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- Feb 1, 2018
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Hey all, I need help with another thing.
A while ago I made a post about my mom's cat (for context, I am an adult getting ready for grad school and live with my mom to save money for that. We have a combined household of 3 cats. 2 are mine and 1 is hers. Her cat does not get along with my female cat and they are kept 100% separate). Previously we rotated the cats (keeping one or the other isolated in a room) so they could each have a turn at run of the house without ever coming into contact with each other. My mom's cat (Padfoot) started balding in a bunch of different places, so we ruled out medical issues and concluded (with the help of a veterinary behaviorist) that it was a neurotic behavior due to stress/boredom. By his suggestion, we installed an invisible fence around our fenced yard (we are rural, so the yard is just a fenced off area inside of our larger property) and started letting two of the cats (Padfoot and my male cat, Tank) outside with the collars on so they can't leave the yard. My female cat (Brook) does not like going outside, she is terrified of the world. And yes, letting him be outside instead of locked in a room when my female cat has run of the house has helped the issue. His haircoat is growing back and he doesn't seem to be licking it out anymore.
It's been a really long time since I had any cats going outside, so I was trying to figure out exactly what vaccines they need to be safe in the yard. At first I thought all I needed was the FVCRP and rabies vaccines. They were good so I started letting them out. Then I realized that feline leukemia and FIV are not included there so I went to get them those vaccines. Vet just had the feline leukemia vaccine so then I was even more confused. I did get them that vaccine (booster in 3-4 weeks), but then I was like what about FIV? And now I'm reading that the FIV vaccine was discontinued 2 years ago. I had no idea. I understand the reasons (not effective against all strains, significant risk of vaccine associated sarcoma, not needed for indoor cats), but now I'm really worried and feel like I need to reconsider letting my cats out into my own yard.
There are two things worrying me. The first and most important is that I know there is a feral cat on my property. He lives in/around my barn. I have no idea if he is a tom or a female cat but I'm 99% sure he/she is intact/unvaccinated/feral. I've seen him in my yard. The other day he was in my yard WHILE my cats were outside. The other thing that worries me is that Tank was neutered after reaching full sexual maturity (rescue picked him up as a stray), which makes me worried he will be more likely to fight the feral cat. He's not an aggressive cat, really. He's the one that gets alone with both other cats in my household and even when I was introducing him he wasn't aggressive to the other cats, just defensive. But cats will be cats.
Anyways, what am I supposed to do? Do I need to catch that feral cat and get rid of it to keep my cats safe? Where would I take it? Would I be dooming it if I removed it? It's not friendly. I've managed to get within about 10 feet of it before but it always runs for its life. I could catch it in a live trap but then what? I want the cats to be happy but I do NOT want them getting FIV, especially since that would put my indoor female cat at risk when she normally would have no risk at all.
A while ago I made a post about my mom's cat (for context, I am an adult getting ready for grad school and live with my mom to save money for that. We have a combined household of 3 cats. 2 are mine and 1 is hers. Her cat does not get along with my female cat and they are kept 100% separate). Previously we rotated the cats (keeping one or the other isolated in a room) so they could each have a turn at run of the house without ever coming into contact with each other. My mom's cat (Padfoot) started balding in a bunch of different places, so we ruled out medical issues and concluded (with the help of a veterinary behaviorist) that it was a neurotic behavior due to stress/boredom. By his suggestion, we installed an invisible fence around our fenced yard (we are rural, so the yard is just a fenced off area inside of our larger property) and started letting two of the cats (Padfoot and my male cat, Tank) outside with the collars on so they can't leave the yard. My female cat (Brook) does not like going outside, she is terrified of the world. And yes, letting him be outside instead of locked in a room when my female cat has run of the house has helped the issue. His haircoat is growing back and he doesn't seem to be licking it out anymore.
It's been a really long time since I had any cats going outside, so I was trying to figure out exactly what vaccines they need to be safe in the yard. At first I thought all I needed was the FVCRP and rabies vaccines. They were good so I started letting them out. Then I realized that feline leukemia and FIV are not included there so I went to get them those vaccines. Vet just had the feline leukemia vaccine so then I was even more confused. I did get them that vaccine (booster in 3-4 weeks), but then I was like what about FIV? And now I'm reading that the FIV vaccine was discontinued 2 years ago. I had no idea. I understand the reasons (not effective against all strains, significant risk of vaccine associated sarcoma, not needed for indoor cats), but now I'm really worried and feel like I need to reconsider letting my cats out into my own yard.
There are two things worrying me. The first and most important is that I know there is a feral cat on my property. He lives in/around my barn. I have no idea if he is a tom or a female cat but I'm 99% sure he/she is intact/unvaccinated/feral. I've seen him in my yard. The other day he was in my yard WHILE my cats were outside. The other thing that worries me is that Tank was neutered after reaching full sexual maturity (rescue picked him up as a stray), which makes me worried he will be more likely to fight the feral cat. He's not an aggressive cat, really. He's the one that gets alone with both other cats in my household and even when I was introducing him he wasn't aggressive to the other cats, just defensive. But cats will be cats.
Anyways, what am I supposed to do? Do I need to catch that feral cat and get rid of it to keep my cats safe? Where would I take it? Would I be dooming it if I removed it? It's not friendly. I've managed to get within about 10 feet of it before but it always runs for its life. I could catch it in a live trap but then what? I want the cats to be happy but I do NOT want them getting FIV, especially since that would put my indoor female cat at risk when she normally would have no risk at all.