Question about stray cat vetting

Hi everyone,

I have another thread about Patches, the momma cat that I am feeding outside (she is fixed - her babies got rescued this summer. I am not comfortable at this point with taking her in myself to socialize because of how other cat was painfully shy until he was a lone cat, and I have pet birds, etc. It just doesn't feel 'right' at this point to take her inside, but I'm still debating.)

I've noticed that she's kinda... pudgy. I can only imagine that she is absolutely FULL of worms. This is a concern to me...

So my question is - for everyone who takes care of outside shy kitties, what do you do about the worms? Do you trap the cat every few months and get the vet to apply Revolution or what not? Or do you leave as is? I'm not sure what to do. I don't want her to die from worms... I also think that she will be leary of the Havahart traps again (from remembering it the first time). I'm just not sure what to do about the worms. I know she'll keep getting them since she hunts outside.

In an ideal world, we'd take her in for sure, but I really have to think this out because of the rest of the household, so for now I'm trying to figure out things for her if she remains outside, as her official caretaker.

Thanks in advance!

Unfortunately a lot of dewormers don't taste very good, however I have slipped them into stinky wet food or tuna juice to get them in them. If I can get close to them, I'll also apply Advantage or Revolution between their shoulders - you can sometimes get close enough to them to drop your hand and squeeze it onto them. If you don't spend time around the feeding area while she is eating, you might want to start getting closer to her at these times - they are the best time to sneak something onto them.

Talk to your vet about dewormer products that are as tasteless as possible. If she is bloating from worms, you really need to take care of this.

She might also be getting pudgy because she's putting on her winter weight. Or she's just getting fat now that she has a steady food source and isn't burning all her calories on being pregnant and nursing babies.

But, yeah, ask your vet about getting a liquid de-wormer, and then mix it up in some very stinky, yummy kind of food. Maybe even canned tuna or another special treat. Whatever she likes best.

Thanks everyone!! She's a sucker for tuna, so hopefully she'll be able to take it that way.

What's the typical amount to feed an outside kitty? Do you feed less than indoor cat since she might be eating outside critters as well as the cat food? She was 12 pounds when she was spayed. I've cut down her amount a bit in case I was giving her too much - I give her about 3/4 of a cup.

I'll keep you posted! I was so alarmed seeing her looking so pudgy.

Well, the vet we take our kitten to won't give me the good dewormer without an office visit and stool sample... They were cool though and told me that if I do trap her, they'll work with me to get her an appointment (they do work with strays/ferals).

So I called up the low-cost clinic where I took Patches in for her spay. They would also prefer to see her but they said they should be able to work something out. They have some Friday clinics in October. I left my name/number and the person in charge is going to call me back and let me know what we can do. So hopefully I"ll be able to get the meds without bringing her to the vet.

If this doesn't work, I'm going to email the TNR group that lent me the Havahart trap originally and see if they can 'hook me up' with the meds. If not, I will borrow a trap from them again and cross my fingers!

I've never networked this much in my life before. I"ll keep my fingers crossed.

Ideally, you bring the cat into the vet and they can prescribe the meds based on their problem. But those of us that care for ferals understand that it's not always practical. If you do get meds on your own and she doesn't debloat after treatment, you will definitely need to get her to the vet. So the networking you are doing is a very good thing.

I am planning on using diatomaceous earth as parasite and worm treatment on both my indoor (raw fed) and outdoor cat. Perhaps it would be an option, just mix with wet food?

Leslie

Ugh, life just got a bit crazier... She was outside the front door this morning so I gave her some food and sat outside, hoping she'd eventually eat in front of me. I stayed for about 5 minutes then went back inside and then she ate. Then about 10 minutes later, I looked outside and she was sitting on the sidewalk pawing at a leaf - and I saw... a kitten. My heart just sank. The kitten looks to be 3 months old. It went over and finished up the food she hadn't eaten. So... then about 15 minutes later, I look outside - and I see ANOTHER cat - looks exactly like the kitten but is bigger and has black markings instead of gray. Am assuming it's either a bigger sibling or a very very tiny momma cat.

So I'm a bit upset... just that feeling of 'Oh God, this isn't done...'

And another thing I haven't mentioned on the boards is that our unfinished part of the basement has this horrible cat pee/mildew odor - we have some incline problems (need to adjust the slope of part of the yard so water doesn't go down) but the smell lately has been awful. Our male kitten freaks out when he smells it - so I just finally put 2 and 2 together. I thought it was the mom cat's pee smell - but now I think it's another male kitty's pee smell and the territorial smell is freaking out our cat.

So it looks like we have a lot on our hands now - we have to get these cats trapped/fixed, deal with this pee smell in our basement, and look into dewormer for the original momma cat. I'm a bit stressed out. It's been a stressful few months with the 4 kittens and momma cat, and I feel like it's starting over...

May I ask what part of Ohio you are in?

I am in Ohio as well and have a great resource in the southwestern part of the state to help with spay/neuter

Leslie

Don't stress too much about the dewormer. Although heavy parasite infectations can cause health problems, this is rare in otherwise healthy adult cats. She's probably just putting on winter weight. If you know someone who does cat rescue, ask about getting the dewormer from them. It's not brain surgery...sheesh. My vet will give out dewormer to anyone.

I sympathize with the situation. Seems like every time you get all the cats fixed, another one (or more!) shows up.

Originally Posted by Jack31

May I ask what part of Ohio you are in?

I am in Ohio as well and have a great resource in the southwestern part of the state to help with spay/neuter

Leslie

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Hi Leslie,
I'm in Cincinnati also. I've brought Patches (momma cat) to UCAN - they were great! I'm all ears for Cincinnati-insite!!

Here is the "new" momma cat (I think):
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2549/...acc429e7a2.jpg

And here is the kitten....:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2441/...7a27d39441.jpg

food wise - for outside cats it depends on the temp in the winter. mine are barn cats so I'd say close to being outside because they have the outside tempeture.

I feed raw and they are doing great on just 2.5% of their body wieght...what do you use jack31 just as a guideline for how differant they are? btw, the average temp here right now is 60 f. I know that you don't feed raw but I am wondering how much more my barn cats are eating compared to housecats. That could be used as a guideline for how much dry/wet food to feed.

From those pictures, I'd actually say those cats are probably siblings. I have a feral litter right now, and the male is twice the size of his sisters. Bigger than his mama already, and he's only 4 months old.

Hope you can catch them and get all their vet work done . They're cuties.

I've never tried to limit the outside cats' food. When there are more than one, it's hard to do that. I figure that they know what they need to stay warm.

Originally Posted by Willowy

From those pictures, I'd actually say those cats are probably siblings. I have a feral litter right now, and the male is twice the size of his sisters. Bigger than his mama already, and he's only 4 months old.

Click to expand...

Hmmm, good point... I didn't even consider the sibling possibility. Hmm I guess hard to say without them showing me some ID.

Didn't see those 2 today, just saw Patches. We'll see what happens!