Help with feral

I recently trapped a severely injured feral cat. She is currently being treated at the Veterinarian hospital. She is having a back leg amputated. I will be bringing her home in a day or two and am looking for any suggestions on how best to integrate her into my home. I have a bathroom I can keep her in for awhile but it is very small without much room to hide. Would a larger room be preferable? I also have an indoor cat already. Some background: this feral cat has been around for a couple of years and eating food I provide outside so she already kind of knows me although she would never let me touch her. I am not comfortable releasing her back outside for obvious reasons so we have to make this work somehow. Any and all suggestions are welcome!

First, thank you so much for rescuing this cat. She would certainly have died a painful death otherwise.
While at the vet, I assume she will be spayed. She should also be tested for FIV and FeLK, and probably given deworming and flea medication.
Here is an article that answers: now what?
Alley Cat Allies is also an excellent resource. Although ACA indicates it is difficult to make a house pet out of a feral cat who is more than six months old, don't let that scare you. Many members/posters have been successful making feral cats into snuggle buddies. It takes patience and time, but it can be done.
A small bathroom is fine. Once she becomes comfortable, you can try moving her to a somewhat bigger room. Caveat: if you think you won't be able to pick her up/move her to another room any time soon, you might opt for a bigger room. But make sure there aren't too many hiding places (like under the bed). Remember that if a cat can fit her head into a space, she can fit her entire body.
Get some Feliway, play soft music, only feed her when you're in the room with her, read/work on your computer while in the bathroom. So she gets use to your presence. Integration with your other cat (assuming a clean bill of health otherwise) can wait.
Good luck and keep us posted.

Oh, what a story!  It will surely work well.  Three legged she will do fine, if she hasnt other sickednesses,  You can begin with this small bathroom.  You can make a cat igloo from a sideturned cardboard box.    Being in the bathroom works also as an excellent quarantine - that is used by many rescuers.

But if isolation / quarantine is no problem, another option used by many rescuers is to have her in your bedroom.   This makes the  socialization quicker.  When you are laying down / asleep, you arent dangeours....

This reminds me on the horrible but wonderful thrue story this rescuer in Stockholm, Sweden told.   They were after a female they knew was straying tn the area.  But in the trap they found a three legged cat.   People in the neigbourhood told he was stray in there a good time already when yet fourlegged..  Apparently lost his leg in some accident, managed to survive on his own, and began to find food and manage as three legged.

The story ended happily.  They found also an older lady, who was willing to adopt and foster him.  She didnt minded to have a shy pure indoor cat, who was shy to visitors.   She hadnt many visitors anyway...

Good luck!

ps.   I dont think you will have much problmes with intro to your reseident.  shy ex semiferales usually try to adapt to the residents.

Thank you for your reply. I am having the Vet spay her and check for FIV and FeLK as you recommended. I am speaking with the Vet later this afternoon to see about flea and worm treatment as well. I just want to be careful with how much we do as she has suffered a major trauma and I'm not sure how much she can tolerate all at once. I am going to try some Feliway in the room where she is going to be when I bring her home and hope that helps. I am going on vacation for a week real soon and am hoping to have her somewhat acclimated before I have to go. Someone will come in and check on my other cat (not daily though) but I'm reluctant to have her disturb the new arrival. I will just leave an automatic feeder and waterer in the room with her. She would probably prefer that to a strange person showing up. I am stressed out about leaving her, but this vacation was planned and paid for before all this happened and I really don't know what else to do.

Thank you StefanZ for your post. I am hopeful that she will adjust to having 3 legs and I believe that she will. Somehow she managed to get herself up the steps to the food bowls with a missing leg and I'll spare anyone reading this any further gory details. I am still traumatized by what I saw. I thank the Good Lord that I was able to trap her and get her some help. Her will to survive is amazing and I am willing to help her in this fight. I will keep you updated on her progress.

One extra tip.  When you have her in your bedroom, its best to lay down the bed on the floor.  So she cant hide under the bed.  Make her a little hidey with a cat igloo or similiar instead.  You dont want her having her headquarters deep under your bed where you cant reach her even if you need...   This would also make the socialization slower.

I see my story from Stockholm is almost an exact parallell to your...   See!

And as said, three legged usually manage just fine.  Some are even good hunters taking quite a few birds and rodents...

Re your vacation.  The situation is not ideal, but what to do?  It is as it is.  You do the best you can, and so be it.

She is still better off than alone outside.  Even if four legged.

But if it is possible the cat minder can visit  your resident  everyday  it would be better.

Perhaps your protegee accepts a visit of a friendly cat sitter??   If she talks in low voice very friendly, croony sounds,  sits down...

Good luck!

Thanks StefanZ for the tips. My story is very similar to the one you mentioned so that has been encouraging. I will have about 2 weeks with the new kitty (I'm calling her Little Mama) before I need to leave for my vacation. That will give us some time to adjust. I guess I should be thankful that the timing isn't worse and that I am leaving tomorrow! As I was typing this the Vet Tech called and gave me an update. Little Mama accepted being hand fed today! This makes me hopeful that she will be able to be tamed and accept life as as house pet! We will see what the next two weeks bring. I could probably find someone to come in daily while I'm gone if need be. Stay tuned for updates! Thanks again!

Here's an update on Little Mama...I brought her home yesterday and she is doing amazingly well. When I go in her room to check on her she comes out and lets me pet her. In fact, she won't leave me alone. I initially suspected it had something to do with the pain meds, but now I also suspect it's because she wants that stupid cone collar off her neck! She keeps trying to rub it off against my legs. I feel bad because I know it is really bothering her and she is trying to get me to remove it. Unfortunately, she has to wear it for the next 7-10 days to keep her from pulling out her sutures. They did need to remove the entire leg up to the hip, but she seems to get around okay. She lets me scratch her ears and she purrs. It's difficult to eat with that collar on. I hand fed her yesterday, but so far today she hasn't been that interested. Hopefully she will eat tonight. We'll both be glad when that collar can come off!:nod:

If she lets you pet her, she was a stray, not feral.  She may have some feral tendencies - you toughen up quickly in the wild.  But how much depends on how long she was on her own.



Before you know it, that collar will come off and she will make an adjustment to being inside again.  Blessings on you for caring for her.  Lucky little kitty found a good home!

Thanks for your post. The reason I know she is feral is because she was born under my house. Her mother ( also feral) would come to eat the food I put out but the two kittens (thankfully only two) would run like crazy back under the house when they would see me. I remember thinking what a cute little fuzzball she was but I had little hope that I could catch or tame either kitten. When the kittens were weaned they started to come and eat the food I left out for the mother cat. While they ceased to run like crazy, they still wouldn't get too close or allow me to touch them. It's been about two years now I guess. The mother still hisses and spits at me which I think is rude since all I've ever done is feed her! The other " kitten" hangs out in my backyard most of the time. He has a more mellow personality then his mother. I'm going to have to trap and spay/neuter them. I have no idea why Little Mama has adjusted to me as well as she has - prayers answered I guess.

Ah, well this is good info.  You seem to have been pretty successful in socializing her.   I would just watch her body language and try to assess if she's ready to swat.  It might take some trial and error but making sure she knows it isn't acceptable will help a lot.

I think you're doing a great job, given this kitty's beginnings!

Here's an update and another call for help - Little Mama seems to have started to experience "phantom pains" in the missing limb.  Everything was going along so well until last night when she had a major freak-out which seemed to come out of nowhere.  I wasn't sure if she was having a seizure, or something was going wrong in the amputation site.  After about 10-15 seconds of jumping and rolling around, she just collapsed on the floor and started what  I refer to as "stress purring".  I tried to comfort her.  She got back up and went to her bed after a few minutes.  During the night I heard her thrashing around again, so I was up at 4 a.m. and we were on our way back to the emergency hospital.  The Dr. said the pain medication that they gave her (  Buprenorphine ) when she left had probably worn off.  I had been dosing her nightly with Gabapentin as well.  The Dr. checked her and didn't see anything to indicate a problem with the healing (thankfully!) and gave her another shot of Buprenorphine.  I guess my question is to anyone who has dealt with an animal with an amputation.  I have looked online and there isn't much out there about this particular issue.  What I have found seems to indicate that it is really different for every animal and generalizations are hard to make.  I am really worried about her having these horrible episodes again.  Has anybody out there had an experience with this sort of thing?  Any insight would be greatly appreciated!