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A little black stray cat or kitten has been hanging around our house in the tall grass and bushes for about a week. We just started feeding her about three days ago and we got her to the point where she was on our patio and even hopped in the chair with me and allowed me to pet her. We live in a retirement (55+ community) so we think either she was abandoned or her owner dies, etc. she is in somewhat rough shape, very skinny, matted fur and sneezing, but all I all she is alert and seems at home around our area to the extent she was coming to our slider and meowing at our two cats and dogs. Not sure if she wanted us to let her in?
Yesterday, we decided we wanted to adopt her, so we got a cardboard box with holes floor vet, lured her onto the patio and I picked her up with welding gloves that I had on and my husband was in charge of the box. Suffice to say, it did not go well. The cat went nuts and in the process scratched my arm and pee'd through the box and got away. She is now viewing us from afar and is very Leary of coming close while I am outside. She will not go near my husband. We were eating lunch today in our kitchen which has a slider to the patio and the kitty decided to jump up on one of our loungers we she stared at us through the slider along with our cats.
We got a trap today from the local animal control, put tuna in a bowl to trap her for the vet. After 6 hours she went near the trap and instead o f going in and letting the door spring her in the trap like a good kitty she stuck her paw in the wire in the back of the trap and pulled chunks of tuna out of the bowl!
We are looking for any help and advice on how to trap her so we can bring her to the vet and hopefully adopt her if she is in good health and not affect our other pets. Our neighbors think we should not feed her and let her starve, which I my husband and I will not do!!
The animal control guy told me that we also need to catch her since I was scratched, in case she has rabies??!
I have never heard of such a thing and he really freaked me out. I thought if you were bit, then that might be an issue?? If any of you have been stray/feral cat wranglers, please weigh in. I washed the scratch off with water and bedadine and put an antibiotic ointment and I thought that was fine. I also had a tetnus shot about two years ago, so I should be good on that.
Keep feeding it. Eventually the fear will go away and you'll be able to capture it again. Get a carrier and set it on end. You then lower the cat in hind quarters first so the opening is out of view. You may have to let it fall in the last little bit and shut the door--fast.
Sorta sounds like the cat I found outside my girlfriends house. Except this P-I-A decided right away she wasnt walking away from free food and care for life. Walked right into the garage and made herself at home.
What happens if we cannot catch her and she disappears. I am hoping even if we can't catch her, we can observe her for 10 days ( I think that was what the animal control officer said) to see if she is OK, which would mean she did not have rabies. I had rabies shots two years ago. Do I need to have the booster? Oh, I hope not!!
Sandy
Two years is how long the manufacturer recommends before a booster should be given to people who work in high risk environments (i.e. labs.) But you should be able to get a titer done....they'll draw some blood and that will let them see if you still have antibiotics and are still protected.
The reason they suggest it even with a scratch is that rabies is spread in the saliva, so if the cat licks it's paw before it scratches it could in theory spread the disease.
It's very, very unlikely that she's infected, but it's better to be safe than sorry. I would visit your doctor and ask about getting a titer.
Otherwise, you just want to watch her for 10 days. As far as gaining her trust, I would back off for now. Start leaving food outside the trap and move it just a tiny bit closer each day. I would actually try putting it under something before you put it in the trap...something like a high box or a cloth stretched between chairs. You want her to get used to walking 'into' something before you try to get her in the trap. Talk to her and sit near her if she'll allow it, but don't reach for her...if you try right now and fail again, you probably won't see her again.
There are a lot of great websites about catching feral. I also recommend looking at the website for Ally Cat Allies and seeing if they have a group in your area. Not too long ago on this forum we had a situation where someone was trying to trap a feral and Ally Cat Allies were a great help.
A little black stray cat or kitten has been hanging around our house in the tall grass and bushes for about a week. We just started feeding her about three days ago and we got her to the point where she was on our patio and even hopped in the chair with me and allowed me to pet her.
If she jumped on the chair with you and let you pet her, she isn't feral and should have allowed you to pick her up barehanded. Why did you put welding gloves on? That would frighten any cat. You're not likely to get rabies from a scratch.
FYi---I put welding gloves on to protect my hands and elbows since we were putting her in a cardboard box and we had no way of knowing how she would react.
UPDATE
We finally trapped her Tues night and brought her to our vet on Wednesday morning. I really appreciate all the advice and that helped in finally getting her trapped. Our vet examined her and she was missing all of her teeth, except her canines. Unfortunately, they were also inflamed. He said cats can do fine on soft food with no teeth! That explains why she would not eat hard food when we were feeding her and I switched to soft which she wolfed down. She has hook and tape worm which our vet said was typical with a stray and he thinks she is 4 or 5 years old, but could not tell for sure because she was missing teeth. She is so tiny, I thought she was a kitten.
She also has a respiratory infection that they are giving her antibiotics for. She has a half tail and they think she was not born that way. I feel so sorry for this poor cat, who must of been owned by someone at one time since she is so friendly and is quite a talker. I can only imagine this cat's history if she could talk. She will be with our vet for 10 days for observation and so they can "tune"her up and get her better. I called to see how she was doing and the vet tech say is doing OK and eating pooping, peeing. Etc., however her bathroom habits are troubling us at this point. The vet tech says sometimes she goes in the box,but most time she poops and pees on the towel,not inside the box. My husband says if she can't use the litter box that is a game changer for us and we cannot take her,which would be so sad. We are also concerned with our other two cats if she starts going out of the box in our house. After all of this, I hope she can relearn how to use a litter box. Any advice on this?? All of the strays that I have adopted never had any problem with a litter box. Is this a strange situation? Is there anything we can do in our house to try and make this successful?
Again, any help would be much appreciated, since I do not want to give her up to a no kill shelter.
Thanks so much!
Sandy
FYi---I put welding gloves on to protect my hands and elbows since we were putting her in a cardboard box and we had no way of knowing how she would react.
UPDATE
We finally trapped her Tues night and brought her to our vet on Wednesday morning. I really appreciate all the advice and that helped in finally getting her trapped. Our vet examined her and she was missing all of her teeth, except her canines. Unfortunately, they were also inflamed. He said cats can do fine on soft food with no teeth! That explains why she would not eat hard food when we were feeding her and I switched to soft which she wolfed down. She has hook and tape worm which our vet said was typical with a stray and he thinks she is 4 or 5 years old, but could not tell for sure because she was missing teeth. She is so tiny, I thought she was a kitten.
She also has a respiratory infection that they are giving her antibiotics for. She has a half tail and they think she was not born that way. I feel so sorry for this poor cat, who must of been owned by someone at one time since she is so friendly and is quite a talker. I can only imagine this cat's history if she could talk. She will be with our vet for 10 days for observation and so they can "tune"her up and get her better. I called to see how she was doing and the vet tech say is doing OK and eating pooping, peeing. Etc., however her bathroom habits are troubling us at this point. The vet tech says sometimes she goes in the box,but most time she poops and pees on the towel,not inside the box. My husband says if she can't use the litter box that is a game changer for us and we cannot take her,which would be so sad. We are also concerned with our other two cats if she starts going out of the box in our house. After all of this, I hope she can relearn how to use a litter box. Any advice on this?? All of the strays that I have adopted never had any problem with a litter box. Is this a strange situation? Is there anything we can do in our house to try and make this successful?
Again, any help would be much appreciated, since I do not want to give her up to a no kill shelter.
Thanks so much!
Sandy
First, it's so great that you're trying so hard to help this kitty. The world needs more people like you.
Her litter box habits might possibly be a result of the worms and might improve after treatment. Worms can cause digestive upset, so she might be feeling some urgency. She also has probably never had a chance to develop good habits. While she's at the vet and confined would be a good time to try to help her learn. I would look into buying some kitty litter with cat attract properties and asking your vet to use it for her. You should be able to buy it at Petsmart or any other large petstore. It contains a substance that helps the cat recognize that the litter box is the place to go.
I'm a little concerned about her teeth. She will do fine on wet food, but the question is why did she lose them in the first place? Did your vet test her for FIV and FeLV?
The other possible cause could be stomatitis, which is an inflammatory disorder of the mouth that cause inflammation of the gums and often results in the loss of teeth. Ask the vet to check the back of her throat to see if that's inflamed as well. If it is stomatitis, her treatment options will depend on if her teeth are actually gone completely or if the roots remain. One of the treatments for this disorder is actually removing the teeth, so it's better if they're completely. She may need steroids and antibiotics (though steriods may have to wait until her upper respiratory infection is cleared up.)
Genetically some cats do just have bad teeth and lose them young, but please ask her vet about FeLV and FIV testing just in case
FYi---I put welding gloves on to protect my hands and elbows since we were putting her in a cardboard box and we had no way of knowing how she would react.
UPDATE
We finally trapped her Tues night and brought her to our vet on Wednesday morning. I really appreciate all the advice and that helped in finally getting her trapped. Our vet examined her and she was missing all of her teeth, except her canines. Unfortunately, they were also inflamed. He said cats can do fine on soft food with no teeth! That explains why she would not eat hard food when we were feeding her and I switched to soft which she wolfed down. She has hook and tape worm which our vet said was typical with a stray and he thinks she is 4 or 5 years old, but could not tell for sure because she was missing teeth. She is so tiny, I thought she was a kitten.
She also has a respiratory infection that they are giving her antibiotics for. She has a half tail and they think she was not born that way. I feel so sorry for this poor cat, who must of been owned by someone at one time since she is so friendly and is quite a talker. I can only imagine this cat's history if she could talk. She will be with our vet for 10 days for observation and so they can "tune"her up and get her better. I called to see how she was doing and the vet tech say is doing OK and eating pooping, peeing. Etc., however her bathroom habits are troubling us at this point. The vet tech says sometimes she goes in the box,but most time she poops and pees on the towel,not inside the box. My husband says if she can't use the litter box that is a game changer for us and we cannot take her,which would be so sad. We are also concerned with our other two cats if she starts going out of the box in our house. After all of this, I hope she can relearn how to use a litter box. Any advice on this?? All of the strays that I have adopted never had any problem with a litter box. Is this a strange situation? Is there anything we can do in our house to try and make this successful?
Again, any help would be much appreciated, since I do not want to give her up to a no kill shelter.
Thanks so much!
Sandy
You are good people.
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Update on our stray cat!
