Three of us volunteers have taken over the job of feeding the few remaining cats at a feral colony. One of the cats (at least 10 years old) is "friendly" in so far as he can often be seen and sometimes comes up quite close to you. Because he now refuses to go into a trap, when he stopped eating a few years ago he was simply grabbed, forced into a carrier and a vet extracted his bad teeth. Since then he has been eating well.
During the past winter, his condition has deteriorated. His nose is running and he appears to have sores on his nose and mouth. When I go to feed him he is usually in one of the cat houses but runs out and tries to hide in the undergrowth when he sees or hears me. He watches me from a distance but each day he seems to be suffering more. The woman, who has been doing this job for 10 years and knows him best, tried to grab him earlier in the week and was attacked needing hospital treatment.
We have acquired enough antibiotics for 10 days and, on Monday, we will try to get him to take them while ensuring that the other cats don't!
I am not very optimistic that we will succeed in treating him adequately, without getting him to a vet. What do you do, when true ferals get ill? When all else fails, how do you get them to the vet for euthanisation? The senior cats have seen the traps far too many times to willingly just walk in. Do we have to wait till he gets too weak to resist, assuming, of course, that he doesn't just hide away somewhere to die?
We are the only animal rescue charity active in this area. We'll certainly be discussing this (under the conditions which COVID allows). At the moment, this poor cat is certainly always on my mind.
During the past winter, his condition has deteriorated. His nose is running and he appears to have sores on his nose and mouth. When I go to feed him he is usually in one of the cat houses but runs out and tries to hide in the undergrowth when he sees or hears me. He watches me from a distance but each day he seems to be suffering more. The woman, who has been doing this job for 10 years and knows him best, tried to grab him earlier in the week and was attacked needing hospital treatment.
We have acquired enough antibiotics for 10 days and, on Monday, we will try to get him to take them while ensuring that the other cats don't!
I am not very optimistic that we will succeed in treating him adequately, without getting him to a vet. What do you do, when true ferals get ill? When all else fails, how do you get them to the vet for euthanisation? The senior cats have seen the traps far too many times to willingly just walk in. Do we have to wait till he gets too weak to resist, assuming, of course, that he doesn't just hide away somewhere to die?
We are the only animal rescue charity active in this area. We'll certainly be discussing this (under the conditions which COVID allows). At the moment, this poor cat is certainly always on my mind.