Inmate Central

Inmate Central, where civil and family-friendly discourse about off-audio topics (other than religion and politics) is welcome.

Return to Inmate Central

Message Sort: Post Order or Asylum Reverse Threaded

"Black Kitty"

70.171.114.45
Posted on June 23, 2017 at 09:27:08
srdavis2000
Audiophile

Posts: 10699
Location: Deep South
Joined: January 11, 2003
Contributor
  Since: December 16, 2004



We have been caring for a feral cat for around 10 years. It wasn't planned. It just happened. We fed her and she kept showing up. She was originally trapped and neutered and returned to live wild (not by us),thus the clipped ear.

We have her a bed on the front porch in the summer, and in winter, a box with a bed with a heating pad.

In the past year, she has disappeared a few times for 3-4 days. Each time, we thought that she might be gone, but then she shows up wounded. All of the wounds have looked similar. They are finger tip sized puncture wounds that look serious.

We think that if these wounds were bullet wounds, she would probably have died. The wounds look too big to be from a pellet gun.

She has lived through three of these, but we have no idea what is happening to her. Any ideas. Our vet refused to give us antibiotics without seeing her and won't treat a feral cat, so catch 22 there.

 

Hide full thread outline!
    ...
RE: "Black Kitty", posted on June 23, 2017 at 12:31:14
grantv
Manufacturer

Posts: 7724
Location: B.C.
Joined: January 15, 2002
 Shotgun from a distance?

 

RE: "Black Kitty", posted on June 23, 2017 at 13:02:01
Dynamite Ham
Audiophile

Posts: 231
Location: State of Confusion, U.S.A.
Joined: February 24, 2005
 Thank you for taking care of the feral kitty. Feral cats have very hard lives and even the slightest kindness can make a big difference in their quality of life.

It's worth mentioning that before he passed away, Dan Mazza at Arizona Tube Audio fed and watered dozens of feral cats daily that were likely abandoned by students at the end of term at nearby Arizona State University.

Here in Arizona the Humane Society has a grant called Maddie's Fund that is essentially Blue Cross/Blue Shield for injured dogs, cats and other animals. You might check with local shelters to see if they have something similar. Some vets will provide medical care for injured feral cats at no charge if they have been trapped and neutered.

Thanks again for caring for the feral kitty.

 

RE: "Black Kitty", posted on June 23, 2017 at 14:03:16
srdavis2000
Audiophile

Posts: 10699
Location: Deep South
Joined: January 11, 2003
Contributor
  Since: December 16, 2004
 I guess it could be that or a lot of things. It might have helped if I had taken photos of her first two wounds so that people could see the similarity. The first two were in her side, but they looked very similar.

 

RE: "Black Kitty", posted on June 23, 2017 at 14:55:29
Sondek
Audiophile

Posts: 9621
Location: Fort Worth
Joined: May 17, 2000
Contributor
  Since: April 5, 2002
 Do these wounds look as though they may have festered? Evil smell about them? Cats, especially full-time outdoors ones, get into fights and are bitten by their assailant. Those little tiny bite-puncture wounds end up carrying a lot of bacteria. The bite puncture heals over very quickly, but the bacteria festers under the skin until it erupts causing a much larger hole in the skin than the original bite. Maybe that's what you're seeing?

 

RE: "Black Kitty", posted on June 23, 2017 at 15:24:27
srdavis2000
Audiophile

Posts: 10699
Location: Deep South
Joined: January 11, 2003
Contributor
  Since: December 16, 2004
 So far the wound looks clean as past ones have. We aren't seeing anything that looks like an infection. We asked our vet for an antibiotic in the past as a precaution.

 

RE: "Black Kitty", posted on June 23, 2017 at 15:34:28
srdavis2000
Audiophile

Posts: 10699
Location: Deep South
Joined: January 11, 2003
Contributor
  Since: December 16, 2004
 We have two dogs, one of which is very friendly with black kitty. He licks her face and visits with her when she comes to the door. We leave the door open for a while and let her come in. When we close the door she gets nervous.

Black kitty also walks with the dogs when we walk them. She goes to the corner and waits until we come back and walks us home. The neighbors think it's a hoot to see a cat walking with two dogs. She may think that she is a dog or that our dogs are funny looking cats. We have small dogs.

We have had cats in the past, but we don't have any now except for black kitty. We should have given her a better name, but from the onset she was referred to as the black kitty and it stuck.

 

RE: "Black Kitty", posted on June 23, 2017 at 16:47:27
Sondek
Audiophile

Posts: 9621
Location: Fort Worth
Joined: May 17, 2000
Contributor
  Since: April 5, 2002
 Bite wounds tend to be around the head and base of the tail, although they can be anywhere. If not bites I'm stumped. I would argue that kitty is not feral. Tell the vet she's become a permanent member of the family. The truly feral cats I've come into contact with would never suck up to any human for food. Steal it from you, yes, but suck up for it, never. Nor would they ever tolerate being close to or touched by a human.

 

Reads to me that Black Kitty ought to see the / a vet., posted on June 23, 2017 at 17:03:41
Timbo in Oz
Audiophile

Posts: 23221
Location: Canberra - in the ACT - SE Australia
Joined: January 30, 2002
 I'd ring around and I'd reckon one will see her.

Can you get her into a carrier?


Warmest

Tim Bailey

Skeptical Measurer & Audio Scrounger


 

RE: "Black Kitty", posted on June 23, 2017 at 17:42:44
Mike B.
Audiophile

Posts: 26352
Location: OR
Joined: September 27, 1999
Contributor
  Since: September 1, 1999
 I am in the same boat. Adopted a stray black cat a couple years ago. He does come inside and make himself at home but it took all this time for some movements from me to be accepted. Like reaching down to pet him. He spends a lot of time outside now that the weather is better. There is no way I could take him to the vet. He would go nuts. Sounds like the wounds are infected. I keep a jug of Hexachlorophene around. Doc had to give me a prescription. It is effective at healing small wounds.


 

RE: "Black Kitty", posted on June 23, 2017 at 19:04:10
painter27
Audiophile

Posts: 5057
Location: wi.
Joined: January 7, 2003
 feral cart have a certain life expectancy.

your learning.

 

Time to find a new/different Vet with a more compassionate view... , posted on June 23, 2017 at 19:22:17
musetap
Audiophile

Posts: 31872
Location: San Francisco
Joined: July 8, 2003
Contributor
  Since: January 28, 2004
 Cool cat that's lucky to have you!



"Once this was all Black Plasma and Imagination"-Michael McClure



 

RE: "Black Kitty", posted on June 24, 2017 at 10:09:42
srdavis2000
Audiophile

Posts: 10699
Location: Deep South
Joined: January 11, 2003
Contributor
  Since: December 16, 2004
 We have had indoor cats that didn't live as long as this cat. We have had her around10 years and she was a few years old then. We have no idea how old she is.

 

RE: Time to find a new/different Vet with a more compassionate view... , posted on June 24, 2017 at 10:12:10
srdavis2000
Audiophile

Posts: 10699
Location: Deep South
Joined: January 11, 2003
Contributor
  Since: December 16, 2004
 No one can touch this cat but me or my wife. The vet would get bitten or scratched trying to handle this cat.

 

RE: Time to find a new/different Vet with a more compassionate view... , posted on June 24, 2017 at 10:50:57
Sondek
Audiophile

Posts: 9621
Location: Fort Worth
Joined: May 17, 2000
Contributor
  Since: April 5, 2002
 Then find another vet! A true professional that really understood, and liked, cats would NEVER refuse to treat your cat. Do they never have this issue with someone's dog?!?

 

Agree., posted on June 24, 2017 at 13:57:42
grantv
Manufacturer

Posts: 7724
Location: B.C.
Joined: January 15, 2002



We also have a feral cat. Took years for her to warm up to us at all, and my 3 and 6 year old girls can barely get near her. Yet... our vet will do what they have to in order to help us out (when needed which thankfully is rare). The OP needs to look for a different vet IMO also.
Yes, she only has one eye. We also have a 3 legger, crooked tail cat and one cat who is just a crank (= 4 total + a dog). :)

 

Good luck with this ..., posted on June 24, 2017 at 16:46:48
reelsmith.
Audiophile

Posts: 13131
Location: CT
Joined: June 7, 2005
Contributor
  Since: January 19, 2010
 When I was a kid we "adopted" a feral cat.

My Dad named her "Reject", because everyone else on the block rejected her.

She only came in the house once.

My Dad made her a bed of old blankets high atop the wood pile in the carport. He fashioned them into sort of an igloo shape.

In the winter he put a 100-watt trouble light in the bed.

One winter day we found a lot of blood in the snow on the path to the carport.

She was beat up pretty bad.

My Dad took a chance... picked her up and brought her into the house and down to the basement.

There was a nook under the stairs, behind his tool bench... Reject saw that "safe" spot and ran to it.

We slid food and water to her twice a day for three weeks... and a newspaper... hoping she would do her business on it.

For the most part she missed the paper, but the basement didn't stink too bad.

One day my Dad propped open the back door and when we returned Reject was gone.

The next time we saw her she look pretty good.

A few years later, after always seeing her weekly, we never saw her again.

Feral cats will accept your help when they know they need it. Its a shame your Vet does not recognize that.

Best of luck.

Dean.






reelsmith's axiom: Its going to be used equipment when I sell it, so it may as well be used equipment when I buy it.


 

Spider bites?, posted on June 24, 2017 at 19:27:14
Alpha Al
Industry Professional

Posts: 2958
Location: N. Carolina
Joined: February 16, 2004
Contributor
  Since: December 3, 2015
 I had a cat with wounds like you described. They looked like spots of decayed flesh. The vet said it was probably spider bites. Outdoor cats tend to go under outbuildings, porches, etc where spiders abound.

 

RE: Spider bites?, posted on June 25, 2017 at 09:38:11
srdavis2000
Audiophile

Posts: 10699
Location: Deep South
Joined: January 11, 2003
Contributor
  Since: December 16, 2004
 That could be. When she isn't at our house, a neighbor said that she sleeps under his boat which is in a covered shed in his back yard.

 

Page processed in 0.038 seconds.

[ Top Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]