gypsygirl

Hi I Iive in the uk. Three weeks ago I caught a feral cat that had lost her previuos litter one after another. I have housed her in my empty chicken house and run. I think she is pregnant again but not entirely sure, I am unable to handle her , I intend to get her neutered and release her hoping she will stay around to feed. I would like advise on whether I should catch her up and take her to the vets to see if she is in kitten although I don,t think they will be able to handle her. I am afraid to do this and over stress her if she is pregnant. Any opinions?

Thank you for rescuing the cat. 

How did you catch the feral cat the first time?  Could you not do it again and take her to the vet to get checked out. If she is pregnant, carrying the kittens and giving birth will be just as stressful as taking her to the vets. 

If pregnant, spaying will take care of that.

I see you live in the UK.  I don't know what low cost spay/neuter facilities are there.  But if it is anything like the USA, I would call local humane societies and ask who they use as a vet, chances are he / she will have lots of experience handling lots of different kinds of cats.  Also, ask if they will loan you a humane trap in case you don't think you can pick up the cat.

A lot of times feral cats act wild because they are simply frightened.  Once they realize you're not going to hurt them but indeed will be feeding them, they calm down.

Good luck.

Hi thanks for your reply. I brought a cat trap, people were feeding her so trapping her was quite easy. She is living now in my new chicken house with large enclosure, I intended to get her neutered but believe she is pregnant, she was quite large when I caught her and has gained quite a lot of wieght since although she has fed well, the locals did not want to see her struggle with more kittens especially with the cold weather coming. A local charity said they would take her kittens if I can't rehome them, I am happy to let her live on my property when spayed and be well fed. I am starting to gain some trust from her but am not sure she will totally tame, I have an x-feral that is now totally tame but she came round resonably quick. I feel pressurised by the locals that know her to let her have her kittens rather than have them aborted. I am afraid that taking her to the vets may stress her too much and cause problems with her pregnancy and also loose the trust she is getting with me. I can get help with neutering costs from local charities and intend to catch other strays/ferels that locals are feeding and get them neutered too. I don' know whether to wait a couple more weeks to see if she has kittens before taking her to the vets, very hard to know what to do!
 

Contact the vet you are planning to take her to. Forewarne she is feral.

If they are used and warned, it shouldnt be any problem for them.

Medically, it is quite possible to spay also when they are pregnant.

In fact, I saw an british veterinarian handbook where they did recommended people to let their cats got pregnant, and go for spaying after that... Not nice, but better than to risk spaying while in heat.  As THIS is tricky.

Very late spayings are also tricky if not used, but she isnt late, as you dont know if she is pregnant.

Tx for helping her!

Welcome to our Forums!

Good luck!

the only thing i would add is to check with the vet regarding whether or not they would do a SNAP test for FIV/FeLV and what is their policy (if any) should the test come back positive.

Whaler has an excellent point about the SNAP test though to be honest I'm entirely sure why.  Whaler, could you expand on the reason--I don't want to guess.  Thanks.

I do/did a fair amount of (trap-neuter-release).  One place I took the cats to had this policy:  we don't require a SNAP test, but if you want one, and the cat tests positive for FIV/FeLK, we will not enuthanize the cat, you have to decide what to do (i.e., return to colony?)

Ritz said:

Whaler has an excellent point about the SNAP test though to be honest I'm entirely sure why.  Whaler, could you expand on the reason--I don't want to guess.  Thanks.

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yeah, i suppose i should have been clearer. my reason is pretty much what you said. it happened to me.

i think i mentioned this in a different thread but just in case i didn't; i trapped a cat early this summer that was very sick, his eyes were very crusty and he was obviously quite weak. since he was sick, as well as it being saturday evening, i had to bring him to the local hospital as opposed to the low cost clinic.

the vet did a preliminary examination and came in to talk with me and said that on top of the eye infection he also had a severe URI. i informed the her that i was doing a tnr, but obviously he was going to need care first so go ahead and begin treatment. she said she would do a SNAP test on him. within minutes she came back in and said that he is "wicked FIV+". i explained that that would not be a problem, i already have a FIV+ in my colony so i keep a close eye on them for any issues. she then explained that it was hospital policy not to release a + cat. i was shocked to put it mildly. there was no way that i wasn't going to give this guy every chance at life so i told the vet to just start treatment, i would take him. she looked a little stunned when i said that but there was no way i was going to allow him to be killed for no other reason than being FIV+.


long story short, he was in the hospital for four days and then was discharged but he was going to need at least two weeks of eye meds as well as antibiotics for the URI. during the course of his recuperation he started to come around big time, like he understood that he was being helped. he now is living with my parents and he has become a 10 year old,14 lb, FIV+, 20 + ounce of premium canned food a day baby boy.

since that experience i have spoken with my local animal control officer. she (aco) spoke to one of the vets at the hospital that is a bit more "enlightened" and explained my situation and how i truly do look out for my ferals. if i do run into a situation like that again i just need to have the cat placed under the care of this vet and she will allow me to do as i see fit .

Whaler, how on earth did you manage to give two weeks of eye meds to a feral?????   How did you obtain these secret jedi cat skills?

Thanks Whaler.  I would personally be a little leary about releasing an FeLK cat back into my colony, maybe a FIV cat too:  there is large turnover of houses/apartments/condos where I live (50% of the county is underwater with mortages) so I was getting new cats on a regular basis, none of whom were spayed/neutered.  So fighting was a possibility.

I volunteer for a cat santuary.  When a new cat came to the colony who was sick (bum paw) or one I think could be rehomed, I took the cat to the sanctuary for SNAP testing.  Luckily none of the cats tested positive for FIV/FELK.

Bastfriend said:

Whaler, how on earth did you manage to give two weeks of eye meds to a feral?????   How did you obtain these secret jedi cat skills?

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well, i did have help, my parents. he was being kept at their house due to the fact that i did not have a place to quarantine him during his recuperation.

honestly at first it wasn't very difficult as while he was improving health-wise he was still very sick and weak. one person to wrap him in a blanket and another to apply the ointment. as the two week mark approached it was a bit more difficult, mostly getting him in the blanket was the issue. fortunately after having to scrounge for food for god only knows how long he was somewhat easily tricked into making himself accessible by the lure of more food. the antibiotics for the URI were easy - pill pockets.

he did require an additional week of eye meds but at that point i was out of the picture med wise. my parents were able to medicate him without any further assistance which was nice since it is a half hour drive to my parents house and trying to be there at set times was very difficult for me.

the fact that my parents were so involved with his medicating, as well as how much more time they, my mother in particular, had spent with him is the main reason that he ended up staying to live with them.

Ritz said:

Thanks Whaler.  I would personally be a little leary about releasing an FeLK cat back into my colony, maybe a FIV cat too:  there is large turnover of houses/apartments/condos where I live (50% of the county is underwater with mortages) so I was getting new cats on a regular basis, none of whom were spayed/neutered.  So fighting was a possibility.
I volunteer for a cat santuary.  When a new cat came to the colony who was sick (bum paw) or one I think could be rehomed, I took the cat to the sanctuary for SNAP testing.  Luckily none of the cats tested positive for FIV/FELK.

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it is problematic to say the least. the way i look at it;

the ELISA test used for FeLV is so sensitive and therefore prone to false positives so i would not want to base anything on that alone. but, to do a secondary test is somewhat impractical due to how long the cat would need to stay for confirmation of a positive result. another issue is the fact that a cat in the early stages can fight it (FeLV) off. there also are a growing number of veterinarians that feel that it is rare for a healthy adult cat to ever catch FeLV, so a well cared for colony would greatly lower the likelihood of any possible spread of it. one more thing is that if a FeLV+ did show up odds are nearly 100% that by the time it got trapped most, if not all, of the other cats would have been exposed.

right now, given the fact that i have a FIV+ (though that is based solely on a SNAP test) in my colony i would not return a FeLV+ back into my colony for concern of her health. if i did end up with a FeLV+ i would not kill it, i would, somehow, find somewhere for it to go.

i would however have no issue with returning another (or two, or three...) FIV+. with FIV being much lower risk of spreading due to its manner of transmission, as well as all of the testing issues associated are the main reasons. it is rare for me to have a new arrival (only two new faces in the last 2 years) so i don't worry about a new one coming in and getting into a fight and having a transfer of FIV. also, the FIV+ that i have is so very passive that she would not get into any fights, even play fights she avoids.


another person wrote the following regarding FIV/FeLV and feral colonies and it has stuck with me;

To one degree or another many of us have taken on the responsibility of "managing" a feral cat/cats.

What I loosely refer to as "playing god".

I, for one, did not understand what I was getting into. "Trap 'em, fix 'em, let 'em go, leave a little food out". How easy is that? I never really considered that I'd be in the middle of life and death decisions regarding creatures who I had assumed responsibility for. Who lives, who doesn't. Who is cared for, who isn't. I've said it all before.

It truly bothers me though. It makes my "soul" sick and I'm an atheist. I'm an old man now (64) who spent some years in the Marines, some of it behind a machine-gun. Killing things can be easy and the rationalization can be just as easy. Call it atonement or whatever, but at this stage in my life it's hard for me to have any part, directly or indirectly, in ending a life under my care/influence for "practical" reasons regardless of good intentions. Been there, done that, didn't like it, won't do it again easily. But that's a personal position.

I've have no problem with the (hopefully) well considered decisions that others make. We're all there and we all deal with it as best we can guided by the compassion that is surely in us all.

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Whaler, that's so cool - so you come from a family cat whisperers!   Still I'm so completely impressed that you all were able to get a feral cat in a blanket even if he was sick.  My indoor feral still amazes me with her speed and strength.  Oh and wiliness, she's got instincts like you wouldn't believe.

between him being sick and, at the time, having limited sight, it wasn't really all that difficult. also, i don't know how feral he really was to begin with. by no means was he just a stray cat but he came around so fast it makes me wonder.

he certainly is the exception to the rule so to speak. just like you, i am amazed at my former feral when it comes time to go into a carrier for a trip to the vet!

Whaler said:

between him being sick and, at the time, having limited sight, it wasn't really all that difficult. also, i don't know how feral he really was to begin with. by no means was he just a stray cat but he came around so fast it makes me wonder.

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My reaction reading you story Whaler, is, he got socialized fairly fast because he was severely sick, and you and your parents did helped him.  When he was healthy again the turnover was done.

The Window of easy socialization opens wide again when we help them while them being sick or wounded, and they know it.   It can go astonisingly fast in those cases.

Of course, in the most astonishing quick cases (a couple of days) they were prob no real semiferal but long term astray.  But the principle is the same.

It helps of course if they themselves did come forward and seeked your help, as it happens when they are practically dying.

that is what i have always felt, an improvement in they way they feel goes a long way towards developing trust - at least once they get over the initial stage of being terrified.