Someone’s unleashed dog attacked a feral cat in front of our house yesterday. It was all caught on the security camera and her cries were terrible. I do leave out food for strays and I TNR’d this girl at least 2-3 years ago.
Normally she would run away from people but she sat there in the dirt while we got closer with a trap so we could bring her to a vet. She tried to climb over a wall to get away from us, but it seems her back legs couldn’t manage it, which is what worries me…
This happened Saturday evening so the only places open were ER vets. We waited and they had to sedate her to examine because she is aggressive. The vet said everything looked normal from what he could tell while she was sedated, except she had “minor” puncture wounds under tail and right leg. Since she was under anesthesia already, I was prepared to euthanize had the news been bad. But he said she would totally be able to heal from this within 1-2 weeks. So we agreed with his recommendation to just clean up and give injections for pain/antibiotics.
We got home last night and put her in a small crate in the garage with a litter box, bedding and food. I’ve seen a few ferals recover from sedation after TNR, but I never saw them fumble around. I’m not sure if it’s because she had recently woken up from sedation, or something worse? I’m very concerned whether she is unable to use her back legs, paralyzed or something. She is very spicy so it would be an ordeal to get her into a trap and back to a vet, to be sedated again and euthanized?
How many days is too long to wait? How many days is too soon to not give her a chance to recover? How will I even be able to tell her leg function as she sits there in the crate? I don’t want to release her if she is very injured and unable to survive out there.
I feel awful about the whole thing and just hate to see her suffer. There’s only so much I can do because she is feral, and I don’t have any help from a rescue or anything. There is only 1 in this area and they haven’t been responsive to requests from me before. We are $700 in from the first vet visit.
From the camera my husband said it looks like the dog stared at her for a short time before attacking, so what if she was already injured/sick and that’s why she couldn’t get away fast enough… But it’s also possible she could have just been sleeping there and didn’t notice the dog. Just a lot of unknowns…
Normally she would run away from people but she sat there in the dirt while we got closer with a trap so we could bring her to a vet. She tried to climb over a wall to get away from us, but it seems her back legs couldn’t manage it, which is what worries me…
This happened Saturday evening so the only places open were ER vets. We waited and they had to sedate her to examine because she is aggressive. The vet said everything looked normal from what he could tell while she was sedated, except she had “minor” puncture wounds under tail and right leg. Since she was under anesthesia already, I was prepared to euthanize had the news been bad. But he said she would totally be able to heal from this within 1-2 weeks. So we agreed with his recommendation to just clean up and give injections for pain/antibiotics.
We got home last night and put her in a small crate in the garage with a litter box, bedding and food. I’ve seen a few ferals recover from sedation after TNR, but I never saw them fumble around. I’m not sure if it’s because she had recently woken up from sedation, or something worse? I’m very concerned whether she is unable to use her back legs, paralyzed or something. She is very spicy so it would be an ordeal to get her into a trap and back to a vet, to be sedated again and euthanized?
How many days is too long to wait? How many days is too soon to not give her a chance to recover? How will I even be able to tell her leg function as she sits there in the crate? I don’t want to release her if she is very injured and unable to survive out there.
I feel awful about the whole thing and just hate to see her suffer. There’s only so much I can do because she is feral, and I don’t have any help from a rescue or anything. There is only 1 in this area and they haven’t been responsive to requests from me before. We are $700 in from the first vet visit.
From the camera my husband said it looks like the dog stared at her for a short time before attacking, so what if she was already injured/sick and that’s why she couldn’t get away fast enough… But it’s also possible she could have just been sleeping there and didn’t notice the dog. Just a lot of unknowns…