Paka Clinic Zanzibar

04/09/2025

Shhh… still a little secret. Here’s Dr. Goodluck, our Head Veterinarian, enjoying his well-deserved breakfast after an early morning street patrol in Stone Town.
Since last week, Paka Cafe has quietly opened its doors! We’re in the training phase with our wonderful team, Saida and Rahika, and still fine-tuning our menu.
We’ll make a big splash once everything feels just right – because we want to offer you nothing less than our very best.

Send a message to learn more

31/08/2025

More and more often, people bring us their pet cats for hospitalization—sometimes due to accidents or open wounds that won’t heal for a long time, and sometimes for lengthy, intensive treatments, such as in the case of cats suffering from the highly infectious disease Panleucopenia. Sadly, after successful treatment, some owners no longer want their cats back.
This leaves us with troubling questions: Did they only bring the cat to us as a way to get rid of it? Have they already replaced the cat with another pet after just two or three months? Has their life situation changed so drastically that they feel unable to keep the cat? Or are they simply afraid of the costs?
We face the costs of treatment regardless. But when the cat is abandoned with us, the burden grows much heavier—we must also cover the daily expenses of food, care, and space. Even though we insist that treatment costs must be paid for pets, it is still far better if you don't pay the treatment, but take your cat back, rather than leaving it behind. And this is not just about finances. As we have explained many times: former pet cats rarely feel well in a colony, which is the only option we can offer them. They long for human attention and affection, and sadly, we cannot provide the level of care they truly need.
Please, stop this heartbreaking behavior. It causes us enormous problems—but even worse, it causes grief and suffering for the cats.
In the photo, you see one of these unfortunate, beautiful cats who is deeply unhappy after being abandoned with us. Who will give him the forever home he deserves? Please call us at 0776 066 346. We can also introduce you to other lovely cats in need who were left behind.

24/08/2025

In Zanzibar – and perhaps everywhere - there is a big imbalance between all the kittens that are dumped and those that are adopted. We need to look for new solutions.
If a kitten stays with humans, with food, shelter and care, they are no longer able to cope with hard street life - we cannot just put them out later. To avoid this, we have found a way to raise kittens in a way they are still fit for street life. Already when they are very young - as soon as they are vaccinated - they live in groups and can go outside and return whenever they wish. Generally, we avoid keeping them alone in a cage for long, as they become too accustomed to people and don’t socialise enough with other cats, which is critically important for their survival chances in the street.
In our kitten room, where only tiny cats can come in, they remain as long as they wish and are small enough. Usually, they find their own place somewhere outside before being too big. For males this will be the case sometimes at 6 months already, depending on the dominant male in the area. For females sometimes only after 2 years, and for some never.
This is a good solution for us, not to have our places overcrowded.

23/08/2025

Look at this completely depressed cat! It’s a female who neutered and who still had a kitten, so she was operated on from the side, enabling her kitten to keep drinking without causing pain to the mama. Normally we operate from down, which is less likely to be seen.
However, when we wanted to return her to her owners, they didn’t want her back and had already dumped her kitten. The poor mama was destroyed. She is a beautiful very affectionate pet cat and really not made for street life. Sadly, this happens only too often that owners bring us their cats for treatment and once they are healed they don't want to take them back!
Please help her to be happy again, she deserves a very good home.

08/08/2025

HAVE YOU SEEN KIBI? Kibi is part of the cat colony behind the Big Tree and the Friday Mosque near the port, and hasn't been since for a week, which is very unusual.
Kibi is a 5 years old black and white neutered male. He is huge, but extremely anxious and might hide somewhere, not daring to come home. Best chance to see Kibi is at night, when there are less people around. Please tell us when you see him somewhere and phone 077 333 4490 Eva or send us a message.

03/08/2025

We read in social media that many people believe we do now also have a place in Mbweni. No, we do not – with our 8 fulltime employees and some helpers we can barely run the 2 clinics we do have and manage the street work properly.
Our 2 clinics are the old one in town behind the fish market in Malindi, and the newer place is close to the airport in Mombasa, just off the Fumba Road. You’ll find both clinics in google maps under Paka Clinic Malindi and Paka Clinic Mombasa.
And because we don’t have the capacity for opening both the whole day to the public - we also need to find time to care for our patients - Paka Clinic in town is open mornings only; Paka Clinic Mombasa is open monrnings and afternoons for the public.
It’s always better to phone before coming, just to be sure there is a vet on site and we can treat your pet timeously. Asanteni.
Medical issue: 0774 132 048
Admin & Adoption: 0766 066 346
Email: [email protected]

28/07/2025

Our new multi-story apartment building with restaurant in the house. Cats are happy with very simple things. And always curious to explore new things.

26/07/2025

Again and again we see animals in trouble being dumped on the street. Animals that need just the opposite - a lot of loving care and a good veterinarian.
Yesterday we found a young cat we’ve never seen before, completely new to the area, with heavy mites. Do people believe these animals are possessed by demons or what? Or do they think that they will catch the disease and get infected themselves?
No, they cannot pass on this small parasite to us humans, they are specific to cats. And yes, they can infect other cats with it. But mites are never as infectious as ringworm, a very common fungus in kittens and sometimes cats, that makes them lose their hair. Normally bald circles can be seen in the fur, and these are extremely infectious to other cats - but again: not much to humans, though you should avoid touching them directly. It’s true that some people do get ringworm, those sensitive to fungus. But it's easy to treat.
So cats with mites might look a bit like a demon, but they are often very affectionate guys full of love. Please don’t dump them, we can easily help them. With one month of medication, the problem is solved.
Picture 1: Mike as a small kitten full of mites
Picture 2: Mike 4 months later and much bigger. The mites themselves already disappear after 1 month of treatment.

22/07/2025

With so little you can help to make the life of our cats more comfortable and species-appropriate. Anxious cats especially appreciate having a small cardboard box in their cage where they can hide and feel safe. Young cats, too, also like to explore the new object and jump into and onto them, having now two floors to occupy.
When the cats change, we just burn the boxes and add the ashes to our compost, so we avoid any problems with hygiene. Please help us collecting small but strong and clean cardboard boxes and bring them to us. Asante sana.

04/07/2025

Soon after our last post about cats with a dirty mouth one of the local caretakers contacted us about a new cat that arrived in bad shape with a dirty mouth in the area where she looks after the street cat colony. She asked us to please take care of it. We are extremely grateful for our attentive caretakers who inform us in time. Alone we never could save so many cat lives, not knowing about where they may be cats in need.
The cat we found was an anxious young red male with big health troubles; we are now treating him in the clinic. After two weeks of intense care for cat flu, he is better. He was then strong enough for us to administer anaesthesia for the operation on his bad teeth.
This cat must have had terrible experiences with humans as he was very frightened of us and reacted aggressively - so not an easy patient for our vets. But we are trying to help him with causing as little stress to him as possible. Stress is never good for any healing, neither with humans nor for animals. He will still stay for a while with us and hopefully in the end have a better opinion about us humans.

17/06/2025

In the first photo you see a young cat close to dying; the second shows the same cat after 2 weeks of intense care in Paka Clinic.
With the risk of repeating ourselves: Please alert us if you see a cat that is very dirty around the mouth (especially if there a bad smell coming from the mouth), or even on the front legs and the chest. This cat has either a mouth infection or a problem with her teeth. She stops eating because it’s painful. But cats shouldn’t stay more than 2 days without food; complete fasting damages their liver and stops their appetite. In the clinic we frequently have to force-feed cats that have been too long without eating.
Mouth infections and tooth problems can usually be easily healed. It’s a pity when cats suffering from these problems die, just because nobody reacted in time and brought them to us too late to save their lives.
* Kitten is ready for adoption *