Sick kittens

dawn harvey

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I feed many feral cats.  There are some kittens around here and they are getting sick.  Matted eyes, diarrhea, etc.  There is NO help here, I have tried and tried.  There is only one city in the entire state I live in that even does TNR.  IDK what to do anymore.  I have been doing this for many years or several years and I am actually getting tired of this.  They have wrecked my porch, get sick all over my porch, the expense is astronomical.  I do care very much, but I need to also care about our finances and our home.  We do have 2 cat houses around our house so there is shelter, we have done a lot to try to help them, but there comes a point when you are doing this alone that it can become too much.  What is the best thing to do for these kittens?  I live in Iowa and so far we have been lucky with weather, but winter will be here soon.  The only place to take them is the Humane Society and they will kill them.  The animal control officer does nothing, you have to do everything yourself.  This town has had a lot of budget cuts and that is one area where it is very bad, no help with the animal population or even wild animals in anyway.  The main thing is my porch, I am finding diarrhea all over my porch and frankly I do not like that at all.  And I have cats of my own inside and do not want to bring in disease.  I hope someone can advise me.  I already stated there is NO help here.  Thanks!
 

shadowsrescue

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If the kittens are truly sick, they will need medical attention.  You may need to take them to the Humane Society or find a vet who will take them.  If not, they may not survive.

Are you doing any TNR on the cats?  If not, they will all just continue to multiply.  If you are feeding them and not doing TNR, you are making them all strong enough to continue breeding. 

I understand very much about their not being enough help.  It is a huge world wide problem.  Yet, since you have been feeding them, you are now considering somewhat responsible for them.  That includes being sure they are all spayed/neutered?  Does the Humane Society offer low cost spay/neuter clinics? 

Have you contacted Alley Cat Allies for help?  They even have a phone number where you can speak with someone.  It couldn't hurt to contact them.  They have lots of resources available.
 
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dawn harvey

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I said in my post there is NO TNR program here and I cannot afford the fees and I listed the fees.  There is NO help where I live for feral cats.  It is phenomenal to me that this town is that way, but my entire state is that way.  I cannot afford to take them to the vet.  I may have to take them to the Humane Society.  This is a huge financial burden already and with no help to speak of it is just getting to be too much.  Alley cat Allies doesn't have any groups near me either, or none within range of me.  Believe me I have tried everything.  I am not responsible for them to this degree, I started feeding them because I saw a cat that was very, very skinny (starved) and it died in my yard.  After that I did not want to see that happen anymore.  And I do care about all beings on this earth, but when you can't keep up, you just can't.  That was my point in writing, that there are places that have no help for these poor animals, probably a lot of places and one person cannot do this alone unless they have the resources.  Thanks for responding though.
 
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