Hello all - hope everyone is doing well.
I'll list my 2 questions here first for anyone who doesn't want to read my whole post.
1) Did you ever have a feral spray in your vehicle while transporting
2) did you ever get fleas in your own house (from your car - not from a recovery space) after transporting the ferals. I have a VERY irrational fear of flea infestation so I won't do recovery in my house) - see below for details. I know how to deal with fleas but just wondering if one takes precautions did you still end up bringing fleas into your house.
I live near a plaza with dumpsters so naturally we have ferals but just a small colony (about 7 at the moment). My neighbor had a rescue come in a few years and they did a TNR of about 10 cats Things were good for a while but during that TNR one cat got out of the trap. Well that one has now had at least 3 litters. She had 3 kittens about 10 weeks ago and where I was previously only feeding and providing winter shelter for them, I said that's enough - I need to get involved. Doing TNR by myself seemed very daunting at first. I did a LOT of research, certification class, bought all new TruCatch traps, supplies, etc. Momma was my first priority - she is not too shy and lets me get a foot or so away. I set up traps with doors locked in up position for the last 2 weeks and were walking right in to eat and even hang out in there sometimes LOL so I figured trap day would go ok. The rescue place I chose only takes 2 ferals at a time which was fine as I only have 6 to do. I ended up getting momma YAY!! and one of her offspring from last year. She did not calm down as much when I immediately covered her as I would have hoped and she completely tore up the paper in the cage so I knew she was going to be a handful. Brought her and other home and set up my warm dry shed as a recovery place for them. I went out this morning to release them and they had both pulled their covers off somehow (probably by clawing and pulling them through the holes in the traps). It was a disaster in there but luckily they are still friendly w/each other so when they saw each other they were probably ok with it but I learned a lesson there as it could have been much worse outcome. I'm sure she did some damage to herself with all the thrashing around during trapping and as I was getting to release her and whatever happened overnight in the shed.
I made some notes on what I think I did wrong for next time (recovery set up and some another minor thing I did that unnecessarily stressed momma out). I'm not going to beat myself up because it was all for her own good and needed to be done.
The reason I asked about fleas is that I have a VERY irrational fear of another flea infestation - took in my ex's cat after a house fire and didn't check for fleas so had my first flea experience ever and found out I react very badly to fleas (I had 68 huge inflamed bites) while nobody else in the house even noticed a thing on themselves. I know all about flea prevention, how to get of them etc. so I don't need any help with that but just wondering if anyone else brought fleas from transporting ferals (maybe they don't typically leave their host so I'm over worrying). I did spray my car and shed with Virbac Knockout (yes I know that stuff is toxic and not all natural but I couldn't take chances). I have one house cat (never goes out) and I do not do any flea prevention for her because I have had awful neurological experiences with what was supposed to be safer of the "toxic" flea prevention for a previous dog and cat so as much as i fear another infestation I will never subject my cat or future pets to those products.
Sorry for the long post. But thanks in advance!!
I'll list my 2 questions here first for anyone who doesn't want to read my whole post.
1) Did you ever have a feral spray in your vehicle while transporting
2) did you ever get fleas in your own house (from your car - not from a recovery space) after transporting the ferals. I have a VERY irrational fear of flea infestation so I won't do recovery in my house) - see below for details. I know how to deal with fleas but just wondering if one takes precautions did you still end up bringing fleas into your house.
I live near a plaza with dumpsters so naturally we have ferals but just a small colony (about 7 at the moment). My neighbor had a rescue come in a few years and they did a TNR of about 10 cats Things were good for a while but during that TNR one cat got out of the trap. Well that one has now had at least 3 litters. She had 3 kittens about 10 weeks ago and where I was previously only feeding and providing winter shelter for them, I said that's enough - I need to get involved. Doing TNR by myself seemed very daunting at first. I did a LOT of research, certification class, bought all new TruCatch traps, supplies, etc. Momma was my first priority - she is not too shy and lets me get a foot or so away. I set up traps with doors locked in up position for the last 2 weeks and were walking right in to eat and even hang out in there sometimes LOL so I figured trap day would go ok. The rescue place I chose only takes 2 ferals at a time which was fine as I only have 6 to do. I ended up getting momma YAY!! and one of her offspring from last year. She did not calm down as much when I immediately covered her as I would have hoped and she completely tore up the paper in the cage so I knew she was going to be a handful. Brought her and other home and set up my warm dry shed as a recovery place for them. I went out this morning to release them and they had both pulled their covers off somehow (probably by clawing and pulling them through the holes in the traps). It was a disaster in there but luckily they are still friendly w/each other so when they saw each other they were probably ok with it but I learned a lesson there as it could have been much worse outcome. I'm sure she did some damage to herself with all the thrashing around during trapping and as I was getting to release her and whatever happened overnight in the shed.
I made some notes on what I think I did wrong for next time (recovery set up and some another minor thing I did that unnecessarily stressed momma out). I'm not going to beat myself up because it was all for her own good and needed to be done.
The reason I asked about fleas is that I have a VERY irrational fear of another flea infestation - took in my ex's cat after a house fire and didn't check for fleas so had my first flea experience ever and found out I react very badly to fleas (I had 68 huge inflamed bites) while nobody else in the house even noticed a thing on themselves. I know all about flea prevention, how to get of them etc. so I don't need any help with that but just wondering if anyone else brought fleas from transporting ferals (maybe they don't typically leave their host so I'm over worrying). I did spray my car and shed with Virbac Knockout (yes I know that stuff is toxic and not all natural but I couldn't take chances). I have one house cat (never goes out) and I do not do any flea prevention for her because I have had awful neurological experiences with what was supposed to be safer of the "toxic" flea prevention for a previous dog and cat so as much as i fear another infestation I will never subject my cat or future pets to those products.
Sorry for the long post. But thanks in advance!!
