* Van Gogh found his forever home with awesome people! Yay! *

Van Gogh arrived at Hamilton Animal Services as a stray, but no owner came forward to claim him. He was infested with fleas and earmites, and he had a large, nasty looking mass in his ear. He was scratching at his ear so much, shelter staff had to put a cone on him to ensure he didn’t do any further damage.
We got Van Gogh into the vet on his rescue day, and the vet advised that inside the ear was an ulcerated mass. It was quite smelly and infected. On top of that, many of Van Gogh’s teeth are fractured and rotten. A blood test showed that Van Gogh is FIV and FeLV negative (yay!), and that he was healthy enough for surgery.  A week after his rescue, Van Gogh had surgery to remove the mass in his ear, and to extract broken and rotten teeth. Turns out, there were many other smaller masses deeper in his ear canal. As many as possible of the visible masses were removed, and the largest one was sent out for testing and the test came back saying the results were “inconclusive” but the masses were likely not cancerous.

Van Gogh was also suffering from itchy skin allergies that he was put on medication and hypoallergenic food for. Our vets are recommending he stay on these meds and food for the long term to keep the allergies in check. His adopters will also have to keep a close eye on his ear and let their vet know if any of the masses return.
Here’s a note from his foster home:
“Van Gogh is a sweet, playful purr factory. He loves to be held and be around you. He spends a lot of his day snoozing and purring in the chair, and greets you at the door when you come home. He loves to share the bed, although he also loves to hog it. For someone adopting Van Gogh it is important to know that he is on a special dry food only diet and daily medicine. He is great at taking the oral medication, and likes his dry food. This special food and medicine will keep him thriving and happy and healthy so please consider this before submitting an application. Van Gogh also likes to talk to you when you are around, chase bouncy balls and laser pointers, and will always try to sit on your lap. He is a very gentle cat and would be good around children or the elderly. He has nothing but love to give, and he deserves to go to a furrever home that will love him to the moon and back and take good care of him.”