Kabul Small Animal Rescue

15/09/2025

This morning our vets performed a back leg amputation on Janan, removing the entire femur instead of leaving the proximal half in place. The bone was too badly shattered and there was considerable necrotic tissue around it. The vets are optimistic about her prognosis and she’s being closely monitored. She’s been up and about today, getting her balance and eating heartily.

15/09/2025

Our kitties are keeping clean and pretty today. We’ve got a busy week ahead, and at halfway through the month, we’re not even close to halfway through our fundraising needs. We really need funds to feed our animals in residence and our hospital patients. Every donation helps, and for just $25 you can feed an animal for a month. https://secure.givelively.org/donate/kabul-small-animal-rescue/animal-food-september-2025

15/09/2025

Rocket and Drake came to us in January of 2023 as newborns with their mother Pistachio. Two of our ‘bridge rescues,’ a group of 31 dogs we brought in on the same day, they were not able to find placement in last year’s airlift, so along with several of Mazzy and Judy’s puppies, they’ve stayed in their puppy pack here in Kabul. Rocket, the shorter dark brown boy, has some front limb deformities that aren’t uncommon here, but so far they don’t bother him at all.

We are hopeful that the rescues brought in yesterday will heal from their surgeries quickly and find themselves as much at home as these two. So far, Charlie and Janan are up and active following their amputations, and Dougie’s leg has been put in a cast.

14/09/2025

And Charlie is up and motoring around, following the clinic staff for some treats! Our veterinary team is full of miracle workers, truly.

14/09/2025

Charlie came through his emergency amputation surgery very well and is awake and eating. While he was undergoing surgery, not one but two more urgent cases came in, both young puppies with broken limbs, likely car accidents. The first, Janan, is a young female with a severe break in the femur that has smashed enough of the growth plate that the back leg will need to be amputated in the morning. Tonight, she's happily eating some yummy canned food (yes, we will take up food at midnight in preparation for surgery). The second, Dougie, is a little boy with breaks to his tibia and fibula shafts, but he is getting a cast put on the leg--right now--and we're hopeful surgical intervention will not be needed. I cannot express how valuable the x-ray machine has been to us in properly treating all of these cases, and so many more.

We have 9 cats being treated for ongoing FIP and all are stable right now, blessedly, and that's because we have access to remdesivir and GS4. We are picking up another large batch of GS4 oral capsules this week, an order large enough to finish the courses of treatment for these many cats. We're also going to order another 10 bottles of anesthesia, because between the many emergency orthopedic surgeries, the routine spay/neuter surgeries, and the dental cleanings and surgeries, we've gone through much more than usual.

This has been an exhausting week, and we've got a lot of work ahead of us. Please consider helping us with our food or rent expenses this weekend if you're able to. We've made headway on both, but need to keep pushing. I promise you, we're putting in every bit as much effort here as we ask of you. These little souls in our care are worthy of no less.

14/09/2025

Being overloaded with cases doesn't mean we don't have more coming in, and our team has just now brought in a severely injured adult male cat, Charlie. His back leg has a bad break and long laceration, and the vets have rushed him into an emergency amputation surgery--the leg is simply not savable. The vets are hopeful, however, that they can save his life. Keep him in your thoughts.

14/09/2025

Our tiny kittens Mano and Meshi survived the night, and Dr. Jalil is caring for them now. We are still struggling to raise the initial amount needed for the FIP medicine, so please take a look at the open links in our ‘about’ section. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy watching the fearless happy puppy play of Calliope and Delnaz as much as we do. Anyone remembering their scared faces on arrival would hardly recognize them now.

13/09/2025

Yesterday morning baby kitten Felix, just two months old, was found dead beside his littermates Mano and Meshi. Just hours before, he'd been active and eating treats with his brother and sister, with no obvious decline. This morning, after Mano and Meshi plateaued on weight gain for two days running, Mano had a positive snap test for FIP. We've started both kittens on GS4 oral medication, anti-nausea meds, fluids, and antibiotics, and here you can see them having a midnight snack under the watchful eye of Dr. Iqbal, their vet tonight. We've seen improvement in the past few hours and believe that if they survive the night, they've got a real chance.

FIP is not necessarily the death sentence it once was. But in a country where we have to fly out to pick up medications and have no ability to do basic bloodwork, we are always flying blind. This afternoon we tested Sissy, one of our older kittens who's had a slightly upset tummy today, and she also was positive for FIP, so we're treating the entire group of kittens. We're digging into the most recent studies on managing FIP in group settings and reaching out to vets at research universities. There is much we know, more we don't know, and risks all around. I will not hash out every medical detail and argument about viral mutation and cell biology on social media, much as experts often crawl out of the woodwork--many of the well intentioned. Just know that we are doing our best. Our cats are in multiple facilities, which we've been treating as quarantined from each other for several months now, and not all of our facilities have been affected, but we are being careful and responsible.

FIP medicine is key here. It's expensive, but oral GS4 is the best chance we've got of stopping any viral shedding and treating those currently ill. They're outrageously pricey and there are no discounts. Yes, I have asked, and no, I haven't found better options. Sadly, we might be increasing the goal of this fundraiser, which has already been going at a crawl. I wish there were pharmaceutical grants or FIP pharmaceutical donations forthcoming, but there aren't. And right now, I'm grateful that treatment exists at all, but we need more of this magical antiviral. It gives us the best chance to save the lives of these babies we love so much.

https://secure.givelively.org/donate/kabul-small-animal-rescue/fip-medicine-for-shelter-cats

13/09/2025

Our posts that directly link to fundraisers like this are usually hidden by Facebook, so we have to do workarounds and hope that people make the effort to find our links and go that extra mile. It's going to be a long night at the clinic tonight, and likely a long week. We're all pretty tired, and nearly halfway through the month, we've raised just a few hundred dollars towards the feeding our animals this September. For $25, you can buy a sandwich, fries and coffee for lunch in a US city, or feed an animal for a month here in Afghanistan. The animals we care for are worth the cost, and we need help right now.

We feed nearly 400 animals a day with home-cooked meals, made fresh twice daily. We supplement with dry food and vitamins for dogs and cats, and stick to a raw diet fo...

13/09/2025

Our veterinary team is working on some difficult critical cases right now that are taking up a lot of time and energy. We try not to weigh down people’s spirits with constant news and posts about the harder cases here, the many traumatic emergency cases that don’t make it, the huge load of medical care we deal with daily, but it is a constant for us. The workload is immense and heartbreaking and just plain difficult and complicated.

Showcasing the joy and the happy cases keeps us all going, and helps make our mission here clear, so today we’ve got some delightful snapshots of our little trio Lego, Arturo, and Hashi. We’ve also put up some sweet videos of them on our Patreon page, and if you’re looking for an easy way to help us regularly that doesn’t break the bank, it’s wonderful for us: https://www.patreon.com/kabulsmallanimalrescue

We’ll give a more thorough update on the emergency cases here when there’s time to come up for air, but in the meantime, I’ll try to give you batches of some of our wonderful new puppies. And please, keep helping us even if we’re not begging. We only don’t beg all the time to avoid sounding like a broken record. We need the help, truly.

13/09/2025

Our kitties are some of our smallest residents, but showered with love and attention. We're $1300 away from reaching the funds needed to cover the batches of FIP medicine we've had to use recently. Every donation helps us give our best to these babies.

https://secure.givelively.org/donate/kabul-small-animal-rescue/fip-medicine-for-shelter-cats

12/09/2025

So happy to share this lovely update about Elsa from her former foster: "Elsa came to the U.S. in June 2024 & Traveling Tails Dog Rescue took her in. My husband & I were fostering her & one day, while on our front porch our neighbor came by to talk & met Elsa. He fell in love with her but the important thing was going to be how was Elsa going to be with their 3 yo son. Well, mom & son came over & it was love. A year later and they cannot believe what a good dog she is. 'She’s the best dog ever' is all I hear."

Elsa came to KSAR in April of 2021 with two newborn puppies. One of our staff found her in a sewer with the newborns, Pablo and Rosa, and both Elsa and Rosa were part of our 2024 airlift to the US. Pablo is still with us, a big sweet boy like his mom!