New Arrival: Sylvester

New Arrival: Sylvester

New arrival Bradford Cat Watch Rescue & Sanctuary
This is sweet Sylvester.

Sylvester has had his world turned uoside down and inside out. Police officers forced entry into a property with welfare concerns for the man who lived there. It is with great sadness that Sylvester’s owner was found deceased and likely had been for some time before the alarm was raised.

Unfortunately due to the tragic circumstances Sylvester had absolutely no access to food or water for the time he was in there with his late owner. Sylvester is too poorly for bloodwork today however is currently on intravenous fluids to help treat his severe dehydration.

Whilst its tempting to want to feed Sylvester lots of treats we are only able to give him a teaspoon of food every 2 hours for the next 48 hours. The reason for feeding him such small amounts is we do not want to cause life threatening “Refeeding Syndrome”. This syndrome is reported relatively commonly in critical human patients being fed after a period of malnourishment and is now recognised in veterinary medicine too. The body’s metabolism changes dramatically during starvation to prevent protein and muscle breakdown.

Refeeding leads to a surge of insulin, which may result in severe electrolyte shifts including hypokalaemia, hypomagnesaemia and hypophosphataemia. These electrolyte shifts can cause severe clinical signs, and may even be fatal.

Sylvester’s prognosis is not good however we will try our best to keep him comfortable and against the odds hope for a full recovery.