Help, my feral tomcat is gone!

Background on Mith can be found here

I'm facing a weird problem with Mith which might be related to the presence of another cat. Please read below and advise.

I had to go away for a week or so and had my family feed Mith. Normally this wouldn't be a problem but Mith was already away for three days when I left (he hadn't done this before) and according to my famly only came around for a couple of days while I was away and even then he would refuse food. He's now gone again and it's been over a week.

Now, another male tomcat came while I was away and my family fed him too. He has since adopted me and sleeps outside the house every day and never leaves. I named him Cheddar (he's a small-ish orange-white tabby) and he's the most sweet and cuddly boy but he absolutely HATES other cats, especially males. He stalks and pounces at them when they come around and is a bit less aggressive (but still aggressive) towards female cats. I remember a month ago he and Mith had a fight which I broke up. I think he might be the reason Mith doesn't come around any more but I'm very worried since Mith knows he can get food here and his total absence from my house and the neighborhood is very worrying.

Do you think these two events might be related? And if so, what can I do to reduce Cheddar's aggression and make Mith come back. I miss sweet Mith and want him back  

Are either of these boys neutered?  That could be a huge issue.  Non neutered male cats will fight for territory and it is not uncommon for them to chase the other away.  If the new cat is not neutered he will have the urge to fight.  The only way to reduce the issues is for all of the cats to be neutered. 

Also un neutered cats will wander far and wide during mating season.  They will continually look for a mate traveling great distances and even forgo food at times. 

If you are feeding this new cat, then the kindest thing to do is to trap and neuter him. 

Thanks, neither of them is neutered as I couldn't trap Mith and Cheddar is new. I can have Cheddar neutered since he loves being picked up and thus I'll be able to get him to the vet. Do you think this will help prevent aggression towards other cats? Might Mith come back if I don't let other male cats stay around?

I really appreciate your reply, I'm really sad about Mith missing [emoji]128546[/emoji]

Have Cheddar neutered asap. Also, start looking for Mith right away. That includes physical searches, flyers, posting photos on social media.This is similar to what happened to me back in March. My Redford - neutered male - was chased off the property by an intact young male. I immediately trapped the interloper (now known as Radar) and had him neutered. I did all the usual stuff, put out things with Redford's scent, my scent, food, etc. I assumed Redford would find his way back, but he never did. Redford is very good-natured and does not like conflict. Anyway, long story short - social media brought Redford back to me. He had ventured six and a half miles away and we were reunited after two and a half months. Redford is making the transition to being an indoor kitty as we speak. He has been back "home" for two weeks, and it will take a lot of work to get him where he needs to be. Nonetheless, he is relaxing more each day, and I even briefly introduced him to my smallest, youngest female kitty, Tabitha, yesterday. That seemed to perk him up a bit. He does love the company of cats. 

I do hope your Mith comes home.

Thanks Alex, I'm already looking for Mith and I'll be putting up fliers soon. Your advice gives me hope. Cheddar will probably be neutered in the next couple of days since he is very easy to catch (he likes being picked up).

I keep an eye out for Mith but so far I haven't seen him in any of his usual spots around the neighborhood. It is possible (nay, probable) he might have wandered far but hopefully not too far since it's a small town and afaik cats tend to stick around populated areas.

Cheddar will come inside with me as soon as he's neutered. Hopefully Mith will come back to his old territory when the interloper is removed.

I would check adjoining neighborhoods as well. If you have block club social media pages in your area, or lost and found pets Facebook pages, post his photo there was well. People are amazingly observant and many animals are routinely reunited with their families because of public response. Never give up. Good luck, keep us posted!

Thank you all, my sweet boy came back!!! I'm moved to tears

He's almost half the size, dirty and his pupils in both eyes we fully dilated. He was probably stuck somewhere and couldn't eat. He was so sweet and appreciative, as if he knows he can trust me and I wouldn't let anything happen to him.

I fed him, trapped him (it wasn't difficult since he was so weak) and made an emergency appointment with the vet in about 12 hours from now. Fingers crossed he will recover

FeralsRule said:

Thank you all, my sweet boy came back!!! I'm moved to tears

He's almost half the size, dirty and his pupils in both eyes we fully dilated. He was probably stuck somewhere and couldn't eat. He was so sweet and appreciative, as if he knows he can trust me and I wouldn't let anything happen to him.

I fed him, trapped him (it wasn't difficult since he was so weak) and made an emergency appointment with the vet in about 12 hours from now. Fingers crossed he will recover :cross:

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So glad you were able to get your boy back! Please update with how the vet visit goes, and if there is any way to get him neutered that would be amazing.

Yea!!!  So happy for you.  I hope all is well with him.

Do you have a room ready for him if you are able to bring him home?  I wouldn't put him back outside.  Now that you have trapped him, it will be difficult to do so again.  If at all possible, have the vet keep him and do the neuter now if he is able. 

Sooooo happy for you and Mith! I know he will recover with your TLC!

Thank you friends :-)

I'll post the vet's findings tomorrow. I'll ask if he can neuter him soon but I doubt he will be able to do it now because he lost too much weight and seems weak.

I'm a bit worried about his eyes too. His bad eye has now opened but looks a bit weird (might be blind) and his healthy eye doesn't look too good either. We'll see how it goes and in the meantime I'm keeping him in the storage shack next to the house where it's clean and no other cats can get inside to disturb him. I think he'll be staying there for quite some time until he recovers fully.

Cheddar meanwhile is aggressive towards him (they're both males after all). I hope neutering both will fix this.

Ask the vet to take Mith's blood pressure. I once had a cat whose eyes dilated and she was temporarily blind because of high blood pressure. After medication her eyesight came back.

I took Mith to the vet. Poor fellow had hypothermia but fortunately not severe. The vet checked his eyes and told me some sort of grass seed must have been responsible for his bad eye because underneath the membrane the eye looked OK. He recommended some eye drops and told me we couldn't neuter him while he's so weak. He said the eye drops will work in less than a week. He also did an external apoparasitosis with a squeeze vial.

Now the problem is, Mith is refusing to eat anything. I've given him wet food, dry food, milk, salami (which he loved) but no response other than smelling the salami a bit.

He has barely had any food since yesterday and even then we was starved. I'm worried I might need to start force-feeding him with a syringe if he doesn't eat anything by tonight. I'm even more worried by the fact that he won't even drink water.

FeralsRule said:

I took Mith to the vet. Poor fellow had hypothermia but fortunately not severe. The vet checked his eyes and told me some sort of grass seed must have been responsible for his bad eye because underneath the membrane the eye looked OK. He recommended some eye drops and told me we couldn't neuter him while he's so weak. He said the eye drops will work in less than a week. He also did an external apoparasitosis with a squeeze vial.

Now the problem is, Mith is refusing to eat anything. I've given him wet food, dry food, milk, salami (which he loved) but no response other than smelling the salami a bit.

He has barely had any food since yesterday and even then we was starved. I'm worried I might need to start force-feeding him with a syringe if he doesn't eat anything by tonight. I'm even more worried by the fact that he won't even drink water.

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After a traumatic event it can take cats awhile to eat.  Always leave out fresh food and water for him at all times.  A like to offer plain tuna juice instead of water when I really need a cat to drink.

A few weeks ago, one of my feral cats was attacked and had a very large wound.  He did under my deck where I could not reach or get to him.  He refused to eat or drink for over 48 hours.  I was very worried.  Yet tuna juice was the start.  After he had a taste of that, it wasn't long before he started eating little bits of food.

Please do not offer him milk as milk can cause diarrhea in cats.  Try the juice from a tuna or salmon can.  Also you could try some baby food (Gerber stage 2 chicken or turkey).  It has no added ingredients.  Also try plain tuna or salmon.  I wouldn't do too much of the salami.  Way too much salt for a cat.  Yet if it's all he will eat for now then you can try.

Hopefully he will perk up once he starts to eat.

Talked to the vet, he had given me a nutritional supplement and told me to feed it to him even if I have to force him. Thankfully he did eat a bit even if he bit me in the process (let me tell you, I'll never complain about love-bites again, a cat can draw serious blood if it REALLY wants to bite you)

Tonight I'll feed him blended wet food with extra water to make it easier to pass through the syringe. I'll leave a bit of tuna water with him for the night as well.

On another topic, he's really dirty. He rolled all over his food in the trap and he was dirty from before (not to mention urinating in the trap) so he now reeks. Should I do something about it? He hates water so I can't wash him and he won't groom himself :/

Eating a little bit is a good sign. You may want to try cleaning him with a damp terry cloth towel, just to get some of the surface dirt off of him. I am sure once he feels better he will start grooming himself.

Good work, Mith is on his way to getting better!

Thanks, if only he gets his appetite back and with the help of the eye drop medicine I know he will get better. Got another feeding session in an hour or so, hope he's hungry!

Good news and bad news.

The bad news is he only ate 5cc of the wet food-butter-water mixture I prepared for him and some of this dripped out so not even 5cc :-( I put the rest of the mixture in a little plate and put it in his cage so hopefully he might try a bit more during the night. I'm beginning to get more worried about dehydration at this point rather than his lack of appetite :-\

The good news is he ate a bit more of this liquid vitamin paste the vet gave me and he did seem better than he was earlier.

Would it be possible for your vet to give fluids? Fluids can be given right under the skin, that may Mith feel better.

If you can't get him to the vet, look up how to make an oral rehydration mixture (it's a combination of sugar and salt that you add to water) and give that to him instead of water. It will rehydrate him much faster and will replace electrolytes that were lost. Studies have shown that properly done, oral rehydration therapy can be as effective as IV or sub-q fluids. But you have to make sure he gets enough.