- Joined
- Jan 13, 2020
- Messages
- 27
- Purraise
- 36
Hi All,
I'm new to this site and relatively new to caring for strays... though looking back I have had animals around me for most of my life. In October of 2017 two bundles of grey fur decided my wife and I were going to be their new Mom and Dad. We named them Storm, the female, and Shadow, the male. They were brother and sister. We got them neutered and spayed, (two rescue charities in our area helped with the costs) got their shots, wormed, etc. They are indoor cats and along with my mother-in-law's cat, Kit-Kat, a neutered male, are all indoor cats and make up our family.
A year ago we moved to a new location in town that's surrounded by woodland. Soon after moving here last January I saw a male Red Cardinal on the edge of the wood trying to find food. He was actually eating the stubs of berries already eaten... I decided to put out bird feeders and have been rewarded every day since then by Cardinals, Jays, many different finches, sparrows, hummingbirds, woodpeckers and everything in-between. We also feed black, grey and fox squirrels, chipmunks, raccoons and whitetail deer. They're all such a blessing.
The last few months we've had a couple of stray cats asking for food. I always give them some but with only one pension between two of us we have no disposable income. We seem to spend most of our money on critter food.
One of those cats, we called Oliver, a ginger full Tom, we think has been homed now. The other cat is another full male (at present - working on that) - He's a white cat with one blue and one yellow eye. We call him Bowie, after David Bowie, who also had two different colored eyes. He's decided firmly that I'm his new Dad. I provided a plastic kennel for him at the side of the house. I insulated this and put a cardboard box inside with a "rug" he can snuggle into.
When I first saw Bowie he was covered in blood and mud and hiding behind our trashcans.
He wouldn't let me get close to him on that occasion and slinked off. I didn't see him again for a couple of months. He'd cleaned himself up but still had a wound on his chest. I have a theory that someone shot him, possibly with a crossbow, as I recently found a crossbow bolt close to the house.
This chest wound still bothers him and is infected. He also has a respiratory infection. In fact every time I see him he has a new injury from fighting.
I guess Bowie and I became firm friends when I rescued him from a tree another cat had chased him up. He's stayed close ever since then. I checked with a local vet on getting him seen to and their prices are like reading a telephone number... Way more than we can afford.
But thanks to some wonderful people on your site sharing just the information I was looking for, I'm starting Bowie on Cephalexin antibiotic today - 100mg in his food twice a day. Hopefully this will clear his infections up. I weighed him and as I make our own supplements I have milligram scale to get his dosage correct.
The Cephalexin is left over from an anti-biotic my doctor prescribed me and I have enough for a 16 day course for him. I know I can buy more in the form of Fish Flex online and Fish Mox for Amoxicillin.
He keeps wanting to come in the house with the other cats but until his infections are cleared up and we've had him neutered I can't risk letting him come in. I guess that's the end goal.
This morning a deer with a swollen back leg and limping badly visited the feeding area.
How can I help these animals? Is this my Field Of Dreams? If I build it will they come?
I'm new to this site and relatively new to caring for strays... though looking back I have had animals around me for most of my life. In October of 2017 two bundles of grey fur decided my wife and I were going to be their new Mom and Dad. We named them Storm, the female, and Shadow, the male. They were brother and sister. We got them neutered and spayed, (two rescue charities in our area helped with the costs) got their shots, wormed, etc. They are indoor cats and along with my mother-in-law's cat, Kit-Kat, a neutered male, are all indoor cats and make up our family.
A year ago we moved to a new location in town that's surrounded by woodland. Soon after moving here last January I saw a male Red Cardinal on the edge of the wood trying to find food. He was actually eating the stubs of berries already eaten... I decided to put out bird feeders and have been rewarded every day since then by Cardinals, Jays, many different finches, sparrows, hummingbirds, woodpeckers and everything in-between. We also feed black, grey and fox squirrels, chipmunks, raccoons and whitetail deer. They're all such a blessing.
The last few months we've had a couple of stray cats asking for food. I always give them some but with only one pension between two of us we have no disposable income. We seem to spend most of our money on critter food.
One of those cats, we called Oliver, a ginger full Tom, we think has been homed now. The other cat is another full male (at present - working on that) - He's a white cat with one blue and one yellow eye. We call him Bowie, after David Bowie, who also had two different colored eyes. He's decided firmly that I'm his new Dad. I provided a plastic kennel for him at the side of the house. I insulated this and put a cardboard box inside with a "rug" he can snuggle into.
When I first saw Bowie he was covered in blood and mud and hiding behind our trashcans.
He wouldn't let me get close to him on that occasion and slinked off. I didn't see him again for a couple of months. He'd cleaned himself up but still had a wound on his chest. I have a theory that someone shot him, possibly with a crossbow, as I recently found a crossbow bolt close to the house.
This chest wound still bothers him and is infected. He also has a respiratory infection. In fact every time I see him he has a new injury from fighting.
I guess Bowie and I became firm friends when I rescued him from a tree another cat had chased him up. He's stayed close ever since then. I checked with a local vet on getting him seen to and their prices are like reading a telephone number... Way more than we can afford.
But thanks to some wonderful people on your site sharing just the information I was looking for, I'm starting Bowie on Cephalexin antibiotic today - 100mg in his food twice a day. Hopefully this will clear his infections up. I weighed him and as I make our own supplements I have milligram scale to get his dosage correct.
The Cephalexin is left over from an anti-biotic my doctor prescribed me and I have enough for a 16 day course for him. I know I can buy more in the form of Fish Flex online and Fish Mox for Amoxicillin.
He keeps wanting to come in the house with the other cats but until his infections are cleared up and we've had him neutered I can't risk letting him come in. I guess that's the end goal.
This morning a deer with a swollen back leg and limping badly visited the feeding area.
How can I help these animals? Is this my Field Of Dreams? If I build it will they come?