Hi. I'm Lei-Ann from San Diego. I have a feral cat, Hershey Rose. She was fostered by Humane Society mom Trish for 2 months, and I picked her up from Denver two weeks ago today. Anyone out there that has worked with feral cats, I would welcome any advice or suggestions. She had her shots at the Humane Society after being trapped, but right now has very bad diarrhea. It has been two weeks now. I brought a stool sample to the vet (transporting the actual cat is not possible without knocking her out with drugs) and she tested negative for any parasites. The vet thinks it is stress. California law prohibits a vet from prescribing any medication to an animal that they have not examined, so she gave me Hills I.D. canned food and some probiotics. Yesterday Hershey Rose ate only breakfast, and today she hardly touched her morning meal. I think she is tired of eating the same food all the time. I am going to give her some Wellness food with the probiotics and see if she will eat that. She has been on the vet stuff for 4 days and has shown no improvement. I will be calling her vet when I get done typing this but welcome any suggestions for treating her. As for her behavior, when she was with Trish, Trish could enter the room, pet her, and sometimes get her to lick tuna off her finger. When I took her through TSA (security at Denver airport) they took her into a private room, unclipped the cable ties on her cage (despite my pleading and crying hysterically), and pulled her out, so they could examine her cage, which you could see into from any angle. (This is a whole big story, but short version is TSA is NOT supposed to remove feral animals from their carriers, I was promised by them this would not happen, the person who did it has been reported to their headquarters not for animal abuse but because I had a lamp fall and break on my head during this incident). She then ran up the walls, did a somersault on the ceiling, hit the floor, repeated this several times and then ran across the room, back and forth, scaling the walls, hitting the ceiling, falling, and all the while I am crying and begging these idiots to leave her the hell alone. Finally, a Supervisor puts an end to the whole thing, an incident report is taken, and we get on the next plane home. But thanks to TSA, any trust Trish may have established with her was destroyed. After 2 weeks, she still runs and hides when I enter her room. If I happen to come in and she is behind something and can't run, I sit on the floor and talk with her. She has gotten to the point that I can put her food bowl down in front of her, sit down, and she will eat without hesitation in front of me. She has let me pet her briefly, very briefly, before she hisses and I back off. She is very timid and non-agressive, just scared. She is in my computer room which is small but comfy. She has a tent bed, a regular bed, a cat tree, a window seat, and a 6' cabinet to hang out on. I talk to her when I am doing homework on the computer (night school) or just come in here and hang out with her. I have another cat, a Tortie. They are aware of each other, Minja puts her long legs under the door and Hershey Rose has put her nose under the door, but they have not been introduced. There is no hissing or sign of agression between them, but I can't chance Hershey Rose getting out of this room or I'll never get her back in.
Please, anyone with suggestions, feel free to pass them on. This is my first feral cat. I have worked with an abused cat and a totally undisiplined cat (Minja) and they both turned out fine. But this is a whole new bag of wax for me. Any help?
Please, anyone with suggestions, feel free to pass them on. This is my first feral cat. I have worked with an abused cat and a totally undisiplined cat (Minja) and they both turned out fine. But this is a whole new bag of wax for me. Any help?