Apologies to a reader
I get hit with so much bad spam on this blog. I just deleted your comment (entirely by accident) regarding your feral cat questions.
Please accept my apology. You were in the middle of hundreds of adult spam that was wiping my brain dry. If you repost your question, I will be happy to answer it. Or, if you prefer go to www.felinexpress.com into the forums and post it there.
Thank you and again please accept my apologies.
Today was interesting, one of the latest rescues, we are adapting to the shop due to him being a major problem sprayer. I set him up with all sorts of warm beds and pulled a cat condo into the tack room for him. He stayed there all morning and all afternoon, then tonight he came crying to the door. He is now upstairs in the computer room. It is dropping down into the teens tonight. But at least he has had an introduction to the shop and appears to like it there. I can’t blame him for coming in. It is miserably cold out there right now.
February 1st, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Hi again,
I am the reader whose question you erased. No problem. I just was wondering whether you know if feral cats will stay “cooped up” when it is very cold. I take care of a colony and most of them have failed to show up for dinner the last week (I live in a suburb of NY, it has been in the twenties the last week). I am especially worried about two three-month-old kittens. I haven’t seen them in days and I am worried that they succumbed to cold. I commute to work and am way until 8 PM every day, so I will not be able to look in the daylight to see if I find them. I am heartbroken thinking that the kittens died out in the cold. At the same tim, I notice that most of the other ferals have not come for their food in the last week so I am wondering what is going on with this behavior. I thought it sounded like you have a lot of experience and maybe you’d have some ideas.
Also, I have two rescue cats (one a feral kitten, another a two-year-old spayed female) staying with me and my female kitty right now and I am wondering if you have advice on how to help everyone get along better. The kitten and my cat get along fine, but the older female is very bossy and has my kitty scared of her own shadow. She is a little aggressive and is always picking fights with my kitty. Until I can find a home for the older girl, I need to find a way for everyone to live together. I live in a small studio apartment and the only room with a door is a tiny bathroom, so I don’t want to have to lock anyone in there. But I hate to see my cat living in fear and generally not enjoying herself in life. Do you have any suggestions.
I am kind of feeling overwhelmed by these kitty problems right now. Any advice you could offer would be appreciated. Thanks so much.
February 1st, 2007 at 5:25 pm
At three months old, kittens are very vulnerable to predators outside. Whether the elements got them, or something else, unless they are inside they really can’t be adequately protected. When it gets so cold the feral cats will dig in and find shelter. They sense the change in the weather long before any weatherman forecast. Leaving their food in the same place and also access to fresh water (not frozen) will help them make it through the cold spells. If you know where they do hide, stuffing their hidey hole with straw for insulation works to help them stay warm. But cold water can dehydrate just as quickly as hot weather can, so water is essential.
About your other problem, if there is no bloodshed, no emergency vet visits the cats will work it out for themselves. If you have access to a baby playpen, you can flip that upside down and use that as a temporary refuge for the new kitty. If it is a wooden playpen you can wrap pet-proof screening around the outside so the kitty doesn’t get through the cracks.
But really, unless they are locked together fighting, or airborne in battle, they will work it out.Their screams may be a bit unnerving, and their battles look fierce but for the most part, no bites, or blood usually no problem. I certainly wouldn’t bring anymore cats into the home. A studio apartment can get a bit crowded. Also provide space for the cats to get off the ground. Cat condos, clear off the top of a bookshelf, can they get up on the top of the refrigerator? If you take the pressure off them in a crowded situation by creating the illusion of space, it can help.
February 9th, 2007 at 8:41 am
Thanks for your input. The kittens showed up again, so I was very happy. However, the cold weather continues. I can;t figure out how to keep their water from freezing. I am going to check at the pet store to see if there’s any contraptions to keep it drinkable.
My biggest concern now is that one of the kittens appears to have some kind of eye infection. He looks otherwise in good shape, but I am worried about his eye. Have you ever dealt with eye infections in feral cats?
Again, thanks so much for your help. I feel like I am completely alone caring for these cats. Some of the people in the neighborhoos give me dirty looks when they see me dropping off food, even though I clean up every night and keep everything as neat as possible. I guess a lot of people don’t want cats around.
February 9th, 2007 at 9:47 am
Lizzy is there anyway that you can trap this kitten and get him looked at? Eye infections can mean so many things, herpes, conjunctivitis, upper respiratory infections even a precursor to an infectious disease. Is the nose also discharging? Is the discharge in the eye red, white, gooey, or crusty? These are things that a vet would know (probably in a glance). The one thing I do for the wild ones not yet trapped, is add to their waterbowl about 4 drops of GSE (Grapefruit Seed Extract) It has amazing properties to balance the system, get rid of bacterial infections.
I first stumbled on it through a holistic man that I know here in town. My one horse was having a terrible time fighing WLD (white line disease). I had gone as far as to take him to see the leading expert on WLD who is now deceased. White line is a bacterial infection or a fungus (they really aren’t sure what) Why it occurs, they don’t know, how to cure it, they can’t say. After running the gamet of harsh cleaners, soaking, elevating, scrapping and binding the hooves of my horse, he wasn’t getting better. He was still sore, gimpy and you could clearly see the parts of the hooves the WLD was attacking and eroding.
I left all the conventional means behind, and consulted Peter (the holistic man). He started me on a regimin of putting GSE (the liquid) on the hooves with a toothbrush, just a quick scrub. No binding, no soaking, no elevating the hoof to dry it out, just put the stuff on and let it work. In 7 days my horse could walk again! In a month he was cured. He hasn’t had a reoccurence since. I drop GSE in the water trough everytime I change the water. It won’t hurt my other horses only benefit them.
Then I really started talking about it, shared it with other horse owners, some battling WLD for years, and you know what? It worked! Then one year I got a tiny bundle, an orphaned kitten with goopy eyes. It was a Sun day so no vet was opened. I took and put 2 drops of GSE in the kitty’s formula. After a few feedings, his eyes looked better. In a few days his infection was gone. I was sold, and I have been using it since, both for my indoor colony and my outdoor. It can’t stop major diseases, but URI and conjunctivitis it can.
Again, I would suggest that you try and capture this kitten and get it to the vet to be looked at and even tested. As for how to keep the cats warmer- when the temps get down dangerously low, I feed warmed chicken broth (no salt or spices) I get about 4 whole chickens and just boil them. Then I freeze the broth. Unthaw as I need and feed it to the outside kitties. Gives them an extra layer of fat to ward off the cold, plus it puts water in their system.
Best of luck and thanks for fighting the good fight, when so many others simply turn their head and say “we don’t have feral cats in our neighborhood.” Bet me!
Oh, you can get GSE at any good health food store, or order it online. Use it sparingly if you go this route. It is potent, and also very bitter. Don’t test it yourself on your tongue. It has to be mixed in something, preferably water
February 9th, 2007 at 11:05 am
Oh my gosh! Thanks for the tip on the GSE. I HAVE heard it mentioned before as a good anti-infective. I am going to try it out. And the chicken broth tip is brilliant! I thought about giving them sardines to get them fatter for the cold, but I was afraid that someone would get a bone stuck in their throat. We lost a cat that way many years ago and it was heartbreak.
I have a trap that I borrowed from the local Animal Control. So I’ve been trying to get ready to trap the kittens, except I’ve never done it before and I am afraid of hurting them or of separating the two babies and having one out alone in the cold, among the older more aggressive cats in the colony. So it’s something I feel I will have to do, especially now with the eye, but I am a little bit spooked to do it as I have never trapped an animal. Also, I keep worrying about what I’m going to do with them once trapped, since my place is tiny. If push came to shove I could put the kittens in my tiny bathroom for a couple of days as an emergency measure. The local Animal Control lady said she would take them if they could be tamed, but I don’t want to end up euthanised. It was scary a few years back when we found out the shelter manager was not taking proper care of his wards and was just putting them to sleep without trying to adopt them. This is a new lady, and she seems better, but I am not sure I trust the shelter as an institution.
Taking care of cats has definitely been a learning thing for me. I’ve found that there are not enough resources to deal with the problems. So I’ve just fone what I could all along and tried to reach out to people who seem to care, though unfortunately most people are aloof. There’s lots of room for improvement. For instance, what if we could teach all children that we all share in the responsibility for animal welfare? We could have “animal welfare education” classes in schools. Wouldn’t it be great? A perfect world.
Thanks for caring, too.
February 9th, 2007 at 12:12 pm
Depending on the age of the kitten, you might be able to just grab it up. It takes some time and patience, a few days of feeding and sitting near the food bowl so the kitten gets used to your presence, but it can be done. If you set out a trap, you need to follow through with spaying and neutering any cat that ventures inside. There are kitten traps- your local animal shelter might have one of those, although adults can also get caught inside a kitten trap (if they are hungry enough).
February 9th, 2007 at 12:28 pm
I went to the health store and got the GSE. I’ll try a few drops in chicken broth tonight. Thanks so much for the tips. I’ll stop by again to read updates of your furry friends.