A down-on-his luck Persian cat was completely matted and in terrible shape when he was found and rescued near Auckland City, New Zealand.
It took 3 hours to cut and shave Shrek’s mats, and he is being treated for an infected area on his face that was flyblown and infested with maggots. Now Shrek is getting the help he needs.
The good news for Shrek is that he is getting good care and help on the road to recovery.
Shrek was discovered by a good Samaritan when he ended up outside her home. His matted fur has been cut off thanks to Dr. Brett Finlayson, of the Orewa Vet Hospital, where he is receiving medical treatment. He is in the care of Gutter Kitties, a Charitable Trust that rescues and rehomes abandoned, surrendered, and mistreated cats and kittens in Auckland.
Shrek has been named for a famously matted sheep.
Gutter Kitties wrote about Shrek at Facebook, with an initial post and a followup, saying:
INCOMING – This is heartbreaking. Although this boy looks like he has some unknotted fur around his head, he doesn’t. He doesn’t have one square centimetre of unknotted fur anywhere. He can’t close his mouth, the smell is horrendous. We are hoping it is infection rather than cancer, as infection can be treated.
A MASSIVE thank you to Brett from Orewa Veterinary Centre, who, as always, has put an animals welfare before his own, and met me at the clinic outside of hours to provide this boy with pain relief and antibiotics. He is spending the night at the vet where he can settle, pain relief can kick in, and tomorrow he will be sedated and shaved, and the mouth issue investigated.
The skin beneath all of these knots will be a mess, and he will be on a minimum on extended antibiotics and pain relief. We do not know whether he is friendly or not, his pain ruling his emotions.
We will be looking at a fee of quite a few hundred dollars, and more depending on what is going on inside his mouth. If anyone would like to make a small donation towards this boys care, we would appreciate it (as would he) more than we can express.
Donations can be made to Gutter Kitties 06-0479-0077973-00 using the reference “Shrek”, or to our Givealittle page. We will provide an update as soon as we have one. Until then, we have EVERYTHING crossed that there is nothing we cannot fix with this poor boy.
UPDATE 25/10/15 @ 3.30pm – Brett The Vet spent a grueling 3 hours grooming Shrek under anaesthetic today, as you can expect his skin is a mess, but should heal quickly. The mouth issue – on a good note, his teeth and gums are fine – on a bad note, his mouth and face was badly fly blown. Nothing that can’t be fixed, but we do not know yet how long this will take to heal. The good news is he can only go forward now. He will spend today and tomorrow relaxing at the vet clinic where he can get some healing underway, and we will get some photos and another update on Tuesday and a better idea of when we can bring him home and place him in foster. We would like to express our thanks to everyone who has made a donation towards Shrek’s care – you are all amazing, and its because of you that we can make a difference to the lives of cats like Shrek. He has a way to go, but we are very pleased with the outcome so far, and cannot thank Brett enough for coming out on a call out twice so far this long weekend to treat him.
Auckland Now/Stuff NZ published a story on Shrek Sunday, saying he was found Saturday afternoon by Whangaparaoa resident Megan Moss, who described his appalling state of neglect. Megan said the cat was very smelly and appeared as “just a live ball of dreadlocks with big eyes.”
Veterinarian Brett Finlayson gave Shrek’s age as about 6-7 years old and confirmed that he is neutered.
Dr. Finlayson removed Shrek’s mats in a 3 hour session Sunday morning, for which the cat was placed under anaesthetic. The maggot-infested infection on Shrek’s face was treated and thee cat was given antibiotics and pain meds.
“He must’ve been living wild or something because there was a huge amount of matting on there,” the vet said, adding that Shrek must have been living on his own for at least 6 to 9 months.
Dr. Finlayson said he will have a better idea of Shrek’s long-term prognosis by Tuesday
Gutter Kitties will place Shrek in a foster home when he is recovered from his ordeal and has been released by his vet.
