Injured feral in our colony-help!

I will say, this was the first time the foot looked a little 'dangled" vs noticeably holding it up. Which worries me toward the break option….but (again - broken record. But still can't believe Tramadol (the pain meds we're giving her) make it so she could put weight on a break periodically. Plus the previous time she was putting a little weight on it, she'd missed her pain med feeding. 

Again…I say…AAARRRGGGHH!

Kittychick if you saw dangling at all, it's likely broken. Otherwise there's really no way for it to dangle, it would be drawn up towards the body but no unusual movement.

The sad part about an injury like this is, it won't kill them, just hurt very badly, assuming the worst, that it's broken.

It's already begun to heal, which in itself will decrease the initial pain, remember cats are excellent hiders of pain, instinctually, and also don't want to appear weaker for any reason, same purpose and also instinct.

They believe they will be targeted as prey. Same reason why, despite the love they have for their babies, if one seems sick or weak, off it goes, I know this hurts them but survival instinct is much greater.

I think she needs to be trapped and taken in.

Once trapped, leave her in trap, the next day she will be willing to eat canned, ask vet for an acepromazine pill, and when you do offer canned the next day, give her only 1/4 can with the pill in it so she will not notice it and eat it for sure.

This will make her very groggy and then able to be handled by the vet for exam.

If a break, there's a good chance she will need it amputated.

I know I know, but it's not a problem for her, cats amazingly adapt, and fast! She will just need to be your yard feral so she is not in danger of predators.

" I'm very aware that ferals, even with our help, have a risky life out there and have a shorter life span, so I need to remember that this stuff (injuries, euthanizing, disappearing….and the worry) is going to keep happening as long as they're in our lives."

Yeah, I'm always amazed at the emotional hardiness of people who do this - it ain't easy and it's great that there's a group here to share the reality and the coping mechanisms. 

And no you don't sound like a broken record - how could it not hijack your attention with all the ups and downs. 

My husband says I'm exaggerating the "dangle"… that he didn't see it "swaying"…that it just looked like she was holding it up like she has, and he got as good a look at it as I did. He thought she was actually just holding it closer to the ground vs drawing it higher up. He could be right….I'm searching like crazy for any signs. My hubby reminded me that she was doing her "putting weight on it off and on" after just 12 hours of when we think she was injured…so I'm still praying no break. I did a lot of reading on sprains, and the reputable things I read did seem to indicate it could be 2 weeks -- even without rein jury -- on a sprain. 

Again - I could be looking for signs of "definitely" one way or other (definitely break and definitely take her in or definitely sprain or cut/bite and definitely let her try to heal…..so tough!!!). You're right @Reba….it's so up and down it's hijacking both my husband and my attention! In a way doesn't help we both work from home - we can search for signs almost 24/7

I'm going to really park myself at the window tonight when she eats and see if we can tell if it is indeed dangling at all. Whatever's happened seems to be in the paw area vs higher up. She is already as close to an "our yard" kitty (I love that term @catwoman707!) -  - she basically stays within our yard and a few neighbors' yards. We supply heated houses (although she choses the neighbors deck, as I noted), a heated water bowl, and food. Not that I can keep her totally in our yard -- - you know how that goes! We're in a very suburban neighborhood, with the only real predators (all dogs are in fenced in yards/homes) being the cars that go down a fairly busy road 2 houses away. She's a smart one though - we've never seen her cross the busy street. Perhaps that's why she's still around 2 years post-TNR!

I'll keep watching…and will put in a call to the vet to at least discuss this with him. We've never taken a feral to him (except the euthanasia) so this will be slightly uncharted territory. 

And I'll try not to report every 3 hours  ALthough if we try to trap her, I'm sure that'll send me into another level of stress with her. 

I guess lastly  I should mention, which I really really hate even mentioning, but if we do go the attempting to trap, etc. route, I'm very aware it's a big possibility that an amputation is possible (although, like I said, she seems to have no issues moving it from middle joint in front leg up - not sure what that joint's called - not one right above paw, but middle one). And sadly, cost does become a bit of an issue. I'm going to talk to the neighbor behind us who helps feed and has helped with the TNRing we've done and see if they'd help if it has to go this way. Selfishly, wouldn't you know…..it's coming at a time when our freelance design work is slowing down for spring and so is income. 

Every time I think about this it gets more fun.

The only thing keeping me sane is my husband and the knowledge she's got a full belly, a relatively warm and dry place to sleep, and - -if she'd just chose not to leave our two yards (too much to hope for from a feral) she'd be 100% safe no matter what happens. As I mentioned - we had one feral that we had trouble trapping and he survived for an entire year with a hideous, awful open wound (I'm not joking - it was about a 5 inch by 7 inch 3/4 inch deep wound that never healed and we just couldn't trap him). He made us SO sad - he had to be miserable - and the vet was stunned he'd been able to even live a few days, let alone over a year. Not that we felt good about how he felt, but that at least he felt safe and full and warm in our yards. 

ANd @catwoman70 - thanks for the tip about the acepromazine -- - that was a new one for me!!!! That will hopefully be something we can get them to do if it goes that way --- that helps me at least stomach the idea of her being in the trap injured (if we can get her in it).

Well your expectation was that she would be putting it weight on it more and more - so all the more reason (to me) to look for something like a break if she wasn't improving. 

You can try the crowd funding for the surgery if she needs it.  Have you got any close ups of her?

Looking at the whole picture, she has had this injury for a full week now.

If you think about it, it doesn't sound like she has improved leg-wise, not food wise, since the initial pain and trauma will cause them to not eat but they are forced to get over it and eat, regardless of pain/injury since technically it won't kill them to have a break or an injury, no matter how bad it is, unless of course they're bleeding to death from it.

So they do their best to adapt.

Yes, acepromazine is FAB, couldn't work with ferals without it, my vet agrees !! (sure makes him feel better!)

In comments to a few things you mentioned, if she were amputated, despite how beautifully they recuperated and adapt, they also will realize they now are limited, and causes them to rethink wandering off, which is a big plus.

Also wondered, if she did need it amputated, there must be non profit cat rescues around who you can contact and explain that you just need help with low cost vet services, I do this for people all the time.

Just last week sent a teenager to have his eye removed, my awesome guy charges under $100 for this or an amputation. Yeah, I know, LOVE him!

It's what we do though, so you might think about doing some digging to see about a low cost vet, even the shelters might be able to allow you to use their staff vet for cheap. There's no reason why you should spend the amt of money for her to see a regular priced vet!

We rescues are so grateful for people like yourself and are happy to help.

I have a feral at one of my colonies who's leg is broken, has been now for about 2 years. He would NOT trap, and I'm GOOD..........when that happens I figure the cat must be trap smart and no matter what, they are just not going to go in to the trap, period.

Drop trap, nope. 

So I spent months of work on him, deciding the only way is for me to get close enough to him to net his butt. I actually created a net just for him, skinny pvc pipe in a rectangle with a short handle, and a black cotton teeshirt, cut off at the underarms, sewed the top seam and used the hemmed bottom to attach it to the frame. That way it was soft, and the black cotton would make him calm, he can't see through it.

Small enough to hide behind my back, divert him with good food, and place it down over him.

So I finally befriended him, what a doll, rolled on his back even, obviously at one time was an owned cat and not a true feral.

Success! Here I was, squatted down holding the frame down on the ground, and had a friend run over with my drop trap and place it over him.

She did, but never having done trapping before and unfamiliar with ferals, she did not hold the trap down on her side, so as I slid my arms away and put my side of the trap down, he saw a tiny space at one corner on her side and used his nose to flip the trap just enough to get his nose under it and woop, he was gone..............

I was just sick. Hate to even think about that night still to this day!

I betrayed his trust, and he would never again come near me, not even close.

So right now, he still lives with a bad break, which of course has healed, but from the elbow down it dangles and now has grown twisted like, and it sickens me that I was unable to help him. 

Moral of the story is, no matter what it is, it will heal one way or another, but my guy was fortunate in that there is still good enough blood flow to his paw so no gangrene.

But it's pathetic to see, and hurts my heart more than I can say.

The ups and downs, successes and tragedies of rescue.............

SO many stories, SO many cats and lives, so many years, my heart and emotions have not become tougher, each one grabs my heart just as my very first did. I tease that it's aged me alot, but it's true, it wears me out.......but who could stop? Who will save those who come my way however that is, if not me right? 

We were running out for the night  as just found out about close friend family death this afternoon (so need to read what all you kind people have written - sorry can't right now but it looks so thoughtful! Will do soon as we get back)

But had to put a quick post out there on this - we always look when we leave as our back door to our detached garage as that's where our feeding station is - and the one time we don't, guess who's in the food station. After eating her full food/meds this am and food/meds this evening….Blackie. Of course we scared the living bejeezus out of her - - and she takes off ----using all four legs. Defintely slight limp - but definitely all four. So bizarre. I know she was in flight or fight mode as I'm sure she feels more like prey --- and I know adrenaline of being startled could have aided in use of all four feet -  but she confounds me with this! 

We'll try to get a pic of way she's holding paw in the am. My husband did get a short video of her limping - I'll try to post that tonight or in am too.

You guys are all the best

We were so excited Wednesday...we both were sure we'd seen Blackie all over the yards, moving like almost nothing was wrong. We were so happy that perhaps she IS headed back to complete health....

And at dusk yesterday we were shocked to realize that the black cat we thought we were watching down the food & meds while standing on all four legs.....wasn't Blackie We'd never questioned it -we've never had another black feral in our neighborhood. But when this cat turned just right I realized NO EAR TIP We were devastated (plus now we have another cat to trap!) to realize that now we're not sure if the cat we saw walking without a limp was Blackie or not. ARGH And then tonight up until 1 am after the "Blavkie impostor" left....we kept checking under the deck & never did see her. We're concerned that either the impostor scared her, particulary if she's feeling vulnerable or she wasn't the one we saw walking & she's taken a bad turn.

Back to the vigil of seeing if she's healing

Well, that explains why she limps sometimes and not at others.



I hope the REAL Blackie is doing OK.  

I will be praying that Blackie is fine and makes a full recovery. I'm dealing with a very sick feral that has stopped eating.

I haven't stopped crying, not eating or sleeping. I just want to be able to help her. My anxiety is through the roof.

@snugglecat my heart goes out to you

As far as Blackie....I've been a bit of a mess bc she's ow been gone from her year-long under deck spot since Weds evening, when the other small black cat & her TNRd grey buddy appeared to eat Blackie's food/meds. I have really been freaking that maybe we never saw Blackie put weight on the foot -that it was all the other kitty. But my husband reminded me the last time we were 100% sure it was her (we watched her come from "her spot", eat, clean, jump up on neighbors deck) she walked like she was 90% better, and we were 100% sure it was her, ear tip and all. Those other times, not sure at all now. But at least the last one we know was her, she was better. Sadly, for first time in almost 2 years (except a year ago during winter -this winter she was visible under the deck) we haven't seen her every am & pm, so sadly, now we don't have any way to continue medicating or monitoring. We're praying she only left bc she felt a little threatened as a cat that's still not 100% (interestingly enough in the 2 years this colony has existed, she's only the second car to go into our neighbors yard....until these 2 new ones). Hoping it's not that she went somewhere bc she felt worse,or, obviously, something even worse.

Particularly hard when she'd become such a fixture Did have a vet visit w/Phoebe (our 20-year old on borrowed time I've written about) & he watched the video of Blackie from a few days ago, and he said he would be stunned if it were a break, because of the way she used it. He felt but -& hopefully our 9 days of Clavomaox she got down made big strides in healing. So hopefully -wherever Blackie is, she's on the mend!

(Of course I've still alerted all cat friendly neighbors to be on the lookout so maybe we'll still get an update -or better yet - find out where she's resettled so we could continue the medicating).

Thanks everyone for being there.

Blackie is fine, she moved because of the other 2 that have shown up is all.

You worry like I do! Yet from an outside prospective it's so clear

Do I remember that someone is not fixed??

The 2 there now are clearly buddies, and with her not being at 100% just yet, it's typical for her to relocate herself for the time being as long as these 2 stick around.

That's what I love about this place...reassurance when needed. @catwoman707 you're 100% right...if snyone else was telling me this tale, I'd say "even if she were 100% she might feel outnumbered,...but even if she's healing, she's far from 100% & therefore 2 interlopers would really make her skedaddle!" Right? So I'm trying to stop panicking Hopefully we'll see her eventually -neighbors watching - & hopefully she's hunkered down somewhere healing

And yup ---one of the pair is non-ear-tipped...back bext week to trapping I guess! Haven't had a new one show up in almost 2 years!!!!

The saga of Blackie continues.....

We hadn't seen her in days, and we've been fearing the worst, although the hopefully she was just fearful (since she's not 100% ) of those 2 new cats (the little black one we've temporarily deemed "the Blackie imposter " and the grey ear tipped one that we realized yesterday is one we fixed last summer we named "Macy" ---get it, Macy Grey?). Then yesterday evening we were thrilled to see what we thought was Blackie's eyes peering out from her "usual spot" under the nbeighbor's deck! We were so anxious to see if she was walking any better, so we tossed some mackerel into the neighbor's yard near her. No activity for about 15 minutes....so we gave up staring out the window. Cut to 3 minutes later ----- to our horror -----FOUR CATS --- milling around fighting over the two pieces of mackerel! To make matters worse it had just slipped past dusk, so even though we could tell it was 2 blacks and 2 greys, we couldn'tT see well enough to tell if anyone was ear tipped so we STILL don't know if the larger black was Blackie!!! The most frustrating part was that our neighbor saw all this out of her kitchen window, so I immediately got a texts in all caps saying"How many cats ARE under my deck?!?!" I called and explained what we'd done - promised to not put food out like that again now that we have quite a few non-fixed suddenly lurking, and that we'd start trapping again ASAP.

And we STILL don't know how Blackie is. My husband tried to convince me that the one black one in the group was Blackie, but she's a loner so doubt it. But it makes me smile that he's trying to make me feel better. And today, in case she does come back, he pulled the box out from under the deck that he'd made (it was pretty beat up) and made hEr a new one. He's a good guy.

He does sound like a good guy Lucky you!

I seriously think you shouldn't be so worried about her, it's pretty clear why she is not in her usual spot. It's been taken over!!

She's around, sure as anything, and likely doing much better, if not completely well again

We're setting mackerel in our yard in hopes of seeing her /how she's walking, but bet you're right ....bet she's either hanging back or moved on until feeling perfect (if ever) . Certanlymore to trap

She wouldn't move on, she's hanging back. They don't leave their home/food source unless there was ongoing, serious danger.

They don't give in that easily!

Yep, more to trap for sure, however a good thing, and also will surely help everyone coexist much better with the unfixed boys

u
Blackie from afar...on deck several days ago so she is in area & at least standing with weight on it. Have tried repeatedly to post "limping video" from last week (not that it matters now, but now I'm going nuts as to how to post a video!

Of course mackerel placed in our yard brought no one. Like the "gang" knew just who to bug


[VIDEO][/VIDEO]