NICKI and I spent several days in Turkey last July,
during which we performed neutering operations
at two centres on the Turquoise Coast.

By Sarah M. A. Caney BVSc PhD DSAM(Feline) MRCVS RCVS,
Specialist in Feline Medicine.

Our first stop was a cat shelter in a little village in the mountains near Marmaris, run by a British lady called Jeannie. What started off as a small set-up several years ago has expanded, and Jeannie now single handedly looks after around 250 cats. Jeannie accepts any cats brought to the shelter as well as helping to re-home street cats from Marmaris. The cats are housed in large groups and have generous outdoor runs as well as sheltered ‘houses’ and shady areas in which to escape the sun. In spite of the huge number of cats in the shelter, almost all were in excellent body condition, and were very happy and well socialised. Unfortunately, flu viruses do cause some problems in the shelter, which is not surprising, considering the number of cats housed. Our task at Jeannie’s was to neuter several new cats - Jeannie also has regular visits from Dutch vets who help to do some neutering for her.

Another of Jeannie Lucky Cats.

Facilities were basic - we were operating in a back room of Jeannie’s house and suffered frequent power cuts - but all of the cats coped well with their operations. We used a single intramuscular injection to anaesthetise the cats and once they were asleep we gave them further injections of painkillers and antibiotics. The anaesthetic gave us 40 minutes to do the surgery, which was plenty of time to allow us to also apply flea treatment and examine the cats for any other problems. All of the neutered cats had ear tattoos so that it would be possible to identify that they had been spayed.

Part of Jeannie Enclosure

Our next stop was along the coast in a village called Gocek, where we were to be confronted with a very different operation run by the “Gocek friends of the environment and animals”. Our two days neutering here was done as a ‘catch, neuter and release’ scheme. The stray cats were in the majority wild, and we were glad of the crush cage, gauntlets gloves and cat catcher we had burdened our luggage with, initially thinking them unnecessary after meeting the well-handled cats at the Marmaris shelter. Our theatre this time was a purpose built room, with a proper operating table, based in the village’s fire station, with resident firemen whose frequent provision of ‘chai’ kept us going. We had a small army of willing helpers, including two German girls we quickly turned into competent nursing assistants.

Many of the cats were Pregnant.

Others were out trapping cats, and others were vital translators for some locals, who, hearing that vets were in town, were bringing their sick cats and kittens to be examined. Several of the cats had rotten mouths, and we even managed to perform some dental surgery in spite of our inadequate equipment! In all we neutered almost 40 cats. It was not a surprise to find that several of the cats we neutered were pregnant already, but it was satisfying to know that we were helping to prevent future population explosions through our work there. It was distressing to see so many pregnant cats and entire male cats when we travelled on to Istanbul. These cats were often in poor body condition and would have benefited from the sort of work that Nicki and I did on the south coast of Turkey.

A Patient post op in the theatre.

We were genuinely very grateful for the amazing hospitality that we were met with in Turkey, especially from Jeannie, Sina and Gulden. Nicki and I left the south coast of Turkey feeling that we had done some good for these albeit small populations of cats.

One of Jeannie Cats enjoy the sunshine.

Nicki and I would like to thank everyone who supported us - without your help this trip would not have been possible. The sponsorship money also enabled us to send some Feline Advisory Bureau Cat Rescue manuals to each of the shelters we visited and a Dutch charity that helped us to organise our trip.

Preparing a patient for her operation.

Nicki Grint and I would like to thank the members and supporters of the following cat groups for their extremely generous donations which made a charitable neutering trip to Turkey possible last summer:

Delegates at the GCCF Council Meeting - July 2004;
London Cat Club;
Supporters of the Celtic Longhair & Semi Longhair Cat Club Show;
Longhair & Semi Longhair Cat Association;
Exotic Cat Club;
National Cat Club.

Sarah had tiny Turtisk Cat

The operating Theatre in Gocek

If you yould like more information or would like to make a donation, you can contact:

Sina Karadag: Gocek Friends of the Environment and Animals.
sina.karadag@teklan.com.tr OR
Jeannie Thirkill: Jeannie Thirkill Marmaris Cat Shelter.
Jeannie@Marmarisinfo.com
www.marmarisinfo.com/kittycat/