When a vet won't eartip....?

[scott77777]

So, the vet that has been spaying our ferals -- through the rescue group we work with -- is against ear-tipping, claiming that it makes it worse for the cats when they get into fights. More cuts and tears, etc...

Has anyone heard of this?

Instead, the vet and vet-tech have been marking the ear using some sort of permanent magic marker or such.

I'm a bit concerned, since we live in an apartment complex and we're not going to be living here forever. There are also a few groups of people trapping cats around here and there will be no way for people to know that these cats have been in someone's care already.

Ideas?

 

[momofmany]

My thoughts: Contact the other vets in the area to see if they will either take over the feral TNR, or warn them that cats with a marked ear are already TNR'd.

 

[hissy]

I am personally against ear-tipping and will ask the vet to tattoo the ear or the belly instead. I have seen to many cats that were ear tipped with bite wounds on the tipped ear- I took that to mean it wasn't a great idea.

 

[scott77777]

What's with the bite wounds?

Cats will attack another cat if it looks injured or deformed in some way?

 

[houseofcats]

I'm for ear-tipping mainly because this the nationally recognized standard for identifying feral cats that are spayed/neutered and released to managed colonies. Plus when you're working with a large colony, such as ours (90 + cats), you can easily see which cats have been fixed by the ear-tipping. We would not be able to see a tatoo on the ear or belly.

We've been managing our colony for about 5 years now and have never run across a problem with biting or scratching a tipped ear. I would check around and see if you can locate another vet that works with ferals that will ear-tip.