This is a complicated story in one sense because Charlie was a feral cat who has become a love bug but his years on the street left him with some tough health problems. He should be adopted quickly because he is a really lovely cat by the look of it but his health issues need to be taken into consideration.
The Dodo video explains the back story but they left out some important details about his health which the rescue tell us about on their Facebook page.
An interesting aspect of his health treatments was to fix ‘huge open sores on his neck’. The vet said they were probably a symptom of a food allergy and she/he was proved correct. I think that was a great diagnosis.
They eliminated fish from his diet and fed him with chicken and turkey based foods. This fixed the problem but it took a long time.
As Charlie is FIV+ they add lysine to his food. I have several pages on L-lysine as a treatment for cat flu caused by the herpes virus.
FIV+ cats live good lives in good homes. There is a lot of talk about FIV+ cats living with FIV- cats. It is generally considered acceptable as the disease is transmitted by fights leading to bites. Fights are rare in well managed homes. So they are very adoptable.
He had ten teeth extracted too! Wow, he had bad oral health which is pretty common in neglected cats.
Charlie may still be up for adoption. If you are interested I think he is still at the cat rescue Sunset Park Cats which is based in Brooklyn, New York. You can contact them trough their Facebook page – click her to get to it – and use the send message button under the header image.
SOME STUFF ON CATS WITH FOOD ALLERGIES:
