Botched trapping attempt…

[txcats]

We are in the boonies, so no kfc. Did try mackerel and sardines a couple times since the trap mishap, but he is not willing to go back in that trap. There is only one vet clinic which works with ferals. They are (unsurprisingly) booked out weeks ahead, but I emailed them pics which they received and will show to the vet. Maybe she’ll be willing to sell us antibios. It’s better than nothing.

 

[Meowmee]

We are in the boonies, so no kfc. Did try mackerel and sardines a couple times since the trap mishap, but he is not willing to go back in that trap. There is only one vet clinic which works with ferals. They are (unsurprisingly) booked out weeks ahead, but I emailed them pics which they received and will show to the vet. Maybe she’ll be willing to sell us antibios. It’s better than nothing.

Poor guy those look bad, I think the one on the side of his face is definitely an abscess that has burst open…the one on top of his head could also be an abscess. Abscesses are usually from fight wounds. I think the only way to know for sure is to get him to DVM ASAP and get him looked at. I hope the Dvm will give you some antibiotics for his food. Maybe if you show them that photograph, I think you said you did, they will try to get him in as soon as you trap him as an emergency.

Cats do survive abscesses on their own. And they tend to look really horrific but if they burst open, that’s usually the point where they’re gonna start healing. I remember Wizard had a huge one once that burst open and within three days it was back to normal practically it was kind of amazing… he was on antibiotics and homeopathic treatments too.

Is there anyway you can borrow a drop trap from somebody? He might be more willing to go into that…I think you would still have to set it up ahead of time and let him get used to it.

With some cats the only way to get them in is you have to not feed them for a day so they’re really hungry and then they will go in.

 

[txcats]

We have meds,10 days worth of zeniquin. Those are most definitely injuries, not abscesses, i closely checked the footage from the day/night before and he did not have a mark on him. On closer exam of one of the pics, he also has a small wound on his back, and possibly his right upper leg. He may have been clipped by a car.

There is just no way to trap him right now, though i really wish there was.We can’t risk him not eating due to avoiding the trap because he has to take the antibios for 10 days, hidden in food.

edited to add, don’t know anyone with a drop trap, have checked around. We may have to invest in one, once he is healed up.

 

[Meowmee]

We have meds,10 days worth of zeniquin. Those are most definitely injuries, not abscesses, i closely checked the footage from the day/night before and he did not have a mark on him. On closer exam of one of the pics, he also has a small wound on his back, and possibly his right upper leg. He may have been clipped by a car.

There is just no way to trap him right now, though i really wish there was.We can’t risk him not eating due to avoiding the trap because he has to take the antibios for 10 days, hidden in food.

edited to add, don’t know anyone with a drop trap, have checked around. We may have to invest in one, once he is healed up.

Any wound can turn into an abscess. That’s what I meant. It looks like the one on his face is a big huge open wound, which is a sign of an abscess, which means he was injured somehow, we don’t know how, and it got infected and created an abscess. It can happen very rapidly. There’s no way to know if some of the wounds could’ve happened from the trap. I guess the DVM maybe could tell.

I’m glad dvm gave you the antibiotics get them into him first try to trap him later is the right thing to do. A drop trap is worth the investment in my opinion if you can get him. I bought one maybe about 15 years ago and it’s the only one I use now for cats. I think I might’ve got zena in the regular trap. I don’t really remember now. You could always sell it later if you don’t think you’re gonna use it anymore. I’m actually retired from Rescue now so I don’t try to do anything anymore because it’s too hard for me physically.

We did have a loose roaming cat for a while and a group tried to help me, but I couldn’t get him in the trap and then also he just disappeared by the time they did anything.

The other day while I was sitting at about 4 AM with my kitties. They made a fuss and were looking out the window. I looked up. I saw a little black white tuxedo older kitten in the window. Tried to open the door and see if he would come and say hi but he ran away and I haven’t seen him again. here we go again lol…

He could just be someone’s cat roaming around because he was in good shape. I don’t know why he would’ve come here except to explore because I don’t put food out anymore since all my cats came inside. I guess he saw the light on and has been visiting my cats when I’m not there maybe. I do still have the shelters and there’s a small pond that animals used to drink from.

* I just looked on eBay and there is a used drop trap listed selling for 75 dollars which is a great price. * update if you did not see anything the night before. It probably is not an abscess… they could break open between 2 to 7 days though so possibly.

I just found this article which is very interesting about abscesses in cats and how amazing they are. I don’t think this applies to your kitty obviously… it says you should not give antibiotics before an abscess has popped or treated to drain it etc. because it could cause the infection spread into the rest of their body. I did not know this or had forgotten that… the article says the abscess is the cat’s way of protecting its body and stops the infection from spreading to the rest of their body… I’m going to try and read more more about this

Cat bite abscess is an amazing feat of nature

I had a consultation the other day that was so much fun it made me feel like a new graduate vet again, which, after nearly 20 years in practice, is a rare thing. It was with a lovely little black cat ...

www.royalgazette.com

 

[txcats]

It definitely wasn’t the trap, that hit him on the rear back almost 2 weeks ago, not the upper back and the head. The appearance of the injuries in the photos looks like an attack, according to the vet/techs.

He did not have any visible swelling on his head/back night before last, from what i’ve seen abscesses swell a lot before bursting.

He just stopped by to eat leftover dry food on the porch, his poor head looks really swollen. Tried to sneak some canned food with antibio onto the porch while he was resting on the steps but he ran off. i hope the zeniquin stays okay in the canned food for a while, put it in the fridge til it gets dark when he’ll hopefully return and eat it. it looks like he badly needs antibiotics.

thanks for the tip, that is a good price!

 

[txcats]

i just checked on ebay and the trap is pick-up only. We’re in TX and they are in Illinois, so no good. But thanks for the suggestion of ebay, i’ll keep checking back.

 

[tabbytom]

don’t know anyone with a drop trap, have checked around. We may have to invest in one, once he is healed up.

 

[Meowmee]

View attachment 485991

Great idea Maybe I will try that for Cinn. I think that laundry basket might be too lightweight so if the cat freaks out they could somehow get out of it by jumping around. But maybe you could rush over and put a weight on the top of it hopefully before that happens.

 

[Meowmee]

i just checked on ebay and the trap is pick-up only. We’re in TX and they are in Illinois, so no good. But thanks for the suggestion of ebay, i’ll keep checking back.

Yeah, I was gonna post that- I noticed that after I went back and I wasn’t sure where you were…too bad. But those things get listed all the time probably so you never know. I probably would use the real drop because your guy is probably going to freak out and he can’t escape from the drop trap and then you can easily get him into a carrier, especially if you purchase the transport carrier that attaches to it, but you can use the other trap and get him in that too. I have done that too. Also, when I trapped them in the regular trap, I would attach it to the drop trap inside and then I can go into that and stay there for a while if they have to.

The drop trap is very good for caring for a sick cat or for taming a cat if they’re stressed out when they first come inside because it has more room to move around and you can fit a litter box and their food, etc., and the transport carrier can be a bed area.

* you could try messaging the seller and ask if they will ship it to you. Sometimes people will do that if you ask, but it would be expensive and you would have to pay extra for that in which case it’s probably better to buy it from Amazon or directly from the people who make it. I think you can make your own drop trap from metal too, but I don’t know if that’s too hard to do, I’m sure people have videos about that at YouTube.

Here is one he built out of wood and mesh wire, very nice.

Build your own drop trap for small animals

My wife and I are a sucker for animals. We do what we can to help all the little creatures around us. Because of where we live we are constantly getting cats an(...)

allans-stuff.com

Here is another one… Made with PVC piping and various other materials which is foldable. However, they said it cost them about the same price as the actual drop trap and it seems very complicated, at least the way they diagram it I found it extremely confusing… in addition, they said a cat escaped and bit them on the leg, so this would be a hard no for me

One benefit of this one is they said cats are often injured on their tail by the drop trap and they figured out a way to stop that from happening.

Building A Folding Drop Trap

This page illustrates how to make a folding drop trap out of PVC pipe to trap and rescue cats. Includes cost, time, and detailed directions with pictures.

catinfo.org

 

[tabbytom]

Great idea Maybe I will try that for Cinn. I think that laundry basket might be too lightweight so if the cat freaks out they could somehow get out of it by jumping around. But maybe you could rush over and put a weight on the top of it hopefully before that happens.

This idea is good for kittens and weaker cats but not for strong wild freak out cats unless you have some safe heavy weights on top and once the trap is down, you have to quickly go hold the trap.

 

[txcats]

Funny meme, but I agree it would be too light. And there’d be no way to transfer him to a carrier without him escaping. He has no tail, so nothing for a drop trap to injure.

He ate some of the zeniquin spiked food, but not all. Anyone know if hiding a couple pieces in the food works better then crushing and mixing? I wish we could give him an antibio shot.

 

[Meowmee]

Funny meme, but I agree it would be too light. And there’d be no way to transfer him to a carrier without him escaping. He has no tail, so nothing for a drop trap to injure.

He ate some of the zeniquin spiked food, but not all. Anyone know if hiding a couple pieces in the food works better then crushing and mixing? I wish we could give him an antibio shot.

What I do is, I put the medication in a very small amount of tasty food like tuna or you could try the reveal fish treats which you can order online. That way they get all of the medication then you can give them more food after.

You could try the pill pockets, putting the crushed pill in a gel cap and putting that in the food and see if he will eat that too. I just went through medicating all three of my cats with clindamycin for one to two months, two of whom are not able to be pilled and one who is untouchable. I got them to eat it in their food or the reveal fish treats.

For Zena he is easy to pill so I just put it in a pill pocket and put it in the back of his mouth and he swallows it. I recommend the dog pill pockets if you want to try them because they’re larger so it’ll be less expensive and you can just break a piece of it off.

For an outside cat I recommend trying something really tasty like tuna or the reveal fish treat first. But you can try everything and see what happens.

If you get the drop trap or somehow get him inside soon, you can just medicate him in that- I’ve done that many times with untouchable cats. I don’t recommend the convenia shot as my Angie died in large part from that and there are serious risks involved. It stays in their system way longer than two weeks and if they have a severe reaction, there’s nothing you can do about it to stop it because you can’t get the drug out of their system.

The only thing I’ve seen is some people saved their cats with probiotics, high doses, or some cats were hospitalized and received IV fluids and others received blood transfusions if they had severe anemia.

 

[txcats]

Oh, that’s scary, two of ours have received convenia shots and no problems. Vets sure do push it though.

He has not come by this afternoon, but the kitten with the clipped ear did. I am planning to fry some chicken and break the half pill in half and put each quarter in a small piece of chicken. And then monitor the feeding area and hope he comes to eat. A very fat (not pregnant, just chubby and no doubt owned) glossy, black kitty came last night and ate the rest of the antibio food. But our poor injured guy came off and on all night and ate the dry food and drank water.

i found out the local tnr org may have drop traps, they don’t accept calls but have an email so i contacted them. Hopefully they’ll allow borrowing it, then we just have to coordinate treatment, somehow.

 

[Meowmee]

Oh, that’s scary, two of ours have received convenia shots and no problems. Vets sure do push it though.

He has not come by this afternoon, but the kitten with the clipped ear did. I am planning to fry some chicken and break the half pill in half and put each quarter in a small piece of chicken. And then monitor the feeding area and hope he comes to eat. A very fat (not pregnant, just chubby and no doubt owned) glossy, black kitty came last night and ate the rest of the antibio food. But our poor injured guy came off and on all night and ate the dry food and drank water.

i found out the local tnr org may have drop traps, they don’t accept calls but have an email so i contacted them. Hopefully they’ll allow borrowing it, then we just have to coordinate treatment, somehow.

That is great, I hope you can borrow a drop trap that is funny about the other kitties coming to eat

 

[txcats]

They got back to me, they have a drop trap they can let us borrow. They need it Tuesday, so I’ll have to call the feral vet first thing Monday and see if they could squeeze him in once we trap him. I hope he is okay, he has not showed up since early this morning.

edited to add, he just showed up!! Ate all the food but left a piece of the pill. So mixed that in more canned again and put it out, and he came back and is eating more.

 

[Meowmee]

They got back to me, they have a drop trap they can let us borrow. They need it Tuesday, so I’ll have to call the feral vet first thing Monday and see if they could squeeze him in once we trap him. I hope he is okay, he has not showed up since early this morning.

edited to add, he just showed up!! Ate all the food but left a piece of the pill. So mixed that in more canned again and put it out, and he came back and is eating more.

Great! Dvm should be able to fit you in because he’s injured so tell them it’s an emergency etc.

The only issue is getting him to eat under the drop trap. Usually you wanna do that a few times before you actually try to trap them.

 

[tabbytom]

They got back to me, they have a drop trap they can let us borrow. They need it Tuesday, so I’ll have to call the feral vet first thing Monday and see if they could squeeze him in once we trap him

That’s great!
Inform your vet in advance and tell them you are trapping this cat so that they are prepared to receive the cat anytime and you don’t have to make an appointment.

 

[txcats]

Meowmee is it likely he’ll be spooked by the trap? I am not very familiar with drop traps. One thing that does worry me are his head injuries. If he is likely to panic and use his head to break out and further injure himself, that would be very bad. I’ll discuss the best approach Monday, maybe should wait until he has taken the 10 days of antibios and feels better, but what if he doesn’t?

tabbytom We only have one vet clinic which treats ferals and they are so booked up. The other vets don’t want to deal with them at all.

 

[Margot Lane]

Meowmee is it likely he’ll be spooked by the trap? I am not very familiar with drop traps. One thing that does worry me are his head injuries. If he is likely to panic and use his head to break out and further injure himself, that would be very bad. I’ll discuss the best approach Monday, maybe should wait until he has taken the 10 days of antibios and feels better, but what if he doesn’t?

tabbytom We only have one vet clinic which treats ferals and they are so booked up. The other vets don’t want to deal with them at all.

I’ve been looking at a lot of drop trap videos… these traps seem quite big. They also have weights on the back to keep whatever’s in them from wiggling out. The trick seems to be to cover them up quickly after you’ve caught them to calm them down. Some seem to come w a nifty hole you line up w the carrier so they think there’s an exit. And the PVC and netting keeps it from being too heavy to injure the cat. But, from the videos anyway, looks like you have to do a stakeout and pull the string at the right moment. One video captured mom and 3 not so young kittens all at once! Good luck!

 

[Meowmee]

Meowmee is it likely he’ll be spooked by the trap? I am not very familiar with drop traps. One thing that does worry me are his head injuries. If he is likely to panic and use his head to break out and further injure himself, that would be very bad. I’ll discuss the best approach Monday, maybe should wait until he has taken the 10 days of antibios and feels better, but what if he doesn’t?

tabbytom We only have one vet clinic which treats ferals and they are so booked up. The other vets don’t want to deal with them at all.

There’s no way to know for sure until you try. Most cats don’t usually feel threatened by the drop trap because they can just walk right under it.

If you think he’ll be OK taking the antibiotics outside you could try that, but the thing is then you have to get the trap all over again etc. So I would just try to get him right away as soon as you can, and he could need other care for his injuries

I’ve never had a cat injure themselves on the drop trap. I don’t think it would be a good idea to put anything padded on it because it might hinder trapping him, which is the most important thing. When Zena was inside, after I trapped him and brought him in the studio, and he was recuperating from neuter etc. he did rub his nose on the cage and got a little sore, but it was minor.

Just be careful that he is fully under it before you pull the string. The rescue will show you how to do it.

Here are videos- the first one is a remote box trap. I haven’t done that before. But if I had a remote, I could probably do it with my drop track…when I purchased my drop trap I got the trap as well as the carrier part.


Here is another on using the drop trap with transfer cage.


I just lift up the cover on the main box, and then they usually go into the transport carrier. Sometimes I had to use my spacer to encourage him to go over to the transport carrier.