A few weeks ago, a mackeral tabby showed up here at the feeders. He/she looked so emaciated, but was unwilling to go into any trap. The cat would come to feed and hang his head over the dry food trays but be unable to eat. The cat was drinking lots of water and inhaling down wet food.
After a few false attempts, I managed to trap him (by this time, I could see the evidence of a Tom) in one of my larger dog kennels. I rushed him to the vet, where they discovered that he was a senior boy that someone had removed all of his teeth! They estimated his age about 14 and he only weighed 7 pounds!
I am calling this new boy Link. He will be on canned food only at least 4 times a day to start. I hope to see him gain weight pretty soon. He is full feral so it is going to be tricky to keep him contained as we have only one custom cage left standing after the demo. Poor boy, someone owned him at one time. They did determine that the teeth were deliberately removed and he didn’t lose them to malnutrition. He was not chipped.
I wrote them a check to cover the expenses and would find out later that a check sent to me in the mail did not clear. We really need $40.00 ASAP before we go NSF. I called my vet and they were quite understanding, but the check has already been deposited. I am a bit stressed about it all.
Done, poor little guy
You’ve donated $ to
Caring For the Strays INC
Fwiw, our stray who came in, Danny, had most of his teeth missing and later we had to remove the rest. Once healed, he was able to eat dry food just fine. Hope that will eventually be possible, as this fellow gets to better health, for him.
It’s a bit late, but I will be sending you a donation in about an hour. My Tucker has no teeth and he eats hard food; my Josie has only three teeth and she eats hard food, too. But a full diet of soft food will do this old boy good.
But can you imagine not being able to eat hard food and being in the wild? If he was owned at some point, he can be tamed. He’ll calm down with you.