Old feral cat

[mana]

There has been a cat I have been feeding for about 13 years that is feral.  She is a sweet cat and have tried for a long time to get her to accept people and have her be an inside cat.  But all attempts failed.   I have always kept the garage door open for her to have a place to go.  It is a female, I caught her a long time ago and got her fixed.  It was a horrible ordeal for the both of us and the vet ><  But now something is wrong and I do not know what to do.  

Something is wrong with her balance and it does not seem like she has complete control of her back legs.  She is very lucid and aware.  I went into the garage to give her a can of food, when I went in I saw her drinking water.  I set the plate near her, she got scared and tried to move away from me.  As she did one of her hind legs gave out on her and she fell.  She got back up and put some distance between us.  I sat down to try to get her to come to me.  In the past, she will occasionally let me pet her, barely getting into reach of my hand.  But I could not get her to come near me.  She meows quite loud, but she has always done this.  She eventually ate a few bites of food but I just could not get near her enough to see what might be wrong.  I do not see any injuries on her.  She does look a bit thin tho.  

So I do not know what to do.  I would take her to the vet if it would not put so much stress on her.  Just me trying to get near her might make her cause more damage to herself.  I would appreciate any suggestions to try to help her.  

 

[mana]

I talked to my brother who saw her a few days ago.  He said when he saw her she was under one of the cars.  She did not seem lucid, her head was wobbling, would not acknowledge that he was there.  She meows all the but she wasn't at that point.  So I am thinking maybe she had a stroke.  I am sure she can't ever get fully better, but could she maybe get a little better where she will still be ok outside?  She can walk, just not that good.  I hate to have her put to sleep, let alone the stress she would go through to get her to the vet.  

 

[fionasmom]

I came on to post something about my own cat and noticed this. You are so kind to have helped this very feral cat for so many years. Long story short, I did the same thing for 10 years, even posting questions about my cat on this site. Ultimately, I saw her weaken and fail, tried to trap her once again, but apparently she remembered the years earlier trapping in order to fix her and her kittens and it was futile. Just so you know, she finally did not appear one day and I searched the entire area for her, put up signs, etc and never found one trace of her. To this day, I am not sure where she went to pass away. 

 

[jennyr]

You have done amazingly well, keeping a feral alive and well for all this time. She has lived well above the average for any outside cat, let alone a semi-feral. Now you may be facing a very difficult decision. If she is sick she will not last very long on her own outside. I think you do have to take her tot he vet somehow, and think very hard about her quality of life in the future. She will not take easily to being nursed inside. I am sorry for you - it is not a good situation

 

[margd]

I don't know if this is an option, but perhaps a mobile vet would be helpful in this situation.  I'm so sorry to hear this little girl is having such difficulties.  Bless you for being there for her. 

 

[mrsty]

Mana, I'm wondering how things turned out for you and your feral cat. I am in a similar situation now. I have a feral female that is at least 13 years old (maybe 14?), that has suddenly stopped eating. Even though she shows up for breakfast and dinner. She also has seemed to suddenly lose a lot of weight. She only nibbles at her food then leaves. (To make matters worse I just had my indoor 16 year old cat put down, so it's even more upsetting right now). She has had quite a change this summer in her usual routine, but she at least kept coming for food. I had her fixed and over the years I've given her lots of Clavamox to help heal wounds, dewormer at least once a year. And she has a nice insulated house behind the front bushes where an outdoor heating pad gets put in for her as soon as the weather gets cold. She rarely leaves her house all winter, she loves it cozy warm in there. Several weeks ago she had another cat bite by some wandering male. Gave her Clavamox, but she kept acting really spooky and stressed for a long time. Finally things started getting back to normal and she was sleeping in her summer basket on the front porch again, eating normally, etc. Now this just happened the last couple days where I notice how skinny her hips look, just like my old cat that had CKD. She is totally feral, rarely lets us give her a little pet maybe while she's eating. I thought about trapping her last year cause I knew she was old and I could have her put down but people talked me out of it, like I was doing something wrong. Well, now this is what I was trying to avoid, something is wrong, she's not eating, which means she won't have any reason to go in the trap....so there is literally nothing I can do for her. I hate thinking she could be in pain after all these years taking care of her. As much as I know she'll probably just not show up anymore, I always hoped I could at least find her body and bury her in the garden and have some closure. I bet it doesn't happen that way very often though.

 

[catwoman707]

CKD, a bad tooth, many things can cause a cat to lose interest in eating, it's impossible to guess, but know that basically all cats at some point, if they live long enough, will have CKD, it's just how it is in cats.

So this is my first guess, the weakness would be due to lack of food and dehydration.

I'm not just throwing things out there, I care for many colonies in my town where I have TNR'd, have for over 14 years now.

I know that, despite them being outside, or not being able to hold them, we love them just the same as we do our indoor kids.

What hurts my heart is a sudden disappearance, knowing full well that the cat went off to die, which must be a horrible way to go, alone and it taking probably days to finally die.

It happens, and often is out of our control, we do all we can, I know. But to me, if there is a chance that you can spare this kitty that route, I would try to take them in.

I have a wonderful story I want to share, I've told it before here, but any time someone says they care for ferals, I feel I want to repeat it again.

I'm really tired, and still have to make a call about helping 14 kittens.........ugh it never ends.

The story is my experience with Destiny. and I will keep it short, but she was so special and gave me the greatest gift possible.

I was relocating a large colony where the cats were such a mess, it was dangerous and dirty, thugs used them for target practice, well you get the picture.

I trapped them all, got them well and they are now living in the hills and mountains living a cat's dream life. 

Some were in rough shape, a few I could not save due to organ failure at very young ages, etc.

One was Destiny. This scary skinny, barely able to walk, filthy, bald patches all over, crusted eyes, sick, broken leg, and black, split, bloody curled ears.

What a sight. Completely feral too.

It ached my heart so badly, I wanted very much to give her some time in this world to feel good, clean, wanted.

So I did, got her all repaired, made her a plush pretty "room", and the healing began. I spent lots of time with her, in her cage. I would tell her every day what a beautiful princess she would be someday, I promise.

Her ear stitches finally fell out, her filthy fur fell out and in grew this bunny soft snow white fur

3 months to the day it was time to let her out, she was going to live in my cat room.

Fast forward, I adored her, but had to from a distance, she allowed me to pet her while caged, but once freed she just couldn't bring herself to let me that close, but I knew and she knew, we had a special bond.

There were times that I longed to just pick her up and hold her.

I finally figured out to keep her food and water in a large cage with the door open always, and once in a while, or when I had to flea treat, I would just close the door, it became routine, I was able to pet her, and she loved it.

Well Destiny got CKD after 4 years of being fat and spoiled, I gave her what I had promised, but 1 1/2 yrs later I knew it was her time.

Just a couple days before I took her in, I came home and she was sitting there, I walked to her and she did not move, bent down and she let me pet her. I was so shocked.

Then I picked her up, she was relaxed completely.

She followed me in to my house, sat on my lap, etc.

For the next couple days she was with me all the time, I was finally able to do the things I wanted all of those years, for some reason, surely knowing she was dying, she simply lost her fear, completely, just gone.

When I took her in to be put to rest, I held her and kissed her head and soaked it with tears, she gave me what I needed, I know she was thanking me for all I did to give her the best life, and she proved to me that a feral is exactly the same as our indoor kitties, if they could just lose that fear.

It was a great gift She will never ever be forgotten, and I still miss her to this day, it's been about 2 years now.

Something to think about

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[mrsty]

Bless you. They do give us love in their own way.