51 cats fixed today at the feral cat clinic!

beckiboo

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Yay!
Yay!

We did about 80, with one kitten who looked about 7-8 weeks old, with an upper respiratory infection and one cloudy eye. She didn't get spayed. We gave her a shot of penicillin, and sent her home with a foster mom. She was very friendly, and I'm sure will be adopted out.

We had two that were pregnant. One went home right away, the other already had all her vaccinations, and was knocked out. Since she was pretty far along, she got sent home with the owner. The owner kind of ticked me off. Her cat was the last one to be done, and she read the notation saying "might be pregnant" and insisted she wasn't pregnant. I asked if she was an outside cat, and the owner said yes. I wasn't in the right frame of mind to tell her that every unspayed outside female has the potential to be pregnant! And I'm not sure why the tech gave all the shots before double checking, but hopefully the babies will be alright!

Way nicer than the spring clinic, with so many pregnancies! But I am SO TIRED! Those techs rock...they just keep going!

We got 3 cryptochid males (two were brothers...dare I guess inbred?). (Cryptorchid is where one testicle is undescended, so the vet had to open the males abdomens and find the other testicle!) Also one female with cystic ovaries who was apparently a nice cat until about a year ago, when she became very mean. And according to the vet, it would be as if she was in heat all the time. I hope she calms down, and I'm very sad her owners didn't get her to a vet sooner!
 
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tnr1

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We had two that were pregnant. One went home right away, the other already had all her vaccinations, and was knocked out. Since she was pretty far along, she got sent home with the owner.
The clinic I volunteer with spays all cats unless the head vet determines the cat is too far along (as in the cat will have them that day). Otherwise...given the fact that we are spaying/neutering unowned feral cats...they are spayed due to the difficulty in retrapping feral cats.

I'm assuming since you sent these cats "home"..your clinic fixed owned/domesticated cats.

Katie
 

beckiboo

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Luckily, we do barn cats, too. On both pregnant cats, the owners were there. One was early in the day, and the other was the end of the day.

There was one pregnant cat who was really far along, who was spayed. (This was at a spring show.) The kittens were fully developed, and the techs kept one alive, where it was sent home to a foster home. The techs are fine with spaying an early pregnancy, but if they are really far along, they really try not to. The only advanced pregnancies I've seen spayed had only two kittens. I guess its harder to feel with such a small litter!

Hopefully the women with the preggers cats will figure something out, or by next spring they will have a pile of reproducing cats!

We get a fair amount of friendly cats in. The website says any nice cats will be adopted out, but the numbers would overwhelm our system, I think. So the plan is more to stop all outside cats in McHenry County, IL from reproducing. And everyone is ear tipped. One cat came in, stating don't ear tip because they wanted to adopt him out, and they didn't neuter him.

I hadn't planned on taking Will in (my avatar cat), because of the ear tip. I was going to pay $60 extra to keep his ear, but he lost a bit of the tip somehow in a fight! And I asked the tech not to trim it any shorter, and she was nice enough to do so. And not to let the supervisors and vet know. So he is still just missing the very tip, but does have some glue on it!
 

menagerie mama

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That's great!

We do feral cat spay/neuter day at my clinic too, for a cat rescue group, at discounted prices, although we only do 20-25 cats. But, I know it all adds up! I feel bad about spaying a female that is really far along, and we usually won't, but I don't mind if it's early in the pregnancy. Lord knows we have enough cats around here right now!!!!
 
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tnr1

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Originally Posted by menagerie mama

That's great!

We do feral cat spay/neuter day at my clinic too, for a cat rescue group, at discounted prices, although we only do 20-25 cats. But, I know it all adds up! I feel bad about spaying a female that is really far along, and we usually won't, but I don't mind if it's early in the pregnancy. Lord knows we have enough cats around here right now!!!!
At first, I was upset that female pregnant cats were fixed later in their pregnancy....but oftentimes, as stated before...you get one shot and sending a pregnant cat back outdoors not only means you will have to trap all the kittens later on..but also, if mom isn't spayed...she continues to reproduce. We've only turned 1 away this year and we've had several pregnant cats. It is sad...but given the sheer number and the goal to stabilize their population...better to end a life that hasn't begun then one that has already taken it's first breaths.

Katie
 

menagerie mama

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Some of the cats we find aren't too feral, and we work with foster homes if the pregnancy is really far along, to keep the mom and babies until they're ready for adoption, instead of letting mom back outside. I agree that it would be difficult to trap all the kittens and mom again, I've done that and it's not fun! But if they're really far along we usually will be able to tell by feeling them and then decide. But, this obviously doesn't apply to all the cats, just the nice ones that we're able to evaluate!
 

beckiboo

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I foster for Second Chance, and the TNR clinic is run by Helping Paws and Animal Outreach. They do try to foster cats when needed, like one who gave birth in the cage at the clinic! (I felt so bad for that poor, terrified Momma cat!).

But I'm not on the inside track, since I'm with another agency, although all the people are friends. I've mostly seen friendly barn cats go back home with their humans, so they can do the care. And many of the people bring cats to each clinic.

Its nice to know this is happening across the US. Hopefully someday, we can eliminate the excess of cats. Then we can all complain that cats are too costly, because they are in short supply! LOL!
 

emb_78

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Originally Posted by menagerie mama

Some of the cats we find aren't too feral, and we work with foster homes if the pregnancy is really far along, to keep the mom and babies until they're ready for adoption, instead of letting mom back outside. I agree that it would be difficult to trap all the kittens and mom again, I've done that and it's not fun! But if they're really far along we usually will be able to tell by feeling them and then decide. But, this obviously doesn't apply to all the cats, just the nice ones that we're able to evaluate!
We sure do!!!
 
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