Shaved or sick?

fionasmom

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Basing this only on your pic, he does not look ill in general. To me, the hair loss is very even and appears to be growing back in. If he was shaved, it was probably done correctly. As for an ear tipped cat being shaved, who knows? He had a medical procedure when he was fixed, someone takes care of him? Doe he appear to have signs of an illness?
 

moxiewild

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Yeah, my guess is he has a caretaker somewhere and had been shaved for something medical. Doesn’t look like hair loss or illness at all to me.
 
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thewarriors

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the other side of his body is missing a chunk of fur also. he’s been coming back everyday around noon since i’ve been consistently feeding him. i’m just a little worried for him since winter is right around the corner.
 

fionasmom

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This is strange. Do you have any idea where he goes back to? A lot of that could depend on what type of area you live in. If you don't mind giving him food, he is eartipped at least, so fixed. You could set up a winter shelter for him which can be done very inexpensively. If you are in a place where winter is hard, he might be coming to you as the only one who is feeding him.

This happened to me years ago when I helped to maintain a feral colony at my workplace. A clearly hungry cat showed up, not in great shape physically. One day he comes and he has clearly been taken to the vet, his coat is shaved in places and he has had medication applied. We never figured it out. Another person who wanted to help him but did not own him?
 
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thewarriors

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im in nyc so he can honesty go anywhere. there are feeders near me, but i am the only one that does tnr so it could have been me that fixed him. i started feeding in my yard only recently so that could be why he started showing up.
 

fionasmom

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Thank you for doing TNR in NYC! I get it completely, I have TNRed cats I never got a really good look at, or they looked very similar to the rest of the mix in the area.
 
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thewarriors

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so he came back again this morning and i noticed a limp while he was walking to the food that i left out. i didnt notice the limp last time. could the missing fur be that he was hit by a car?
 

fionasmom

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Missing fur but no injury seems odd to me if he was hit by a car. Now, could he have been hit by a car in the place where the fur was previously shaved, yes. So two events could be overlapping. To me, the fur did look shaved; in a messy car accident there would be blood and much more irregularity. He sounds like he needs some help. Can you make or get some sort of an outdoor winter shelter for him?
 
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thewarriors

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1A187F2E-F3FC-4DAE-8E60-2ED422E24B2E.jpeg

I have a shelter for him, but he hasnt shown up for over a week now.
 

fionasmom

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I am sorry to hear this. You shelter looks great and it was kind of you to do this for him. These situations are hard to figure out and sad. Don't give up and leave the shelter available. He may return or be in the area.
 
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