he returned to the colony, he would be expelled from the colony because the other cats no longer recognized him. We have some pictures of him and the bill for his treatment. We need help paying it.
Pescocinho quando estava doente (final feliz!)
gatinhos da colónia: Preto
