Feral Cat Health Questions

Hi. We have this little feral cat we call Stormy (cause she's a fair weather friend ) and I have a health question for her. She's ours in that we feed her and she comes up to us and sleeps under our deck but we can't touch her. She's between 5 & 7 and was born, we think, under a large tree in our yard. She's had one litter of kittens and was fixed after that. We caught her with a live trap and took her to one of those moving clinics that picks up the cats and has the little assembly line going and does nothing but fix cats all day. They did a great job and were really nice. She's been very healthy since but that's the only time she was ever touched by humans. It's taken the last 5 years for her to let me within 6 inches of her. Lately if we're feeding her her canned food and we hold really still she'll reach her nose out and touch our hand for the briefest second. Believe me, I went nuts with joy after I went inside! She hasn't had any injuries because she has one basic game plan in a cat fight. RUN!! She also had another cat that was sort of her big brother and if another cat jumped her, he came running and jumped on them so she could run away. But he's gone now (sad, poor Tigger).

So my question about her is, when I was outside this morning Stormy came up to me and I noticed she had what looked like a spit bubble on either side of her mouth. Not foam or anything, just like a little kid would blow a spit bubble, on each side of her mouth. At one point she licked them off. There was a heck of a cat fight the other night and we have the usual suburban critters around here, cats, dogs, opossums, raccoons, but as far as I know no reports of rabies. Are the spit bubbles something I should worry about? She was acting normally otherwise. She has a small cut on her ear but that's the only injury we can see. The only way we could get her looked at is if we caught her in the live trap again and took her somewhere that deals with feral cats, which I have no idea where to look for that. It's just that there's kids and their pets in the neighborhood and I don't want one of them to get hurt of loose their pet horribly because we didn't do something. And I don't want anything bad to happen to Stormy.

Any advise would be appreciated!

I know exactly what you are going through I have 2 ferals that I had spayed/neutered 4 1/2 to 5 years ago, and like you that was the last time they were touched my humans. They are doing well also. However, I also took care of a stray that was very friendly and he got his ear torn by another cat, but seemed alright, Then I was noticing bubbles also, it turned out he had bad teeth, I got him into the Vet and he had Stomatitis (sp?) they removed his teeth. and told me he was FIV positive. Unfortunately anything is possible when they are on the outside. In your case it could just be that she has a bad tooth. Some Vets do take Ferals. The emergency Vet hospitals usually take Ferals. Your such a good person to take care of her like that. Please keep us updated. I wish you good luck with her.

for your feral baby.

The bubbles are not likely a symptom of rabies - viciousness is usually the identifier.

Either way, it sounds like it may be time to get kitty to a vet.

Many feral caretakers will just trap kitty. Often they're so scared at the vet it's not a problem. If it appears it's going to be an issue, the vet can sedate kitty while in the trap. But do call around to make sure you've got a vet that has experience with feral cats, and where you can bring kitty in when trapped, not with a set appointment.

Stormy is OK.



Laurie

I manage a feral army with about 25 cats. It makes me furious that people do not alter their cats and many people just abandon them to survive on their own. My days are planned around my ferals and it is heart breaking. I just had a feral with herpes (we think) that had escalated to what my Animal Control thought was the worst case they had ever seen (we had him euthanized past Saturday as only humane option we had). He started out drooling, not bubbles, but drool. That went to the eyes with a thick mucous streaming from the eyes and the nose. What was amazing was that I kept thinking he had passed and then I would spot him, made me cry. He stayed in that condition for over a month, til we caught him. If vengeance is Gods, I wish He would avenge the humans who have been irresponsible parents and pet owners.

How is Stormy? I hope she is doing well.

OMGOSH Stubbys Mom! That's awful! That poor baby! I would have cried too! I'm glad you found him so you could relieve his pain but it's not fair that you had to be the one to do that just cause someone else couldn't fix their cat. I'm sorry you had to go through that but you're such an angel for caring about those feral cats!

Originally Posted by aswient

How is Stormy? I hope she is doing well.

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Hi. I think she's doing well. Hard to tell when you can't touch them. (sigh) We talked to our vet and they said they have a "Zonk Box" hehe, which is the think where if you can get them into a trap or a cat carrier they can put it into this box and zonk them to sleep with gas. They said that if we needed to they'd slip her into the schedule, knowing that as soon as we let her out at home that might be the last time we ever see her. The vet said he'd probably update her shots at the same time since, hey, he'd have her in reach. So far she hasn't done anymore drooling or bubbling and we've kept an eye on how she's eating and she doesn't seem to be having any troubles so... I don't want to catch her if we don't have to cause she's smart. We have to change the way we catch her every time. So I think she'd doing ok cause no more bubbling. It's hard when you can't handle them.