We have entered the world of TNR—we have in the past fostered and adopted out a litter of ferals that someone else trapped, and trapped another litter on our own, tried to adopt them out but ended up keeping them. But this is our first time trapping, neutering and releasing. We are definitely learning as we go. Out of a litter of 5, we have 3 that we managed to TNVR so far. All 3 are fairly comfortable with us—they spend a decent amount of time lounging on our decks and patios and eating the food we put out—we have plenty of warmed houses for the winter and plenty of shade and water for the summer. We noticed 2 of them obviously encountering a good number of ticks. When they were spayed/neutered they did get a treatment, but I assume it was a 30 day treatment. I did get some frontline plus; is this appropriate? I think I can apply it as they are very receptive to petting most of the time.
Are there other regular treatments/meds that would be good for feral cats to have since we can probably interact enough to get a decent chance? Should a dewormer be given regularly? Heart worm? While they happily eat our food, they all definitely still eat mice and chipmunk.
We are happy to do what we can to keep them as healthy as possible—so trying to determine what can be done on our own. Obviously in case of injury/obv sickness we would try very hard to re-trap and get them to the vet, and I’m assuming a once yearly vet trip is a good idea to keep rabies and other vaccinations up to date? we had them spayed/neutered/basic vaccines thru a low cost clinic, so there’s no specific vet for these guys I can consult, and at the time I thought these guys might never come back to us after we had traumatized them with trapping and surgery the first time. I was very wrong! They def think of our property as theirs and I’m ok with that!
Thank you!
Are there other regular treatments/meds that would be good for feral cats to have since we can probably interact enough to get a decent chance? Should a dewormer be given regularly? Heart worm? While they happily eat our food, they all definitely still eat mice and chipmunk.
We are happy to do what we can to keep them as healthy as possible—so trying to determine what can be done on our own. Obviously in case of injury/obv sickness we would try very hard to re-trap and get them to the vet, and I’m assuming a once yearly vet trip is a good idea to keep rabies and other vaccinations up to date? we had them spayed/neutered/basic vaccines thru a low cost clinic, so there’s no specific vet for these guys I can consult, and at the time I thought these guys might never come back to us after we had traumatized them with trapping and surgery the first time. I was very wrong! They def think of our property as theirs and I’m ok with that!
Thank you!