Cat injuries caused by so called "non invasive" or even "humane" traps.

[User5566]

I though I describe what happened to my cats to inform others so they can recognise and deal with early rather than when other cats are affected too.

Let me get to the point quickly, then I'll explain how I found out and what led to it.

This kind of "humane" /"non invasive" trap:

Causes injuries like this:

Plus claws ripped out, pads abraded to raw flesh.
Do not use those traps if cats can get caught by mistake (or on purpose) unless you're observing the trap all the time. These are designed wrong. There is a newer design that uses a flat sheet door(still steel with sharp edges). IMO this trap should have soft plastic covered wire or even better it should be made like a cat carrier. Cats fight trying to get out and injure themselves in the process.

If that's all you have and you have to catch strays etc to treat them, fine, but if there is an alternative don't use this. BTW, this is no my trap that hurt my cats, but it's a long story. That is below.

Let me start by giving a bit of a background. Few months ago one of my cats got really unwell.(I believe he would be dead few hours later if I didn't find him). My vet was pretty convinced he looked like "he was hit by a car" (other than there being no physical injuries). He got various treatments including IVs and he recovered fully. I suspected poisoning, but the vet told me poisons people use around here act differently, there are certain signs that were missing etc. So I eventually accepted it as some freak occurrence (maybe he got stung by a hornet and had an allergic reaction etc). When I first found him he had this very weird unpleasant smell about him. This is a very important detail.

However, 3 weeks ago, one of my cats, came back in the morning after being away all night (which is unusual for him in its own right at this kind of weather) and he had injuries on his face, one of his claws is ripped out and a pad next to it is painful. Also he had the same very strong smell about him. I have to admit I haven't connected the dots at the time. My partner washed the cat's fur and by the time I saw him the smell was a lot weaker.

We were both puzzled, my partner was convinced it was a human that did it, I wasn't at the time. I thought the cat got into some tight space and got injured trying to get out. This cat (Ramzes) loves squeezing himself into the tightest of spaces so it seemed fitting. His injuries are healing well.

And then my other cat (Seth) disappears for a night with sub zero (C) temps, which is very not like him. I wait. Midday cones and he hasn't returned. So I walk around the perimeter of my land and call him (he usually comes when I call him). My neighbor's land is 200m away I can hear him doing some woodworking. I'm pretty sure he heard me too. 5 minutes later Seth comes with identical injuries. So I knew it was a human doing that. My first thought was someone is hitting them.

So I started talking to my (very few) neighbors very directly about this and eventually one person tells me "talk to this guy next to you, he has a problem with some predator taking fish from his pond(pine marten or mink etc) and he was asking locals for help and how to get rid of unwanted animals". Now "this guy" fairly recently moved into the area. I met him once or twice and he seemed an OK person. I would never have suspected him for doing anything nefarious. Stupid yes, but not nefarious. Still stupidity often has bad consequences.

Also an interesting, somewhat related info, there used to be lots of foxes around (for years before the guy moved in), now I haven't seen one in a year and I now frequently see hares, which were very rare (someone poisoned the foxes).

So I walk around his land and what do I see in a corner... A trap, this one.

So I go there and we have a chat. The guy is adamant he doesn't use poison, nor any stinky repellent sprays, he claims that yes he is trying to catch this "mink/marten" that eats his fish, but at the same time tells me BTW, cats eat my fish too and I don't bother them. Also he says "my own cat got poisoned a month ago, I found him dead and I was very distressed.) Now I can connect the dots. I have no proof of course, but I bet the guy moves in (a year ago). Puts lots of expensive fish in his pond, fish dissappear. He tries poison first and some weird repellent, poisoning his own cat in the process (if its even true he had a cat). Then he buys this trap and proceeds to catch every single cat in the area, keeping them in that trap for a long time so they are traumatised enough to hopefully "leave his fish alone". Is there really a marten/mink in the picture? Who knows, who cares? Anyway, he was adamant he really wants to find out who does that poisoning etc. Well, I made it clear I suspect him and if anything happens to my cats he will be the first person to talk to. If he has any sense he will stop with the poison(perhaps he already did when he bought the trap). I don't care about the repellent. But I can't stop him from having a trap on his land unless I want to start a proper conflict (which I'd prefer not to). The conclusion of this "chat" was that he isn't going to remove the trap, but he tells me to let out my own cat anytime day or night if it gets caught and anyway he thinks each cat is only caught once...

Now anyone reading this may think, gee, a guy has a trap and you accuse him of poisoning, but I have only 3 neighbors. An elderly couple who love cats (they were removing ticks from strays), a lone guy that feeds all the strays around here and tries to find them homes, me, and the new guy. So the pool of suspects is very small.

So that's the story of how I found out those traps injure cats if you keep them in for too long. It has been 2 days and Seth just starts being himself again...

 

[Furballsmom]

Hello
Will you be able to keep your cats inside, or build an enclosure on your property so that they aren't exposed to all the rest of the dangers that exist outside?

 

[User5566]

Hello
Will you be able to keep your cats inside, or build an enclosure on your property so that they aren't exposed to all the rest of the dangers that exist outside?

No, there is no way to do it for me unfortunately. I'm hoping my cats will remember past stress involved in being trapped and they will not enter that trap again. Both of my cats have very predictable schedules (they are both neutered). So if one doesn't come back on time I'll be checking that trap immediately. If they do end up in that trap again I'll figure something out to persuade the guy to get rid of it.

I did consider improving the fences on my property further but without the top closed off it is pointless as they can just climb over.

 

[Alldara]

This is really why we urge people to keep their cats indoors among other reasons. Even with a collar on, good samaritans are going to try to catch the cat and see if it is allowed to be outside or not. An unsupervised cat is always at risk of being picked up by another person for any reason.


You can't change what your neighbors decide to do. You can only change your own choices.

When I was young we had a neighbour shoot and kill one or our cats. A family member spoke to him and reported him. My family let our other cat continue to go out and he shot that one too. I remember a very traumatic ride to the vet to get the bullet removed from his leg.

Even if a neighbour decides to use rat poison on mice on rodents, an unsupervised cat could catch and eat a poisoned rodent and become ill (many cats and owls die this way each year).



When I became an adult and boss of my own cats, I put some mesh up and they went out only on the balcony, and now patio, except Magnus goes on leashed walks. He screams to go out since he was born outside so this is the compromise.

Yes, your neighbors should be mindful of other people's pets. However, we can't rely on the idea that people will think of these things or change once notified.

 

[Antonio65]

I trapped dozens of cats in my TNR activity in the last few years. I have a Havahart trap, it works fine, but a few cats got themselves injured by trying to escape. They go head down against the mesh (door is solid) and get scratched or injured. Bleeding noses or other injuries on head, mouth and nose bridge were the more common incidents.

Only once, a tiny kitten followed his mom in the cage, the mom triggered the plate and the door closed on the kitten, who remained with his back legs outside the trap, under the weight of the steel door. Fortunately he didn't receive any damage.

In the last years I modified my trap to operate from a remote control, so it closes the door only when I see that the cat is fully in. This, of course, does not avoid that the cat gets injured by trying to escape, but once the trap is closed, I cover it up and the cat inside stops fighting.

I'm so sorry for your cats. It seems that this guy needs some words of caution. I wonder if having your other cat loving neighbors talk to him might be of help.

 

[Furballsmom]

Even if a neighbour decides to use rat poison on mice on rodents, an unsupervised cat could catch and eat a poisoned rodent and become ill (many cats and owls die this way each year).

Exactly. Even though there are organizations working at the federal level to ban rat poison, it's still a very serious issue.

 

[User5566]

This is really why we urge people to keep their cats indoors among other reasons.

Very often it makes sense, sometimes it doesn't. If I lived in a city or a suburb where they can come across random people all the time I probably would not have cats. I couldn't keep them indoors (work and allergies) and it would be too stressful to wonder what's happening to them if they stayed outside(although many people in big cities have outdoors cats and nothing happens to them throughout their lifetimes - I know I lived in London(UK) for half on my life).

But I don't live in a big city now. I live out in the country where there are 3 households in a 5km radius and my cats have the freedom of coming and going anytime, hunting etc. No one uses rodent poison here, people have cats to keep rodents away from their gardens.

I trapped dozens of cats in my TNR activity in the last few years. I have a Havahart trap, it works fine, but a few cats got themselves injured by trying to escape. They go head down against the mesh (door is solid) and get scratched or injured. Bleeding noses or other injuries on head, mouth and nose bridge were the more common incidents.

Only once, a tiny kitten followed his mom in the cage, the mom triggered the plate and the door closed on the kitten, who remained with his back legs outside the trap, under the weight of the steel door. Fortunately he didn't receive any damage.

In the last years I modified my trap to operate from a remote control, so it closes the door only when I see that the cat is fully in. This, of course, does not avoid that the cat gets injured by trying to escape, but once the trap is closed, I cover it up and the cat inside stops fighting.

I'm so sorry for your cats. It seems that this guy needs some words of caution. I wonder if having your other cat loving neighbors talk to him might be of help.

Yes, it is possible to remove a cat immediately before it tries to get out, but some people leave such traps unattended for long time and this is what happens when they do. So I wanted to show people how those injuries look to recognise it.

Also the facial injuries are not even the worst. It is the ripped claws and injured pads.

I'm glad you're using your trap in a way that prevents injury.

 

[fionasmom]

I also work with ferals and own several traps which I use on a regular basis in order to TNR. The big difference here between Antonio65 , myself, and your neighbor is that we are monitoring our traps and your neighbor, trying to catch martens, is not as he is just trying to get rid of them. I do believe that those look like injuries of cats who were in traps for a period of time.

My experience is that cats who go outdoors and are trapped once will not go into a trap again. I am not guaranteeing it, but it is extremely hard to retrap a cat, even in a health crisis. I even lost two males who desperately needed to be retrapped and taken to a vet because they refused to be caught again.

You can't control the poison use, which is not good, but at least he released your cats when they were trapped.

 

[Alldara]

U User5566 I hear you, and I understand that indoor-outdoor cats have been the norm in most places for.many years. I'm happy to share literature if you'd like that discusses how I door cats live a much longer life expectancy and how there's just as many risks in country vs city. I think in your situation the point is moot though. You are in the country, your cat has been injured, and you won't be able to change your neighbors behaviour.

My wife and I also have cats and are allergic. I've had cats most of my life. I spent over 10 years working long hours in the restaurant industry with 2 cats at home and indoors.

If you decide to try a different route there are many tips and tricks for having indoor cats with allergies. Here's the most recent thread: Anybody here allergic to their cat?

 

[User5566]

I also work with ferals and own several traps which I use on a regular basis in order to TNR. The big difference here between Antonio65 , myself, and your neighbor is that we are monitoring our traps and your neighbor, trying to catch martens, is not as he is just trying to get rid of them. I do believe that those look like injuries of cats who were in traps for a period of time.

Yes, in both cases I estimate 12h :-(

My experience is that cats who go outdoors and are trapped once will not go into a trap again. I am not guaranteeing it, but it is extremely hard to retrap a cat, even in a health crisis. I even lost two males who desperately needed to be retrapped and taken to a vet because they refused to be caught again.

You can't control the poison use, which is not good, but at least he released your cats when they were trapped.

He did, so I'm sort of inclined to believe if he did use poison it was out of ignorance, not disregard for all other animals.

Thank you for sharing your trapping experience. It does put both my and my partner's minds to rest a bit.

U User5566 I hear you, and I understand that indoor-outdoor cats have been the norm in most places for.many years. I'm happy to share literature if you'd like that discusses how I door cats live a much longer life expectancy and how there's just as many risks in country vs city. I think in your situation the point is moot though. You are in the country, your cat has been injured, and you won't be able to change your neighbors behaviour.

My wife and I also have cats and are allergic. I've had cats most of my life. I spent over 10 years working long hours in the restaurant industry with 2 cats at home and indoors.

If you decide to try a different route there are many tips and tricks for having indoor cats with allergies. Here's the most recent thread: Anybody here allergic to their cat?

If I had to move to a city I would probably have to research experiences like yours a lot more.

I was aware of the life expectancy difference. I always assumed it being due to all the parasites, ease of catching illnesses from strays and harsh weather. I try to mitigate a lot of those things, but
I understand I can't mitigate everything and my cat's life expectancy will unfortunately be shorter than if they lived 100% indoors.

Thank you for the link to the allergies thread. I'll just say one thing here. My allergy isn't that bad (almost no symptoms) with my cats (as long as I don't get too much exposure, use lots of ventilation, no carpets and no fabric furniture as much as possible - my home is like that because of another allergy), but I'm very much allergic to other cats. I don't know how it works. Every few years I do a test by petting a different cat and all it takes is one touch and 2 minute wait... I worry my allergy might return with my cats too so them being used to being outside (and having an alternative building to go to in bad weather) is very important.

So you may ask, why would I choose to have cats? The answer is mundane. They were in need of help and no one else was available.

 

[Alldara]

U User5566 It's normal to get used to your own cats and have lower allergies to your own cats but more symptomatic to new cats. It's even normal to be more allergic to one cat or another. There's now even a good that healthy cats can eat that lowers human allergies to them. No judgement from me. I do have symptoms from my cats daily, and it didn't stop me from getting two new ones, so another 15 to 20 years of allergies for me

I'm not an allergist, but in my experience, you can even get used to other cats. Many people who own cats are allergic to them. We do get new cats from time to time.

The country is just as dangerous as the city. I don't really understand the cognitive dissonance in thinking that the country is safer for outdoor cats. It doesn't remove the human factor of danger (as your experiencing right now re traps and poison), adds more parasites, more predators, (and frequency of parasites and predators) still the same other risks of injury and disease from other cats and other pets.

If you're going to continue to have them out, you'll have to be familiar with signs of poisoning for when one inevitably eats the poison your neighbors is putting out, or eats an animal who has.

A cat-door to a catio would still allow free access (you could even build it with a gate for you to go out of if you do it from your door). Would vastly lower your risk but still meet your needs.

Don't write off what we're saying. There's certainly ways to be creative with meeting your needs and your cats' safety needs.

 

[User5566]

Regarding symptoms of poisoning etc. I've researched all the currently available poisons sold here in Poland/EU and they are all supposedly for rats/mice, but some manufacturers put foxes, martens etc on the packaging suggesting other use.

The active ingredients are always Brodifacoum Brodifacoum - Wikipedia or very similar. They are all anticoagulants and they kill through uncontrolled bleeding. So now I know why my vet looking for blotches of blood on the skin(in eyes etc). Also all those poisons supposedly work very slowly.

There is an antidote for brodifacoum in form of vitamin K . I have to check if it works for other related poisons and if yes and it is available from my vet it might be a good idea to have it on hand just in case (unless it is IV only, which I can't do myself).

The only thing I worry more about are some old poisons sold in last 100 years people have stashed away. There was this very widely publicised situation few months ago when a child was poisoned by an idiot landlord who set up some sort of poison that is used by setting it alight, then it emits nerve gas... (he wanted to kill rats). So various things are out there. Unfortunately, it is difficult to find any concrete information about what active ingredients are etc in those unusual poisons. I checked the usual local shady sales sites, but there is nothing.

There are certain tricks how people go around selling banned substances. For example they sell "an original container of X" (on pictures it is showed unopened). One can find various stuff like this, but I haven't found any old poisons. I think this is a sign the laws against them are enforced, otherwise there would be lots.

 

[fionasmom]

Anticoagulant Rodenticide Poisoning in Cats | VCA Animal Hospitals
You seem very informed about rodenticides that are in current use. Article says antidote can be given via mouth, but that might depend on if a local vet keeps it in that form and what is involved in getting it in a timely manner. Probably a good idea to know before hand.