Need Advice From the Feral Colony Experts

[orange&white]

Misfit has picked poor timing to worry me about her health. The last two days, she has only nibbled at her meals. Normally she cleans her plate in 2 minutes or less, 3 meals a day, every day. Now I'm leaving to visit my dad this morning and won't be back until around 3pm tomorrow.

Optimistically, there are people in the apartments feeding the ferals because the ones I'm not feeding look fit and healthy, so maybe she's eaten somewhere else. She's been sticking close to my property though as far as I can see. Alternately, she could have caught a larger prey animal like a bird or squirrel.

When I feed her, she seems to be interested in the food, but then only takes a few little bites then walks away. She looks bright, healthy and active still, but it's only been a day and a half since she got finicky. The last full meal she ate was her breakfast Tuesday morning. I left food out for her overnight (which I don't normally do), and it was gone this morning, but I don't know if she ate or another feral visited.

Is it more common or normal for outdoor cats to go off food than indoor domestic cats?

 

[surya]

Sometimes that happens with my colony. There is a lady who feeds them her leftovers sometimes and she will have some good meat for them to eat. So they may have filled up on that. The lady who helps me get them fixed donates food to me sometimes, and sometimes they don't like the new food, unless they are really hungry. Is it a new bag of food? It could be a bad batch. My ferals refused to eat the Purina One Urinary tract health formula. They said it was ucky.

If she catches birds and mice, they can get parasites from them, so that would be something to check with your vet.

 

[orange&white]

Thanks, Surya. I just put off my Thanksgiving plans by one day, so I'm home today to watch her, and will go out of town tomorrow instead.

She did disappear for about an hour, and when she came back, she ate more of the food I gave her early this morning.

She eats a raw diet, and she and my indoor feral eat out of the same tub which are about 2 days of food for the 2 cats, so I'm sure the batch isn't bad. The indoor cat is still licking her plates clean. I do use some grain-free kibble as training treats with Misfit. The last couple days, I poured her some kibble for meals so she'd have a choice.

Anyway, she did eat more food about an hour ago than she's eaten since Tuesday morning, so I'll just keep an eye on her.

 

[orange&white]

If she catches birds and mice, they can get parasites from them, so that would be something to check with your vet.

I'll have to check when I last wormed her. I gave her Panacur a few months ago...she may be due again.

 

[orange&white]

Misfit ate her dinner like normal this evening...ate every bite and licked the plate. I did only give her 1.1 ounces instead of 1.5 since she hasn't been finishing any amount since Tues AM. I'll offer her 1.9 ounce at her bedtime meal and see how she does. We may be back on track.

She ate several pieces of unseasoned pork cracklins from my hand this afternoon. That's sort of like a fast food Happy Meal...junk food...but when a cat isn't eating, I'm happy to see them eat anything. She also ate a few bites of the kibble I left outside for her, but didn't eat all of it.

Anyway, the plumbing issue which had me reschedule my Thanksgiving trip by one day may have turned out to be a blessing. If Misfit eats her bedtime meal and breakfast tomorrow morning I can travel without worrying about her as much.

 

[orange&white]

Well, Misfit only ate .4 ounces of her bedtime meal.

 

[surya]

It was thanksgiving. I bet somebody left some turkey out for her. I know somebody did for my kitties.

 

[maggiedemi]

Are you going to try de-worming her?

 

[orange&white]

I looked at her chart, and I wormed her Labor Day weekend (Sept 1st-3rd). It hasn't quite been 3 months, so she could use a wormer again in a week or two.

She didn't even sniff her breakfast this morning. I hope someone put out extra food for the ferals for Thanksgiving.

This morning she jumped the fence from the back to the front yard and I heard her rustling the leaves. I went to the front and she was peeing or pooping. I stood back until she went to cover up, then walked over to see if her poop looked ok. I couldn't see any wet spot and no poop. I hope she's not blocked or UTI. I'm imagining all kinds of awful things. Hopefully she's eating somewhere else.

I pulled her skin up behind her neck and upper back. It's popping back fairly quickly, so she's not terribly dehydrated, maybe a little bit.

 

[maggiedemi]

Do you have any fish mox?

 

[orange&white]

No, I don't. When I didn't see a damp spot or poop, I thought of that. I should probably keep some on hand. I did go back to the spot and there was a little bit of wet in the leaves behind the hole she had dug, rather than in the hole. That was probably urine, since the soil is fairly dry and no dew on the ground.

 

[maggiedemi]

Yeah, it's handy to keep around, since a bottle will probably last a long time.

 

[orange&white]

What's the expiration date from the time of order?

 

[maggiedemi]

The one I just got says May 2019

 

[orange&white]

That's good. Easy to replace even if they never get used.

 

[orange&white]

I interested her in some sardines in water....but she lapped up the liquid and left the solid sardine.

 

[maggiedemi]

Demi's the same way, he'll only drink the sardine juice, he won't eat the sardines.

 

[orange&white]

Yesterday Misfit ate 90 calories of fresh food and a few pieces of kibble, so probably only 100 calories total. Her normal appetite is around 200 calories per day.

I carried her inside today and set her on my kitchen scale. She surprised me by sitting still long enough for the scale to settle on a weight. She weighed 120.5 ounces compared to 124.5 ounces on Nov 3rd. I've gotten a few weights on her since September and her range has been 119-124.5, so she's not out of her normal range.

I did catch her pooping in the front yard this morning and chased her off before she could cover up. She has pudding-poop diarrhea with a little solid. I think the solid portion was probably cat fur she has swallowed while grooming.

I'll get her some more wormer this week. Hopefully I can get her to eat enough to take it.

 

[orange&white]

Misfit ate about her normal amount of calories today, but in lots of small servings of fresh meals plus quite a bit of kibble. Tomorrow's a work day so I won't be able to give her several small meals through the day, but I'll leave her some kibble whether or not she eats enough fresh food for breakfast.

 

[orange&white]

Today Misfit ate her 3 full meals and licked the saucers clean like she used to. I also left some kibble before going to work and it was gone, though it could have been another neighborhood cat eating it. That was eight days of her appetite being variable day-to-day and not eating enough.

I'm imagining the apartment people putting out a bunch of turkey liver and gizzards and possibly veggie and stuffing side dishes which might have had garlic and onions. But who knows? I hate the uncertainties of trying to care for an outdoor cat. If my indoor kitties don't eat their meals, I know they aren't eating somewhere else.