Freezing Temperatures How Safe Is My Feral?

[summerazura]

The one thing that cats outside in severe weather can get is frost bit ears. I have seen many wild cats and barn cats here with parts of their ears missing. The upper part of the ear will freeze and the flesh will die. It forms a line that scabs where it froze to and then the dead part drops off. Sometimes they can develop blisters and get infections but usually it just looks like it was trimmed with scissors. I had heard that the ends of the tail can freeze but I have never seen that. Most of them keep their tails warm when they curl them up. But in general they survive well as long as they can get food and water. Outside cats develop thick coats. The real problem is with a cat that is always inside and doesn't grow a proper winter coat and ends up stuck outside. Those can die if they don't get shelter.
We hit 40 below zero for 3 nights in a row last week. Now its up to 0 and feels like a heat wave. My feral tom cat, and the three others that are mostly outside spent the whole week in my usually unheated entryway. I put an electric space heater in it for them. Now that it warmed up outside they don't want to come back in.
Most animals, wildlife, survive severe winter conditions pretty well, unless it goes on for too long. Several years ago we had an unusually large amount of snow that made things pretty hard. A lot of antelope died that year, not from the cold but from the train. The antelope followed the train tracks because the snow there was not deep. Unfortunately they didn't understand to get out of the way of the trains. Entire herds got mowed down. The loses were so great that they canceled antelope hunting for the next 4 years so the population could recover. Domestic animals like cattle usually fare pretty well since they are taken care of and fed. Although I learned that bulls, intact male cows kept for breeding, need to be kept in some shelter because they literally will have their testicles freeze.
Ouch.

This is Scottie and me out for a walk in our parka's. His is better than mine.
View attachment 212751 View attachment 212752
He apparently had his ears frostbit before we became friends.

That makes me feel a lot better (well not the frostbite part, but that ferals can usually do okay outside). This is my first time caring for an outdoor cat in the winter, last winter season I was able to get the cats that were around either into rescue or my house. And it was bothering me that I just couldn't coax her in the house even for the night because of the temperature. Going to work on getting her a shelter but the plan right now is to trap her and get her vetted (working with a rescue on that).

 

[4theloveofcats]

I've been doing some research about beddings for feral cats and I was wondering if someone could answer this question for me. Is it ok to use any type of shredder paper or does it have to be newspaper? Sorry for the ignorance I just want to make sure that what I am doing is working. Thanks

Straw all the way. Plus a couple 'Purr Pads' to make things cozier.
If you don't have easy access to straw, there are a couple good suppliers of straw on Amazon. I got enough to fill two bins and it cost about 20 dollars. High quality stuff.

 

[di and bob]

I have several small insulated dog houses I bought on special in the spring, and a couple of plastic bins wrapped in garage sale quilts and tarps with just a small entrance hole. I have these filled with several fleece blankets and K&H electric cat heating pads with a small fleece over them. I wash and them often, once a month,and check them about every other day in cold weather, (it gets regularly down in the teens and single digits here) because sometimes they bunch them up over the pads. I have found that even if the blankets get wet, they don't stay that way with the heated pads, it warms them dry. The ferals absolutely love them. I have one old ten year old that uses them only when it is single digits, but he shows up in one every year when it is.I have found the heated pads for very cheap too on Amazon, they put them on as an add on once in a while and I keep checking. (I buy them for the local 'Cat Pack' here, a group of young girls who take in and foster kittens and cats.) Sometimes as cheap as 7.99, from 24.00!. All of my ferals, and a few neighborhood cats, love the huts, and I have had them last fro 5 years now. Every spring I sanitize them and the blankets and store them in a shed till next year.

 

[Cooper H]

Well it's one step forward two steps backwards! Cooper is back outside and it's 3 degrees out there. We have her plastic container with a heated pad and straw on top so she can burrow into the straw and lay on top of the heating pad. We also placed an army blanket and tarp over the shelter, looks like a nice little den now. Do we worry? Yes! But with comments on the board here and her determination over the past 8 years, she must know something. She ate well this morning, warmed up chicken and moist cat food. She wasn't in the mood for her dry kernels. I changed her profile pic too, she's a beauty. Hope everyone's kitties stay warm today!

 

[Cooper H]

The one thing that cats outside in severe weather can get is frost bit ears. I have seen many wild cats and barn cats here with parts of their ears missing. The upper part of the ear will freeze and the flesh will die. It forms a line that scabs where it froze to and then the dead part drops off. Sometimes they can develop blisters and get infections but usually it just looks like it was trimmed with scissors. I had heard that the ends of the tail can freeze but I have never seen that. Most of them keep their tails warm when they curl them up. But in general they survive well as long as they can get food and water. Outside cats develop thick coats. The real problem is with a cat that is always inside and doesn't grow a proper winter coat and ends up stuck outside. Those can die if they don't get shelter.
We hit 40 below zero for 3 nights in a row last week. Now its up to 0 and feels like a heat wave. My feral tom cat, and the three others that are mostly outside spent the whole week in my usually unheated entryway. I put an electric space heater in it for them. Now that it warmed up outside they don't want to come back in.
Most animals, wildlife, survive severe winter conditions pretty well, unless it goes on for too long. Several years ago we had an unusually large amount of snow that made things pretty hard. A lot of antelope died that year, not from the cold but from the train. The antelope followed the train tracks because the snow there was not deep. Unfortunately they didn't understand to get out of the way of the trains. Entire herds got mowed down. The loses were so great that they canceled antelope hunting for the next 4 years so the population could recover. Domestic animals like cattle usually fare pretty well since they are taken care of and fed. Although I learned that bulls, intact male cows kept for breeding, need to be kept in some shelter because they literally will have their testicles freeze.
Ouch.

This is Scottie and me out for a walk in our parka's. His is better than mine.
View attachment 212751 View attachment 212752
He apparently had his ears frostbit before we became friends.

very interesting about the frostbite and the ears, didn't know; thank you

 

[orange&white]

Their paw pads are sensitive to frostbite too, in addition to their ears.

 

[Cooper H]

Their paw pads are sensitive to frostbite too, in addition to their ears.

I did notice her picking up her paws. It's minus 9 here this morning, she ate really well. I put a blanket down under her food so she could sit on that while she ate. Calm winds today so I placed a blanket out on the patio in case she wanted out of the shelter to stretch her legs, supposed to reach 14 for a high and sunny.

 

[shadowsrescue]

Their paw pads are sensitive to frostbite too, in addition to their ears.

One of my former ferals who now lives in the house with use, got frostbite. When I did TNR on him years ago it was in March after a cold cold winter. They had to cut more of his ear for his ear tip because of frost bite.

 

[MJO12]

My Callie came in for an hour on the coldest night, but started scratching at the door so I let her out. I take my cues from her. She did not like it when I wrapped (tightly) the ceiling of her favorite rubbermaid shelter in one of those foil blankets. She stopped using the house and moved into the kitty tube until I removed the foil. One cold night she decided to sleep in the feralville feeding station. I put a Walmart cat bed in there and placed a heated microwave disc underneath. She was irritated that I disturbed her and gave me scratch. When you start caring for ferals and make their lives easier, you unleash their inner finicky cat!

 

[margecat]

Any suggestions for keeping shelters warm when they aren't near where you live or on your property, and there's no electricity? I take care of a colony of 20 cats. Others have built shelters for them, but we've have unusually cold temps here the past two weeks. They seem to be ok, but I worry about them. I guess what I'm asking is: is there anything similar to those pocket hand warmers that you shake to activate, and then put in your pocket? Is there a larger version, or something for pets? I could microwave heat packs, but they'd be cold by the time I got to the site.

 

[vyger]

Any suggestions for keeping shelters warm when they aren't near where you live or on your property, and there's no electricity? I take care of a colony of 20 cats. Others have built shelters for them, but we've have unusually cold temps here the past two weeks. They seem to be ok, but I worry about them. I guess what I'm asking is: is there anything similar to those pocket hand warmers that you shake to activate, and then put in your pocket? Is there a larger version, or something for pets? I could microwave heat packs, but they'd be cold by the time I got to the site.

Many years ago I talked to man who farmed in the late 1800's. They have been gone for many years now but this was before there were cars and trucks. They used to bring their grain in to the elevators, where the trains connected, in large sleighs pulled by draft horses. They did it in the winter because everything was frozen and they could pull the sleighs across the frozen rivers and streams. I asked him how in the world could they keep warm traveling in an open sleigh. He chuckled and said it was a well know secret back them. SO then he told me, they sat on hot slabs of rock covered in a blanket. They would leave these big chunks of flat rocks sit on the wood cook stove. When it was time to leave they took the rocks out to the sleigh and put them on the seat and covered it with a thick blanket. They sat on the rocks for the whole trip and he said sometimes they actually got to hot because they heated the rocks to much.
So if you can get a big slab of 3 or 4 inch thick rock (maybe 2 inch) and find a way to heat it up it could stay warm for a night. Put it on a piece of foam board so it doesn't loose the heat to the ground. It should work BUT rocks are pretty heavy so you might need help moving them. Just a thought, pieces of stone counter-top like marble and granite might work. Someone who installs counters might be able to get some broken ones as well as the big stores like Menards.

 

[orange&white]

These snugglesafe pads are supposed to stay warm up to 10 hours. I read reviews and most people found that to be true, but a few reviewers said they only stay warm a couple hours. Still if you can get the interior of a shelter warm, then the cats' body heat should help as long as there isn't a lot of wind or air circulation through the shelter.