Neutering stray cats?

Parent Cafe
1

<p>We’ve had what looks like a 2-4 y/o cat that started coming to our deck about a month ago. It is extremely jittery about human contact, but it does feed off the bowl we place out if we are indoors, and sleeps in a cardboard box that we keep out for him/her.
I checked with our local homeless cats organization and this week I’m supposed to trap it to get it fixed. </p>

<p>Has anyone else done anything like this and may have some words of wisdom to impart? I’ve gone through videos at alleycat.org and have got it confortable in eating from within a trap that has been kept locked open for a week, but I don’t want to make a big boo-boo and get it injured inside the trap or some other such thing. The videos advise keeping the cat for 24 hours after the procedure and then just releasing it; has anyone had problems with complications, or the cat scratching its incisions or whatever?</p>

2

<p>I advise that you talk to the vet who will be doing the neutering about after care and possible complications. </p>

<p>If it’s a tom, the recovery is simple and quick. Females take longer.</p>

3

<p>I’m checking with someone I know who is experienced in this. She says:</p>

<p>Arrange with the vet first. Tell them that you are doing trap and rescue. Arrange a day when you will bring the cat in (some vets do TNR on certain days).</p>

<p>Best thing is to bait the trap at 4 or 5 in the morning, the morning you want to take the cat to the vet.</p>

<p>When the cat is caught, put a towel or blanket over the trap. Take the cat, in the trap, to the vet.</p>

<p>The vet will do the operation, then return the cat to the trap. You will take it back to where you caught it, and release it.</p>

4

<p>Continuing:</p>

<p>If it is a male, you will get it back the same day, in the afternoon. You’ll take it back and release it where you captured it.</p>

5

<p>Continuing:</p>

<p>Females are usually kept overnight at the vet.</p>

6

<p>I hope you are getting the cat vaccinated at least for rabies. And good for you for doing this.</p>

7

<p>I have nothing to add in addition to what CF said, but thank you for doing this. You are a kind soul :)</p>

8

<p>Thank you for doing this!</p>

<p>Do not feed the cat the day of trapping. Only a hungry cat will go into a trap for food.</p>

<p>Whether male or female, do not release the animal the day you pick it up, day of surgery. It will still be woozy from the anesthetic, leaving it suspectible to harm.</p>

<p>Do you have a trap? Make sure you know how to use it before the first time trapping the cat.</p>

<p>I love the TruCatch traps, but you have to order them days in advance from the company in North Dakota, I think. If you are lucky, your local feed store may carry them, but don’t expect to be able to walk in and just buy one. </p>

<p>When you do TNR, trap/neuter/release, you usually have the cat eartipped, a universal indicator that it has been spayed/neutered. As a person who has strays often wander in their yard, I am so grateful for this trend, as it saves me a trip to get somebody fixed who has already been fixed. Been there, done that.</p>

<p>In addition to the rabies, I do like to get the feline four in one shot. They are not that expensive, and protect the animal from distemper, respiratory disease. I also like to get the feline leukemia shot, as I have lost several cats to that terrible disease.</p>

<p>Yes, it adds up in cost, but as a result, you will have a healthy cat, a good ratter in your backyard, and a lifelong friend.</p>

<p>Many vets that do spay/neuter for homeless cats do offer discounted packages for vaccinations, so be sure to ask about this.</p>

<p>Thank you so much, again, for doing this. And yes, do talk to your vet or the girls at the reception desk beforehand about what to expect. I find that many vet employees do animal rescue on the side, and they can be a great source of information.</p>

<p>And to answer your question about complication. I have, thankfully, not had complications, and just had 12 cats TNR’d over the last six weeks. Usually, vets that do spay/neuter for the homeless cats organizations are very experienced in this area. Also, they are unlikely to keep a female overnight, so do expect to be able to keep the cat in a garage or extra room overnight when you bring it home.
DO NOT LET THE CAT OUT UNTIL THE NEXT DAY!
It won’t starve. It will be okay. No matter how much it bangs around in the trap, don’t let it out until it’s recovered the next day.</p>

<p>When you release the cat, in your case, on your deck, would be good, have food and water on the deck for him to go to. He will likely bolt away when you open the trap, and you may not even see him for a couple of days, but still keep putting out the food and water, and he will eventually come back.</p>

<p>It is very important to never leave a trap unattended. A cat in a trap is defenseless, and while it may take a while for him to go in the trap, you have to be patient and wait for him to do it from afar. And when you bring him back, don’t leave him in the trap on your deck. Raccoons or possums or worse could bother him while he’s recuperating overnight, so please find a safe, temporary place for him to stay overnight IN THE TRAP!</p>

<p>Thank you again for doing this.</p>

9

<p>I’m just relaying what this other person, who is experienced with TNR, says. She says she releases males the afternoon of the surgery. Maybe the procedure varies by area, but she reports that it works out for her rescue group.</p>

10

<p>Dad of 3, from the behavior of the cat, it sounds like your cat might possibly be a stray, rather than a feral, especially if you are seeing it during the day. Ferals are typically much shyer of human contact than strays, and more likely to be nocturnal.</p>

11

<p>A friend of mine did this with a mama cat and her two kittens. The cat family had taken shelter under a shed in a fenced-in community garden. My friend started feeding the mother before she knew the kittens existed. The kittens were about 4 months old at time of neutering and weaned. The kittens were not as skittish as the mom by that point but mama cat allowed no human contact at all. My friend had to place the dish and then walk well away before mama cat would eat. Anyway it all went well. The rescue organization arranged the vet so no problem there. My friend paid a reduced rate. She did go ahead and get rabies and other feline shots and had the cats checked for worms - again reduced rate. She figured that while she couldn’t make the shots a yearly thing, as long as she had them all at the vets she’d give them all the protection she could. She did keep the cats overnight - I think in her bathroom - I would assume in the trap, at least mama cat. Anyway, I have no idea how she handled that but I don’t believe she had any problems. She released them in the garden the next day. She worried that she would never see them again but life went on as normal.</p>

<p>Anyway that was about two years ago. One kitten disappeared - we like to think taken by someone rather than thinking on other dire consequences. The other kitten - now cat - turned into the community garden mascot. He has acquired his own staff (of gardeners) that makes sure his needs are met. Though he still lives in the garden, discussion is on-going about whether he should be adopted by just one. Mama cat lives in the garden also and while she remains untouchable, my friend no longer has to leave the dish and walk away. She can remain in touching distance as long as she doesn’t touch.</p>

<p>The cats have not seen a vet again so the shots have worn off but my friend is glad she had everything done while she could.</p>

<p>The cats’ ears were snipped at the tip so that others could tell at a glance that the cat - though feral - had been neutered. I consider the mom still feral and her kitten (now adult) not at all feral. I do wish one of the gardeners would take him home. My friend can’t … too many cats of her own. She bordered on crazy cat lady BEFORE three kittens got abandoned next door to her. She took them in temporarily (ha) … now over a year ago.</p>

<p>As others have said … good for you. That cat will have a longer, healthier, happier life because it ended up in your yard.</p>

12

<p>

RGE, that is the very last thing that anyone would say about me, probably with good reason.</p>

<p>As to the speaking with the Vet, etc., there’s an organization (not our family kitty’s local vet) that does this on specific days, and the lady there lent me the trap and made an appointment. </p>

<p>@Onward - good thought: the organization is a non-profit that probably does the basic stuff for free or at a discount, but I intend to give them a donation tomore than cover the costs, and will take your suggestion to see if there’s anything else that ought to be done, and will ask them to even if it’s an extra charge.</p>

<p>@Cardinal: I do know they don’t have the facility to keep anything overnight. I can take the next day off too if need be; my concern was recognizing a condition that may be abnormal that needs the cat to be looked at for further treatment. I’m too scared to wait till the morning to capture it because the pattern is he/she comes at night, eats, sleeps, and leaves first thing in the morning. I don’t want to risk not capturing it then and have it leave and eat elsewhere or not return, and the lady said it was OK to trap it overnight, and for it not to eat for some 12 hours. Covering with cloth and having lots of newspapers on the bottom was emphasized too.</p>

<p>Thanks, all.</p>

13

<p>It sounds like this is a stray, not a feral. You may be ending up with a new pet ;)</p>

14

<p>Dad<em>of</em>3 and especially Montegut, I am blown away by your kindness and dedication. We have a colony of ferals living in a very large wooded area near my house, and it would be such a good thing to get them sterilized–on the rare occasions when one can catch a glimpse of them, they are thin and mangy and show the effects of inbreeding, and I shudder to think about how cruel their winters must be. But as Cardinal Fang noted, true ferals won’t come anywhere near human habitation, so I can’t imagine how anyone could even figure out where to put a trap. </p>

<p>Feral story: I once hit one of the colony members as he darted in front of my car. I threw a blanket over him and took him to my vet. He was clonked on the noggin and had a broken hip. Once he was released, I agreed to take him home, since the head trauma had apparently addled his brain enough to completely tame him. He even let me clip his nails! But oh, compared to my big, spoiled pure breeds, what sorry sight he was! He was way undersized from poor nutrition as a kitten, his eyes were so far around the sides of his head he looked like one of those alien drawings, and the accident left him with a permanent limp. We named him Riley, with the idea that he was now living the life of Riley compared to his previous existence. Unfortunately for some reason Riley’s presence put my husband’s mild cat allergy–one mild enough to tolerate two long-hairs–into high gear, and we couldn’t keep him. Luckily one of vet techs who’d grown fond of Riley during his stay–he really was a sweetie–agreed to take him home. With his looks, he would have languished at a shelter forever.</p>

15

<p>Good for you. Sounds like you’ve got some good advice there. I’m glad you have a local organization that is helping you. And thank you so much for your donation. While many scoff at me for spending the money on shots, I agree with above poster, while you’re there, get it done. Chances are, you won’t get another chance to get the cat to the vet. Thank you again so much for doing this.</p>

<p>MommaJ, God bless you. Not many have the compassion to help out an injured cat. I am so happy you rescued Riley.</p>

16

<p>I’m sure the clinic will advise me, but do you not feed the cat (food and/or water) after he/she’s back from surgery, and still kept in the cage? The cage they lent me has an extra removable “divider” that can be inserted while the kitty is in, blocking it from escaping from the back, which would let me open the back door and put a bowl of water/food, if necessary.
They told me not to feed food or water prior to after 8pm, and to take it in the first thing in the morning to the clinic.</p>

<p>Montegut, based on what you said about other nocturnal visitors, I think I’ll move the kitty to the garage, where it will be a bit warmer too, than leaving it on the deck. </p>

<p>I wish I had known about the snipped ear, because I would have tried to check this - I don’t recall this since I never looked for it. I’m assuming this is only for strays because our pets are fixed, but their ears haven’t been snipped. </p>

<p>Thanks again.</p>

17

<p>The ear notching is only for ferals. If you do a Google image search on Feral Cat Notching, you can see pictures of various notch styles. There’s no uniformity, unfortunately, but either a triangular notch or a clipped ear looks like it would be pretty easy to see if you could get a good look at the cat. At the least, you’ll be able to check the ears when you have the cat trapped.</p>

18

<p>MommaJ, there are groups that trap members of feral colonies to get them neutered. The procedure is called TNR (Trap, Neuter, Release). If you search around, you might be able to find a TNR group near you that would take on the responsibility of your nearby feral colony. Perhaps you might even decide to get involved with the group yourself.</p>

19

<p>In regards to feeding after the surgery, they will usually be groggy after, but the vet may tell you you can offer them food and water in the evening. </p>

<p>I understand you have a trap with a divider, but please practice this before you use it. It would be terrible if the cat got out of the trap before it’s ready to be released because you thought it would be too hungry.</p>

<p>I recently went to a TNR seminar given by ladies who trap hundreds of cats every year. They shared lots of tips, and I’m passing a lot of these on to you. They learned these tips the hard way, and they were gracious enough to sponsor these seminars to help others who do TNR learn from their mistakes.</p>

<p>I don’t mean to harp on the not letting out of the trap so much, but seriously, getting them in the trap is often a one time thing. Also, if you put a sheet or towel over the trap, put kitty in the garage, he’ll likely stay calm through the night, and be ready to eat the next day. But don’t be surprised if he doesn’t bolt. Actually, I had a big surprise a couple of weeks ago when one of my trapped kittens decided he was going to stay and eat the food and stay in my yard. Needless to say, he is the newest addition to our family.</p>

20

<p>In our community, a local animal welfare group contracts with a shelter in a larger city to have the ‘neuter scooter’ come once a month. This group loans the traps to people and provides them with an old sheet to cover the trap once the cat is caught (ferals need to be allowed to ‘hide’). The ‘neuter scooter’ arrives here at 7 am one day, the animals are taken to the ‘big city’ for their surgery, kept overnight, and returned around 9 am the next day. They all sleep in their traps (if feral) or carriers if they are someone’s pet. </p>

<p>This service allows for people to spay/neuter ferals they come across and for reduced rate surgeries for low income people. Believe it or not, the big city shelter charges $20 for a feral cat neuter and a rabies shot! The prices go up from there, for spays, indoor cats, etc. All ferals have their ear ‘tipped’ after surgery.</p>