TNR Ear Tag Photos?

Does anyone have a photo of the ear tag of a cat who has been TNRed?

I've always suspected our former stray was TNR because she has a perfect little triangle missing from the top of her right ear; but it's not very big & could just as easily have been from a cat-fight.

We assumed she's been dumped because she is uber friendly (well we've had her more then 2 years now) but maybe she was a TNR feral who just decided by hubby looked cute? (she adopted him)

This "tag" istn big, sometimes you can miss it if you only cast a casual glance.
However, it is usually done on the left ear, afaik.

Was she neutered when she adopted your dearest?

Well she's been exposed to wandering toms and never come into heat or had kittens*. I don't think she had a surgery scar but she's very fuzzy! Maybe it is her left, my right I always have trouble with that!

(*I know that SOUNDS irresposible but what I mean by that is that we know there were also toms in the area when she wandered into our lives)

Billy was TNR'd before being adopted. This vet lops off a lot of ear - one of the other vets we use doesn't take off quite so much. If it is a straight line, it is most likely not from a cat fight.

We know for sure that Billy was born to a feral mom. But he grew up in an RV park around very friendly people - and he transitioned to being an indoor kitty very quickly. Outside he was friendly but a touch skittish - certainly not like any of the "true" ferals we've worked with.

Here's one of my not so feral boy, Frank. I had him ear tipped when I TNR'd him last year, believing him to feral, but he has since really warmed up to me and I'm able to pet him now, although still have to take it slow.

That was a sound eartip. Even I do see it, even with a casual glance!

The statue to the right, it is St Franciskus, right? The saint loving and helping wild animals.

Swell! Where did you get the statue?

Originally Posted by StefanZ

That was a sound eartip. Even I do see it, even with a casual glance!

The statue to the right, it is St Franciskus, right? The saint loving and helping wild animals.

Swell! Where did you get the statue?

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It's hard to miss.

Yes, it's St. Francis. The statue was a gift from my dad, who got it at local home and garden store, after my first male cat, Willy, died 10 years ago.

We picked up our St Francis statue at Lowes. It was only about 20-30 dollars. I have it at the top edge of our burial sites surrounded by yellow roses.

Mary

The vet who spayed Baby tips the left, and tattoos the inside of the right thigh.
It isn't as big as it looks like in the pic, maybe a quarter of the top.

Here's Tom, a TNR stray that lives at the motel I stayed at last week.

This is an ear notch which is done around here - I find it much clearer than an ear tip

Oh!! No her mark is more like the ear notch but QUITE small, slim and at the top of her ear. I always assumed they made them small enough so you could only tell if you re-captured the cat, guess not!

I`d get a picture but it`s so small I don`t think you guys would be able to see it (she also has very fuzzy ears).

I wonder where she got it from then?

Originally Posted by Nes

Well she's been exposed to wandering toms and never come into heat or had kittens*. I don't think she had a surgery scar but she's very fuzzy! Maybe it is her left, my right

I always have trouble with that!

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If you take her to the vet he/she may be able to tell. Of course, she might have to have her belly shaved. I've heard of cats who were opened up only to discover that they were already spayed. Sometimes the only way the vets can tell is to do an ultrasound.

I can't find the surgery scars on any of my girls, and I know they were spayed (I paid enough for it ). Three of them have too much fur, but even on Shareena where the fur is fairly thin I can't see anything. She had a really bad reaction to the suture and I would have expected a huge scar.

We took our very first feral female, Booger, to the vet for a spay. They shaved her belly and found a good scar - but it was so jagged they couldn't tell if it was from a spay surgery or what. So they went ahead... only to find out she, in fact, was a stray and had been spayed.

But yes, shaving the belly they can see whether or not there's a spay scar there, and USUALLY it is "neat" enough to know for sure.

Originally Posted by LDG

We took our very first feral female, Booger, to the vet for a spay. They shaved her belly and found a good scar - but it was so jagged they couldn't tell if it was from a spay surgery or what. So they went ahead... only to find out she, in fact, was a stray and had been spayed.

But yes, shaving the belly they can see whether or not there's a spay scar there, and USUALLY it is "neat" enough to know for sure.

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The jagged scar was probably, as the spaying probably was done for free or verry cheaply, they let a inexperienced vet student do it.
Why not, they must train somewhere. And as long they do with supervision of an experienced vet its OK.
This way everyone wins. The strays gets their spayment and some vet care for free, and the studens or young inexperienced vets gets their experience.
AND they do get also experience with strays....

A vet who always works with full paying patients has otherwise probably very little experience with strays and ferales. And thus - dont want these even if the rescuer is prepared to pay.
But if he has experience at least from his student days - perhaps he will.

I never bothered to ask when we got her first set of vaccinations done, I don't know if I care enough to drag her in when we bring the kitten just to ask but maybe I'll get curious enough before then! Then again I'm not sure it's worth the $50 they'd probably charge me just to drag out the ultrasound .

Maybe I'll just go at her with the hair-trimmers! (JOKING!!)

Is this a kitty that is outside? If so, I really hope you care enough to make sure she's spayed - there are more than enough homeless kitties out there! Maybe I'm mis-reading your post?

And Stefan - while you're right about the vet training, that wasn't actually the case with Booger. The vet said she had a very expensive spay (meaning they removed her ovaries and everything). She was actually a pure-bred Maine Coon cat - apparently she ran away or got lost just after being spayed, and that's why her spay scar was all messed up.

No she is indoor/outdoor but we've had her for more then 2 years & she's never come into heat and I know for a fact she's been exposed to toms. There is no way I wouldn't have noticed her coming into heat, and it is possible she's not spayed but is barren.

Our vet fees are ridiculous, I was charged $60 when our dog broke her tooth just for the vet to look at her for 10 minutes and say "She'll be fine, if she has pain bring her back". Thanks and I'll send her to bed with two aspirins and call you in the morning .

I don't have the dough to do that again right now, I wish there was another way I could tell! I assure you if she ever came in pregnant we'd send her to be spayed immediately. I know we don't need any more homeless cats, even if she is a wicked mouser and I wouldn't mind having 100 Miss Kittys!

Gotcha. If you'd like, I can make a quick search to see if we can find any low-cost clinics near you. But a number of people have a problem spaying a pregnant cat. Of course it's best not to let them even get pregnant - but if she's been out for two years and not gotten pregnant, you're right - the odds are she is, indeed, already spayed.

Yeah I don't like to think about terminating a pregnancy that's why I just tell the vet to go ahead with the spay and not tell me about it. We used to have a spay/neuter clinic in our area but by all reports they seem to have shut down. Our local OSCPA just started a program a few months ago but we don't qualify.

I'm not too concerned, I'm just curious about the missing ear bit