Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Poultry and Pets => Pets without Feathers => Topic started by: Eumaeus on June 13, 2010, 20:13
-
Toby the "ex-tom" cat at the barn came home today. He has been somewhat invisible since the arrival of the kittens about 10 day sago and I was starting to worry about him. Although DD did say she ha dseen him a few times but only "passing through"
So tonight at the barn he appeared. Walking very slowly and carefully. He was FILTHY - covered in dust and a couple of mud patches - he even looked as though eh had cobwebs on his whiskers. He was slobbering a bit around the mouth. And he was even mor enervous than usual.
I offered him some food and he came and tried to eat some, but it was as though his teeth were hurting him? Then he took himself off up into the loft. Hopefully to wash and sleep and come down in the morning his usual self.
Trouble is - if hs IS hurt, then I don't have a clue how I will get him to the vet. He is now tame enough that I can stroke him - but I have never picked him up - I have a feeling tha tputting him in a cat box and having the vet "fiddle" with him would drive him round the bend.
Oh well - the joys of having cats I suppose - if anyone has any tips on how to deal with him they would be VERY gratefully received
Many thanks
Eumaeus
-
hello, i only thing i could think of is asking the cp( cat protection leg) they have traps and they may be able to help.. good luck
-
Am wondering if he has got bad teeth. Might be worth checking them out.
-
If you have a local cp they will have traps and should be able to help you trap him. Also contact your vets as they often have a trap they can lend you to catch him.
I have two ex-ferals. Martha I can now fully handle but Rufus panics (I can stroke when eating but that is all). I had to catch him when he had a persistent eye infection and blocked him in the house, threw a towel over him and bundled him into a supersize cat basket. He was fine at the vets, just the getting him in the basket was hard. After 2 days he forgave me ::) :lol:
I would suggest that some feliway sprayed where he likes to be in the barn will help calm him with a few drops of bachs rescue remedy in his water before you take him for future visits as well :)
-
I think you might just have to grin and bear it. use a heavy pair of gardening gloves, use a cat basket that opens at the top or a cardboard box with ventilation holes cut into it.
If he has been in a scrap then he could be brewing abscesses, and he will need antibiotics.
I have to use gloves when I pick up my little Domino-puss as she HATES it with a passion, but if it is for their own good...
-
Sorry to sound like harbinger of ill will but it sounds like he could've had a glance from a car, any chance you can surroptitiously look at his paws, coz they tend to cling on to the road and end up with sore paws and ground off nails, and judging by the general stiffness, and pain in his mouth......????
Good luck with him, and hope he recovers without too much intervention, if he's too bad to handle it could all down to you just keeping food and water on offer and the rest left up to the Creator.
-
I am with Wild Pony on this, is he is struggling to eat and drooling there is a chance he may have damaged his jaw- this will need a trip to the vet. Cats can make great recoveries from jaw injuries, but really does sound like he needs a check over.
See how he is in the morning, and be prepared to scruff him and box him if you need to.
And keep us all posted as I know I will keep wondering how he is (love cats to pieces!), as will many others!
-
Cats lower jaws have a "seam" right down the front, it is a favourite area for most facial fractures, you may also notice his two center, lower front teeth have a gap, that to me would indicate a mandibular fracture. My own moglet got trampled by my horse at a flat out gallop last year and had bad head injuries.......but she was kept in a dog cage in my empty stable and kept dark for two days and she made a brilliant recovery, with some help from a retired vet who does a bit of locum-ing who helped me set up the drip. He obviously feels happy to come "home" which is why he's back with you, it just took him that while to recover enough to start his "Incredible Journey" back to the fold.
-
Ouch.. Puddin here... (cat) I was the same just before Christmas last year... :( My Mum (spiderlyn) took me to the vet... (only ever been twice before.. once for the "JOB" and the other for jabs) but I was so grateful... I had lessions in my teeth... (holes).. so the vet took three teeth out..eckk... I'm ok now ;) and mum makes sure, that I eat biscutes.. to keep my teeth healthy..
Just to add.. I'm only on here, as mum & dad are watching the Brasil game! and I must catch up with Blondie.. she's my friend on here :)
-
:( - I think I may have lost him :( The next day I wen tup in the loft to look for him and he wasn't there - had obviously gone off again. And we havent' seen him since. I SO wish I had tried to grab him while he was back, I just didn't want to scare him.
I think tomorrow I may print off a photo of him and take it to the vet's and welfare - just in case :(
Thank you all for the suggestions - I have to say, the look o fhim when he came back I did wonder about being hit by a car - but he didn't seem to hav eenough "obvious" damage.
All I can do now is hope he turns up again
-
Oh dear
Good luck Eumaeus- hope he turns up soon!
-
All I can do now is hope he turns up again
Puddin, here again.. XXX sure he's about in the yard somewhere.. just lickin his wounds! ;) I know I did :(.. don't worry about the cat basket.. he'll go in, when you tell him its for the best... I was the same..... I'd just found a lovely home.. and they put me in a cat basket! :ohmy:..
LOL.. two years later.. I'm still here.. and I have the run of the House! and I'm "lovin it" :D
-
Awwww, good luck. At times like these i remember Kiplings the cat who walks alone from the just so stories. Many road injuries are internal unfortunately, so outwardly you'd not know. Hugs coming..........
-
Hi - well...Toby's still alive at least. When we got to the barn this mornign he was in the loft again - right on the edge where we could see him when we walked in the door. I wen tup the ladder to talk to him and he is still iln a right mess - gunky stuff all down his white bib - still drooling badly and still mucky. I offered him some food and he looked at it and turned it down. So I found him a cage and picked him up and put him in - to my amazement he only put up a token protest, then cried a couple of times when he was in. We then offered him a drink which he seemed to want but he stopped after one tiny lap. I phoned the welfare and the vet is here today so I have to take him in at 9.30.
It is unreal - I know he needs to go to the vet but I feel like a total traitor putting him in the cage. All the time I have spent slowly, slowly buildign up his trust - and the first time he lets me pick him up it's to put him in a cage and take him to the vet. But I know it's for the best.
I am guessing it must be either his teeth or his jaw :(
Thanks again for all the advice - and for those that knew not to give up on him. I will keep updating :)
I just hope he forgives me when he gets home :(
Eumaeus
-
fingers crossed for you and him xx
-
I hope all goes well at the vets, good luck x
-
I hope it went well at the vets and that poor Toby is geting some much needed TLC?
Thinking of you both (and the poor vet that was on the receiving end ;))
-
OK - well there's good and bad news. The good news is that it wasn't a car accident or any other physical trauma. The bad news is that he is a poorly cat still. He apparently has a badly infected cut inside his mouth - which is (in the nurse's words) rotten and they couldn't do anything to stitch? And he is badly dehydrated. But I am collecting him at 5.30. They are lendign me a dog crate or something similar to keep him in so that he can stay at the barn which is his home, but still be confined so that i can keep an eye on him. She said not to give him tinned food as it is probably too salty so I have a bag of frozen haddock - haddock?!?!? even I don't get to eat haddock LOL. But the fishmongers was closed and they didn't have frozen coley in the supermarket so haddock it is unti lI can get coley tomorrow LOL
Flipping cat had better eat it is all I can say ;)
Anyway - so hopefully he will be on the mend soon - just hope he does mend properly. Any advice on nursing cats?
Thanks
Eumaeus
-
Boiled chicken and mashed up boiled eggs are also good :)
-
Aah bless him :(
Can't really offer any advice - He'll be happier once he's home and in familiar surroundings.
I hope he's feeling better soon. :)
-
Home made cat food so no salt etc in it such as a high protein mix of either cooked white fish, liver or chicken with rice and vegetables at a 60:20:20 ration along with a measure of multivitamins blended together if you have any/can get any - I use SA37 Vitamin Supplement as it is high quality and gives them everything they need in the mix. Blend it together if he is struggling to eat and then just add some extra chopped fish/meat bits into it. I have spare SA37 and will happily post it to you if you would like me to.
Also, some raw sliced kidney or liver in small quantities will benefit him and obviously lots and lot of fresh water.
I hope he perks up soon x
-
:D - well, the soap opera continues.
Toby is home with us for a few days. When I collected him from teh vets, the nurse said that he is very dehydrated and in need of lots of TLC, but that she found fly eggs on him when she tried to clean him up - apparently if they are ill the flies take advantage!?!?
So I decided it was better to bring him home - less chance of f lies than at the barn, and I am here to check on him more often.
He still doesn't look very well, but he has had soem milk and some water, and a little bit of fish, and a little bit of a special tinned convalescence diet that the nurse gave me (it looks like pate). So he must be feeling a little better - early days yet but at least he is drinking :)
But the funny thing is the reaction of my geriatric house cat. She took one look at him in his cage and went and sat on the balcony - every now and again she would come back, peer at him, and go off outside again. Until I put out his food - she obviously thinks the pate food smells really good as, since I put tha tout for him, she has been trying to find a way into his cage to pinch it LOL
Caralou - thank you for the recipe - I will try and organise that tomorrow. And I will see if I can get the SA37 here - if not I may well call on you if I may :)
Eumaeus
-
Good luck with Toby sounds as if your doing a fab job already and you have definately saved his life. Fingers crossed from me and mine. (thats lots of fingers and paws and legs).
-
The pate stuff is really good for building them back up and tends to be better balanced than normal wet cat food. I've just double checked and have lots of SA37 in the cupboard (I don't make as much homemade food since Thorsy passed away as it was him that couldn't eat shop food) so if you can't get it I will get this over to you.
I'm glad he is eating and drinking and that your house cat is only slightly put out :) I bet the geriatric mog gets as much special food as he does - it would be mean not to ;) :tongue2:
-
Him letting you pick him up is sign he wanted you to help him. Bon Chance......
-
Any news on how Toby is getting on.
-
Hi - well, the good news is that Toby is still with us.
He has been a very poorly cat. Having had one long lasting anti-biotic, he was improving so they then gave him a one week course of daily injections and then he has had another long lasting one. He didn't eat/drink at all for days and I was syringing electrolyte fluids into him. The vet nurse started to think that he maybe had kidney damage from hs week in hiding :(
But, he suddenly turned a corner. In dsperation one morning, after offering him just about every kind of mashed food imaginable (I even made him a liver milkshake LOL) I gave up one morning and just gave him a portion of what Blackie the house cat has for breakfast. Tinned food with go-cat mixed into it. He ate the GO-CAT!!!!!! The hours I have spent making "eat through a straw" meals for him and the first thing he eats is BISCUIT - I was NOT impressed!! ;)
Anyway - he is here at home still and most of th etim eis out of his cage. We still put him in it if we want the doors and windows open as, if he were to disappear off then he would probably die at the moment - he is still so thin. He saw the vet againlast week, and he reckons it will take him a couple of months to recover completely and that he needs to stay here at home until then. But he is acting like a normal cat - eaing, drinking,sleeping on the bed/has made good friends with Blackie and still adores the dog. He is like a puppy - wherever I go in the flat, he follows me gazing at me. I'm not veyr good at cat language, but I think he has got quite fond of me :D
It was quite funny - when he started to improve, I couldn't figure out how h ewasn't losing any more weight with the tiny amounts he was eating. We were letting him out of his cage at night at that point. I got up in the middle of the night and found him up to his shoulders in the bag of dog food :D
So all in all, he is well. I don't know if he is going to be happy living here now and we now have another house cat - or whether we will take him back to the barn when he is well enough. Part of me thinks that he is settling in here and will probably be happiest staying here by the time mhe has been here another 2 months. But he has always been such an outdoor cat that maybe he will be happier outdoors. Only time will tell on that one I think.
Anyway - thank you all :)
Eumaeus
-
I'm so glad he is on the mend :D The go-cat reminds me of a foster kit I had in who was so poorly with cat flu she would barely eat or drink and I was getting so worried. One of the other cats brought a mouse in and left it on the stairs - she got it and devoured it in seconds :blink: ::) I was so relieved she had eaten but - yuck yuck yuck!
I have a feeling he will be making himself quite comfy in the house now though :tongue2:
-
He ate the GO-CAT!!!!!! The hours I have spent making "eat through a straw" meals for him and the first thing he eats is BISCUIT - I was NOT impressed!! ;)
I'm sorry but I couldn't help but laugh at this .... Just so cat like! ::) Either deaths door and mega treats or cussed! And the mouse ... when our champion mouser Tiges was dying of cancer and had got to the stage where outside was something you just looked at and food wasn't impressive (she would have adored a liver milk shake - I never thought of that!) .. Blondie used to bring her in the odd mouse to play with and sample the best bits.
I think you have got yourself another house cat ... he knows which way his bread is buttered ...
So glad to hear it is going okay ...
-
Oh! Thank goodness he's doing better and :D at the dog food.
You've brought me out of hiding to say that I've been on a knife edge followign the story through to hope he pulls out of it okay. Phew - now I can go back to the drama on the tv !! :blush:
-
What a lovely user name Arwen :blush: Just so happens to be the name of my big favourite tabby monster too (three guesses what was bedtime reading for me as a child :tongue2:) :)
-
Im so pleased he is doing well and agree with the others a new house cat for you.
When we had a farm and had to leave we took the farm cat with us her name was Tabitha and she settled in really well. Considering she was a farm cat like yours once she moved in she never really wanted to leave again. She went out for little wanders but was soon back on the chair or on a lap. So they do change especially as they get older.
Good luck and please keep us updated.
-
I'm really pleased to hear he's doing so well.
Considering cats are soooo independant there aren't many that aren't won over with regular meals, a big comfy bed at night and some fuss every now and then.
All we need now is a piccy of the lucky man ;)
-
Ive just read this thread, and couldnt wait to get to the end to see if Toby made it or not. Im so glad that he is recovering. Phew!!
-
Ouch.. Puddin here... (cat) I was the same just before Christmas last year... :( My Mum (spiderlyn) took me to the vet... (only ever been twice before.. once for the "JOB" and the other for jabs) but I was so grateful... I had lessions in my teeth... (holes).. so the vet took three teeth out..eckk... I'm ok now ;) and mum makes sure, that I eat biscutes.. to keep my teeth healthy..
Just to add.. I'm only on here, as mum & dad are watching the Brasil game! and I must catch up with Blondie.. she's my friend on here :)
Unbelievable - my all time favourite cat was called Pudding too - never known anyone else call an animal that.
-
Hope all goes well.
-
We had little Black Pudding (a little lost kitten) as well, but sadly she had to be rehomed as one of the other cats was vicious with her :(
Is Toby still wanting to be a pampered house cat? :lol:
-
Sorry - I haven't been on for ages - life has been a little hectic :(
Toby is still with us, but it doesn't look good for him. He seemed tomake a full recovery, his coat is lovely an dhsiny and, although he is very thin, he has turned into a very affectionate lovign house cat. But while he was so very ill, the nurse was worried about his kidney function (he took a very long time to rehydrate whilel he was recovering from his injury). He i snow drinking and peeing for England - he had a visit to the vet yesterday who said that it looks as though his kidneys are packing up - wiwth the drinking/peeing and his very very anaemic. He has had an injection to try to help his kidneys/liver and i have to take him back in two weeks - if he hasn't improved then it will probably be the end of the road for him :(
I have to add that, along the way, I have had to have my 21 year old house cat put down, an dyesterday my lovely lovely dog Flash who was only 11 but had heart problems and went downhill very suddenly :(
Not quite sure where to put myself right now - but I guess that is animall ownership - all of a sudden everyone goes at once :(
hoggie
-
oh poor you (and them) that's awful bad luck all at once. It's bad when we lose our friends :(
I hope Toby gets better for you.
-
I'm so so sorry to hear all of your sad news hoggie.
Keeping fingers crossed for you and hope Toby makes a full recovery. If you need to rant or vent we are here.
-
Oh what a sad time for you :(
I'm sorry to hear about your cat and dog but I'm sending some 'get well vibes' for Toby and hope that you get some good news for him.... he is such a little fighter.
Fingers crossed.
-
Just got back and catching up. So sorry to hear your news... :( :(
-
Having animals is such a joy and can be so distressing. I'm told it's all part of life's rich tapestry but it still stinks when things go wrong.
My thoughts are with you my dear.
-
I'll second Bizzy Lizzie's comment, but we'd be sadder, if not more medicated human beings for not ever had a hairy loved one or three in our lives.
Just sorry it all seems so glum for you right now, big hugs on the way from Cornwall. xxx