Feral Cats ...To Treat or Not to Treat W/ Revolution

[jmarkitell]

I have recently reached the level of trust with a feral cat (Callie) to the point that she/he? will allow me to pet her while she eats...at least to touch her. Callie is eating well and I'm trying to fatten her up for the upcoming winter as she got pretty skinny by winter's end. I thought she was gone when she disappeared in December and didn't come back until late April.

   While thinking of Callie's life in the wild, I began to think about fleas and other parasites. I could probably manage to get the Revolution on the back of her neck, but I don't know if there is any reason to be hesitant about using it on a feral cat. My experience with Revolution has been good with no issues at all with my four cats. Any experience or thoughts? Heart worm would be my main fear, but it isn't prevalent in my area and I haven't heard of any infected cats.

Jim

 

[catwoman707]

Absolutely treat her, this is a good thing.

I hope she has been trapped, spayed and returned? If not let this be your next move toward helping her have a greatly improved life

 

[jmarkitell]

Callie has me a bit confused as she doesn't seem to be in heat (ever) and if a guy, never showing any habits such as marking/spraying or aggression towards other males. Her ears aren't notched, so I don't know if she has been fixed or not. I live in a fairly rural area and I don't notice too many other cats around, so I don't think a trap/spay program has ever been used in this area (SW Pa).

  Once Callie gets a bit more trusting, I'll try to put the Revolution on her. Its taken me nearly two years to get her to trust me to this point, so I don't want to mess it up by being too aggressive.

Jim

 

[jcat]

We managed to get a spot-on flea/tick product on a few of the rather large feral group at the shelter - the ones who allow one or two people to touch them. That was several weeks ago, and there weren't any problems caused by it. Most of them were so intent on eating that I don't think they really noticed much.