New Cat Owner, Helping a Hungry Stray..Advice?

Hi! This is my first time posting. On Monday night we found a beautiful, but emaciated black male cat on our church doorstep. We live in the parsonage across the street and I called to him, and he came flying over to me. I gave him some turkey lunch meat and some water (I didn't have anything else that I thought could possibly be good for him) and he ravenously ate it. He's been staying in our backyard since then (I bought some dry cat food for him, and have a box with a blanket for him outside), sleeping alot of the day and night, very eager for affection from my husband, toddler daughter and myself, and waits by our door whenever we leave him. We'd like to adopt him, since he's such a sweet heart and very gentle, and I have a vet appointment for him next Tuesday. (My daughter calls him "Cute Kitty" so we named him "CK :-). I'm concerned about his weight though..you can see alot of his bones. Is there anything extra I should do to get him to fatten up/sustain him until Tuesday? My husband is a seminary student, so we're on a really tight budget.

Depending on how skinny he is you need to be careful how rich of food and how much you give him. Right now, if he can eat it, the best you can give him is canned food. The reason for this is that he's probably very dehydrated, too.

Will you be bringing him in after the vet visit? Since it's a male, you can actually look and see if he's neutered or not. But otherwise he'll need to be treated for fleas and worms - both round worms and tape worms. If he has dark "gunk" in his ears then he needs treatment for earmites, too. (thankfully Revolution or Advantage Multi can treat all of those but the tape worms). He'll need his vacs, too, especially rabies vac since he'll be around your child and sometimes kids and pets and get a little rough with each other.

Bless you for caring for this kitty! Been there, done that regarding seminary so I totally understand the limited funds thing! The best thing you can do is to get the kitty to a vet for a good check up and to rule out the nasties and the beasties (fleas, worms). Like the previous poster mentioned, the good thing is that Revolution will treat for roundworms and hookworms. He'll most likely need to be treated for tapeworms, which is a separate treatment. Also, you'll want to find out if he's neutered, if you can't tell already, and make arrangements for that. Where are you located? It's possible that someone here knows of a low-cost clinic in your area that would do the neutering at a lower cost.

Welcome to TCS and thank you for caring for this kitty! He obviously lost his people - or was abandoned, and clearly knows he needs a home.

I think the advice to buy wet cat food for him is a good one. Supermarket brands aren't the healthiest, but they're certainly better than nothing or lunch meat.

I would NOT put down as much as he can eat right now - he may eat until he throws up.

If you can find a kitten food, it is usually higher protein, and he could use that right now.

As to the vet... just assume he has fleas and round worm (internal parasite), don't bother paying for the fecal. As the other posters have pointed out, these can be treated with Revolution. This is a topical treatment the vet can put on him (it goes on the skin between the shoulder blades) and lasts for a month. Even if you bring him indoor-only as a pet, he'll need at least one more treatment after that month, as the treatment kills only adult worms, so this takes into account the life cycle of the parasite.

It's also best to just assume he has tapeworm. That is treated with Drontal, which is a pill. The one treatment should do it (if you're going to bring him indoors full time).

If he's going to be indoor/outdoor, you'll have to continue to give him Revolution and Drontal regularly (discuss with the vet).

Many of us on this site keep our kitties indoor-only, because of the many dangers outside. Most kitties are perfectly happy to be inside all the time, especially if you give them some play time every day.

Are you U.S. based? If you feel comfortable sharing your county and state, we may be able to help with low-cost clinic options for getting him neutered (if he's not already, though it sounds like he probably is. The vet can tell you). Otherwise, I'd need a city and country to search. You can also use the private message system to send me this information, I'm happy to help.

In fact - when at the vet, feel comfortable asking about a low-cost clinic for a neuter if he's not already. Just be honest about your financial situation! You never know - they may offer to provide the service for the same price, or they may know just where to send you.

...and I have to smile. DH and I never had cats growing up, and our adventure with cats began together when a stray adopted us, as CK has adopted you.

Originally Posted by LDG

If you can find a kitten food, it is usually higher protein, and he could use that right now.

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In a starving animal that could possible have organ damage higher protein content isn't good.

Until the vet clears it, be careful of how rich in protein the food you use is. I probably should have specified that I meant protein in my first post.