Help, injured and bleeding stray

art36

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Hi.
There is a feral stray cat that visits my house routinely to eat from my pet cat's food bowl. The cat always runs a way at just the site of me.

I just found the cat laying in my front yard crying. The cat didn't run and looked to be in real pain. I went inside to get some water for him while I try and figure out what to do. When I came out he had crawled under my car.
I could see a blood trail on the cement and could see the cat was bleeding from the lower right side. I dont know what to do or who to call here in Miami,FL. It seems the rescues I could find numbers for have machines on and normal business hours. It's 1am here. I put some water and food next to him and got a real serious "back-off" hiss.

This is killing me. I feel helpless- dont know what to do, who to call at this hour. Can anyone advise me?
 

StefanZ

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I dont have good advices who you may call to help.

But giving him a "shelter" + water and food, a place where he can be safe and try to recover, is in itself very substantial.
I presume you are willing to do it.
A sick homeless usually dont have even this, and still - they can surprisingly often recover even from very bad, terrible wounds. A leg gone f.eks... Long-time homeless are survivors, the toughtest ones.

So if you dont have any ideas or afford to call in a vet: a shelter, food, water, some attention - is an OK help.

Apparently he does accept help from you. He did come to your place to get help - from you. You do have the mandate from him.

He is hissing some, which is a good sign. He is not out. But it is "mandatory" hisses, he doesnt mean them seriously. He does recognize you as the helper.


IF he gets through this, you will with a little luck socialize him too into a home cat.
In socializing ferale cats, there are two windows where it is easy/easier then otherwise. One, wide open, is when they are kittens, 2-7 weeks.
Second window can open anytime in the life, if they are wounded or sick, and accept and gets help. The helper being their new MOM, etc... This can get sometimes astonishlingly quick.


Tx for your caring for that cat!
Good luck and vibes to you and that cat!
 
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art36

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Thanks for the reply Stefan.

>Apparently he does accept help from you. He did come to your place
>to get help - from you. You do have the mandate

I think he may have just come here because it was close to whatever happened to him. I really dont think he sees me as a helper. He was breathing really heavy and deep, and think he didn't try and get away from me because of his injuries/shock. He did crawl under the car when I went inside to get some water for him. I get the gut feeling he is dying.

I guess I can't do anything till morning.
I really appreciate your reply.

-art
 

momofmany

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The only intervention you can do right now is to put him into a carrier and take him to your closest emergency vet. If you don't know one nearby, many vets put an emergency vet's number on their night time answering machine. You might want to try to find one, call them and get their advice. This does sound like an emergency situation to me.

I don't know if you have a carrier, and I don't know whether you would even be able to get close enough to put him in it. Call the e-vet for advice right now.
 

StefanZ

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Originally Posted by Momofmany

Call the e-vet for advice right now.
Surely a good advice, but what is the e-vet? emergency-vet? e-mail-vet?

.................................

Instead of carrier you Art36 can use a laundry basket or similiar. Even a common bucket can do, if you have a lid to immediately cover the opening.
This is easier to get him into than a classic cat-carrier.
You can also transport him to the vet-clinic in that laundry basket with lid on. (yes, I have seen it done, works just fine).
As he is wounded, it can perhaps do to wrap him in a blanket or old rug and thus move over a short distance. it may even be the easiest.
As long he understands you are trying to help him, he should accept more then he would otherwise..

So one difficulty is to move him from under the car into a carrier - for transport to a good, friendly, surgeon vet if you can get one.
Otherwise you must move him to a suitable place for him to be in. It is not probable he wants or can run away. But if you have a big dog crate it is useful.
If you dont have a spare room, so a cellar or the heater-room should do. many rescuers uses their bathroom.
You probably dont need to think too much about quarantene from your resident: they have apparently already met, in any case he uses to eat from the residents bowl. But dont let them meet unless your resident is good friend with him - unnecessary to stress the sick just now. No kids and no dogs either.


Your next problem is of course to get him to a good, friendly vet surgeon.
If he has serious injuries demanding major surgery, it wont do with a very small practice. Such a "small" vet vill probably say there is not much to do, and suggest putting to sleep.
But clinics arent usually cheap, even if many vets gives price-reduction for helping homeless.
So the best is probably if you first have a recommendation or even recommendation + voucher from some rescue organization or shelter...
I suppose also you arent very rich. Few rescuers are, although not so few rescuers DO pay for even quite advanced treatment, out of their own pocket...



But as I said before. If you cant manage to get him to a good friendly vet, so giving the cat shelter and love, making him comfortable, water and food - is way better than nothing, and more than most homeless gets.
 

mrblanche

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Bless you for being concerned about him.

My bet is that your only recourse, really, is to call animal control, and they likely will only put him to sleep, but at least he won't be suffering. Any cat injured as badly as you describe likely has fatal injuries, especially if it is actually feral. If it were your own indoor cat, clean, with no parasite load, it might have a decebt chance.

Life on the outside is short and brutal, unfortunately.

I will be thinking of him and hoping for a good outcome, somehow.
 
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art36

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Thanks for everyones replies.

The little guy didn't make it to morning.

-art
 

hissy

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art, I am sorry he didn't make it. Chances are he colllided with a car or got mauled by a dog. Sometimes, the choices are just taken from us before we can act to the benefit of the cat.
 

mrblanche

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I'm very sorry to hear that. Did you take a look at his injuries, to see what might have happened?
 

lsulover

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Originally Posted by art36

Thanks for everyones replies.

The little guy didn't make it to morning.

-art
I am so sorry that he didn't make it until the morning.

Bless you for at least trying, and you know something? I really feel in my heart that at least the little guy knew that you were trying to help him, and I really feel that you probably showed him a little love. The little guy might not have never felt that before. So I think maybe he died just knowing that someone was trying to help him. You did a good thing.

Stories like this always make me so sad.
 

bmw kitty cat

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Aww so sorry to here Art. Hopefully you are never in the same position again but if so, there are a couple emergency vets that are open 24 hours.

Below is a link to one that's in the kendall area. Not sure where you are located but there are a few others.

http://www.knowlesanimalclinics.com/

I'm in miami too
 
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art36

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MrBlanche,
I tried to detrmine what happened to him but couldn't tell. He seemed to have a small 1" laceration on his lower side abdomen, just forward of his back leg. I tried to feel for broken bones but couldn't feel anything unusual (but I'm not sure I could tell anyways).

My yard is enclosed by a bar fence. Not impossible to maneuver, but difficult if he didn't have use of rear legs.

I really wish I new what happened.



BMW Kitty,
I'm not planning on letting this happen again. I am getting the items that I will need to safely transport any small animal that is in a similar emergency situation. I'm in Hialeah, and will gladly drive down to Kendall.


StefanZ,Momofmany,MrBlanche,Hissy,WellingtonCats,LSULover and BMW Kitty Cat,
Thank you all for the replies and the kind words.

-art
 

mrblanche

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You kindness will be rewarded somewhere, if only in a grateful glance from another cat you are more prepared for.

Judging from your description of this one's injuries, I would bet on a dog or coyote attack.
 
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art36

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Originally Posted by mrblanche

You kindness will be rewarded somewhere, if only in a grateful glance from another cat you are more prepared for.

Judging from your description of this one's injuries, I would bet on a dog or coyote attack.
Thanks mrblanche.

I live in a really heavy populated urban area so there is the occasional loose dog, but we dont have coyotes.

I have a nagging feeling someone did this. Respect for animal life has been pretty low around here in the past. I have no proof but I've lived in this neighborhood 40 years and my instincts tell me someone was annoyed at this cat pooping in their yard, or eating their pet's food, or eyeing their parakeets. There's also no shortage of local hoodlums which may have been bored that night. I hope I'm wrong though.

I've only been letting my cat out when I'm working in the yard (just in case).

regards,
-art
 

mrblanche

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Sorry, but every city in the United States has coyotes, and Miami is no exception.

But your guess of a human is not necessarily wrong.

My cats never go outside.
 
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