advice on how to care for six ferals

Hello! I am looking for some help on how to care for the 6 ferals outisde my house. Last year I had 2 females, I would leave them water and sometimes food. Now they have had babies! One had only 1 baby. The other had 4, but 1 died at 3 weeks. Now they are getting bigger and more hungry everyday. In my country (Saudi Arabia) they dont spay or neuter. I want to help these poor cats, but I cant afford or handle anymore babies and cats.  Also, one of the babies, about 4 months, wont eat! I need any advice before I make the situation any worse! 

A friend of mine from the Middle East says that while spay/neuter is a crime in Saudi Arabia, the government has aide programs for "everything." He is quite sure that there is a government program for aiding animals. I wouldn't begin to know how to advise you to find such a program, but you may be familiar with how to locate something like this.

Unfortunately, where I live (the United States), the best advise I can give is to stop the breeding. And here, I recommend people not feed the animals if they're not going to spay or neuter them. Clearly that does not help you.

I do hope you'll be able to find assistance to help you care for these cats. :heart3:

Thankyou for the reply!! I knew that I should probably stop feeding them, I just needed to hear it from someone else. One of the older ferals is really sick now. He's about 4 months and hasnt eatten for 5 days. He is still moving aruond, but not much. He is also drinking some water. I noticed yesterday that the side of he face is swollen and for a couple of days hes been smelling bad. I think he is dying and its killing me to watch it. He is my favorite and I had him socialized. He wanted to come in my house all the time and would let us pet him. I cant trap the others. Any advice on how to get them off my property would help. I cant sit and watch them all die one by one.

Are there no vets in Saudi Arabia? Do people not keep pets of any kind?

:sobbing: OH my heart is aching for that little kitty..... . Please try to take the kitten to a vet and have it put out of it's misery at the very least.... . I could not stand the suffering either. I am so sorry I don't have much advice to offer but I would get these cat's to a vet, the sick ones.

LDG said:

A friend of mine from the Middle East says that while spay/neuter is a crime in Saudi Arabia, the government has aide programs for "everything." He is quite sure that there is a government program for aiding animals. I wouldn't begin to know how to advise you to find such a program, but you may be familiar with how to locate something like this.
Unfortunately, where I live (the United States), the best advise I can give is to stop the breeding. And here, I recommend people not feed the animals if they're not going to spay or neuter them. Clearly that does not help you.
I do hope you'll be able to find assistance to help you care for these cats. :heart3:

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OMG - Laurie - I did not know this :shocker:. Spay/neuter is a crime in Saudi Arabia..... OMG :shame: Those poor cats

If you want to help homeless cats, but cant spay/neuter.    One alternative is The Pill.  Are you allowed to use The Pill?  I suspect not...  Besides, the pill demands help of a vet, and you dont have cheap vets around as I understand it. 

Nay, the alternative if you want to help them homeless cats, is to adopt them and to have them as inside only kitty.  It is most easy with the homeless when they are young / kittens, it is fairly easy to foster them in that age.  To just giving them food and water isnt so good, they tend to be more as you see.

It is entirely possible to foster older homeless (semi-ferales) too, but it is more difficult and takes more time. CAN be done, but you must be firmly decided to do so.

YOU cant adopt and have them all yourself, so you should try to get your friends and relatives to adopt too...  And remember, most cats prefer to have a cat pal. So if you find one place, you will have two places!

As far as I know, the moslem culture is quite friendly too  cats, although not so dog friendly.  So yours try to help homeless cats shoulndt be impossible. 

This one sick... You should do something. Take it to a vet.  It is not nice for it nor for you to see it slowly dying.

Semi-ferales are the tough survivors, they sometimes manage to survive difficulties, wounds and sickedness which would kill a home cat. But when the ends is coming, it takes longer for them, just because of the toughness....  

It up to you now, the responsibility is yours.  So will be the glory.

Good luck!    

The sick one is doing better today!!!!!! I put warm compress on his face yesterday and i think it helped. He doesnt smell so bad today and his face isnt swollen either. I also washed his face with saline solution. I still cant get him to eat on his own. Since last night I have been using a medicine dropper and trying to give him wet food mixed with water. He didnt like it but I got lots of it in his mouth. Today he has been walking around following his mother and meowing regular.

Good for the little baby, glad he is better. If you can, get a feeding syringe from a local pet store and snip the end off to make it bigger. Since you are able to handle this kitten, I would start syringe feeding the baby some wet kitten food right away. The eye dropper is a great idea, but the syringe will hold more food. You can add a little warm water to a little wet food and mix it together to make it smooth for syringe feeding. I really hope you can get some assistance with getting these cat's all sterilized :cross: Bless you so much for caring the way you do about them.

Ah, so you CAN do some basic veterinary treatment yourself?  Wonderful, you did this like a pro!

Is this cat so tame and easy to handle?  I though they didnt let any human touch them.

Or perhaps, he knows he needs help and you are helping him - so he lets you do it?

So it quite often with shy semi-ferales.  Them being sick, and you helping them, makes them tame and fostered pretty quick.

Tx a lot, and congrats!   

Btw, goat milk is ok food for cats.

Do you have problems with salomonella bacteria on eggs in your country?  If not, raw egg yolk (=the yellow of egg) together with this goat milk is even better!

 I just wanted to thank everyone for responding with great advice. I'm still not sure on what to do with the strays or ferals outside, just going to wean them off the feedings and hope they can make it on their own. The one sick baby is soooo much better today! When I woke up to check on him he got up and ran to me looking for food and ate on his own right away!

 When I moved to my house about 2 years ago I found the 2 females with their mom. The mom eventually left them. I would put food maybe once or twice a week and water all the time. One of the females was really sweet and after 6 months or so she would let me pet her. The other would not let me get near her without hissing. The sweet one I named mustache' cuz she got into something and had a mustach for awhile, the other is Max, cuz we thought it was a boy. Mustache' had one baby, Gizmo at my front door. I would feed her everyday, just so she could stay with the baby. Then once Gizmo could walk she moved him and i couldnt find them. About a week later her sister, Max had four babies. I fed her also so she would stay with them.  The babies had problems with opening their eyes and they would keep crusting shut. So when I would feed the mom, I would take one baby at a time and clean their eyes with ACV or homemade saline soultion. Once they could walk she moved them and one died They were all healthy until Gizmo got sick. He just wouldnt eat for a couple of days and then his face was swollen. I really thought he was going to die and was preparing for it. I made a nice box with soft blanket inside and he would just sleep all day and night, drinking a little water. I kept checking him to see if he died yet, but he kept on surviving. I tried giving him food with medicine dropper and I really think it saved his life!!!!!!  I think he is going to be my boy outside. He is too sweet and lovable. I love him too much especially since he came back from the brink of death. Thanks again to everyone who helped me. I will always come back to "TheCatSite."

You DID save this little ones life :bigthumb:. AW Gizmo is a little fighter and it is a miracle he survived, thanks to you . Hope the cat's are doing well :cross: Keep us updated :nod:

Well Gizmo is doing great now! He's running around and getting fatter! One of the other babies died yesterday. I dont know what happened to it. I noticed he was lying around alot and would even let me pick him up and hold him, which he never did before. I started to watch him and saw he wasnt eatting anymore and he loved to eat and would fight the other cats over the food. I started to give him food with the medicine dropper. He just got sick really fast! I even tried to make him emergency kitten formula (evap milk, gelatine, yogurt,and mayo) I noticed he was shivering, then his body was twitching in all over. He got to weak and kept trying to hide. When I found him again he was already dead. I dont know if was bacterical infection or poisioning. Any ideas on what could kill a kitten so fast. He was still small and about 3 to 4 months old. He was fine a week ago when I was taking care of Gizmo and now he is dead. Thanks you sooo much for all your help!!!

hno: I am SO sorry about that little kitten, break's my heart that they have to suffer so . Hard to say what it was that took him :dk: If these babies do get sick with an URI virus which then progresses to a secondary bacterial infection/fever they can go downhill so quickly and die. .... You are doing THE best you can for them and we just cannot save them all. Some of these babies are just weak to begin with and if they come down with an illness on top of that, then they just can't recover from it.

Glad to hear Gizmo is thriving though :bigthumb: More vibes for these kitties that they will remain healthy

Feralvr said:

hno: I am SO sorry about that little kitten, break's my heart that they have to suffer so . Hard to say what it was that took him :dk: If these babies do get sick with an URI virus which then progresses to a secondary bacterial infection/fever they can go downhill so quickly and die. .... You are doing THE best you can for them and we just cannot save them all. Some of these babies are just weak to begin with and if they come down with an illness on top of that, then they just can't recover from it.
Glad to hear Gizmo is thriving though :bigthumb: More vibes for these kitties that they will remain healthy

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I'm so sorry about the little one. But as Feralvr says, sometimes the odds are just against them, and without proper medicine to help them fight, there's not much that can be done, especially when they're that young. :heart3:

But you're an angel for these babies, and you're doing more than most people would - and doing what you can. :rub: Just look at little Gizmo!

Is there really no way you could bring the females inside? I've trapped ferals - never brought any inside though - but I've heard success stories where people have kept them in just one room and the cats eventually adjust. I just figured if you can't do spay/neuter then you'd have to make sure no males ever get to the females. Would you be opposed to having them inside? I'm a full believer in letting my cats live outside if that is what they prefer, but doing whatever it takes to separate them may be the most humane thing to do.

When I was a little kid my father would not let the outside cats come inside. I was too young to get them vet care myself, and none of them got spayed or neutered. I always had around 10 cats at a time. Many times there were 2 litters at a time around our house. My mother helped me give countless kittens away. Over the years, unspeakable things happened to my beloved cats, and it still breaks my heart. I only have 1 left from that family today, and she is spayed now that I have the means to get my ferals under control.

I hope things work out for you. You obviously care about the cats a lot and I totally understand how tough this situation is.

I know it has been three weeks since your last update..... but was wondering how things are for you and the kitties? How is Gizmo? Hope to hear from you soon