Cat care

Jens Schuetz

Jens Schuetz

Joined
Jun 24, 2013
Messages
4,162
Just today after picking up my two Homo sapiens pets from preschool we found an abandoned cat next to the road. The carrier was still there and open and the cat half in a drainage hole and crying. I put her in the carrier and took her home.
I've no clue about cats and would welcome any advice. Especially with my kids do I have to be carefully? Rabies?
It (haven't checked the gender yet) seems as healthy as it gets and emptied a tin of tuna right away :-)
How often do I feed it? Once a day would be cool and I hope it can substitute with any mice or other things it might hunt in the adjacent greenbelt? Again, no clue and thanks for all your help.

Given the day and if it's male I have an idea for a name, but gotta ask Aunty first.
 
Good for you to rescue it. There's no need to do the mice thing, etc. Just get it some good pet food. Feed it morning and evening. Cats are pretty good about not over-eating. You can usually do dry food and just leave it out. Don't forget a litter box.
 
as an official " old cat laddy" I can tell you garytn is right, but i would add make sure to take to vet make sure its fixed and has shots --- get a basic check up, my other advice is try not to let it out too much , unless you want it conveniently self removing after a couple of years ( cars, other animals, and people will take care of it for you)-- if you have a back yard though, it will establish territory and stick to that zone.
cats and dogs living together ! pandemonium! apocalypse!
 
Cool guys. Thank you.
Got a big backyard and once my snakefence is done it can't run on the street and self remove :-)
Will take it to the Vet on Monday.
Wife just got bitten very lightly. Anything she could have been infected with now or should it be fine?
 
they will test her, but be careful, if the cat doesn't seem sick but is wild -- ( super thirsty, fights all the time, looks uncomfortable ) then they will cut off the cats head to see if it has rabies ! ;o -- if you feel like it was a minor issue then put neosporin on it, and try build trust with the animal, they are much like dogs that way, the food should go a long way, if it looks young it probably is not sick, and since you say it was near carrier, I can only imagine it was abandoned by someone who thought they were doing better than putting them down, and for this cat that may be the case lol-- hopefully everything looks ok, if the bite was particularly bad then I advise cutting it open with something fine and putting hand in hot epson salt water-- this should draw out anything left behind by claws or teeth. ( dont like lay it open but like a pocket knife notch you know what i mean)
 
Jens, just have your wife watch the spot for redness/infection. Believe it or not I have actually gotten "Cat Scratch Fever" before. Their mouths aren't as bad but their claws can be very very dirty. They use them to dig in the litter box, after all.

As far as feeding, if it's going to stay an outside cat once a day might work, twice would be better. Depends if it likes to hunt or not. The problem with leaving food out is it attracts other animals. I had to chase a giant raccoon away last night and a possum the night before. Been feeding a stray in my back yard and they tried to take his food.

The vet trip is a good idea. Be careful with it around the kids until you've gotten it checked out. They can pet it just make 'em wash their hands right away. Also watch out for fleas.
 
Have it checked by a vet. Last stray we took in had five different species of parasitic worms and a bacterial infection - all transmittable to humans at one risk level or another. And fleas. And ticks. Then there are diseases peculiar to cats - and usually fatal, like feline leukemia. Yours may not have been outside to get infected, but who knows. Ans: the vet.

Outside can be a dangerous place for small animals. Here, cats routinely let "out" are routinely eaten by coyotes (suburbs of Cleveland), feral dogs, and raccoons + they pick up all sorts of diseases, many fatal. If you let the cat roam, expect enhanced vet bills and/or a significantly shortened life-span. I have seen dogs and coyotes trotting across the fields with cats in their jaws. Cats evolved for Ohio are, in order of power, Bobcats, Lynx, and Puma. Not F. domesticus. Also, cats let out bring back "gifts" - dead baby rabbits and birds and snakes of all ages. In fact, they can make a big dent in bird populations - esp ground-nesting species. Nature is red in fang and claw.

Get a cat box. Put it somewhere as inoffensive as possible. Garage? Utility room? Enclosed porch? Places that sell stock feed (think hay and rabbit and goat pellets) often sell large bags of compressed pine "bedding." It is significantly cheaper that "cat litter" or "feline pine" from Walmart. It makes excellent material for the cat box. No dust and less stink. Get a pooper scooper to remove lumpy stuff. The pine litter is flushable, but the bulk makes good material to fill in low spots. In a short time, it looks like the area it covered (just ground wood).

If the cat is going to risk the outside, it needs all its claws for the last ditch climb to survive or to sell its life dearly. If it an inside only critter, consider removal of front claws. Some think that declawing is terrible. Cats think clawing on stuff with their front claws is necessary - because it is necessary to remove claw layers as they grow out. Some cats can learn to use only a scratch post. Others just will claw on the sofa or kitchen cabinets.

Cats love cardboard boxes - better than most cat habitats you can buy.

What do they like to play with? Soda bottle caps (cat hockey). Crumpled balls of paper. Not string or dental floss. They like to swallow it, often leading to surgery or death.

They like to eat many house plants - esp anything grasslike or fernlike. They do not like orchids.

Get them neutered or spayed. Females howl - loudly - for days periodically, spray, and have elevated medical problems. Males spray (PHEW!). All to be avoided. Costs for these services vary tremendously - like by an order of magnitude. Folks at local no-kill shelters are a source of good advice about where to go.

You just saved a life. Now you are responsible. Any traditional Chinese person can explain.

Bless you.

We have five now - all strays. Kids are gone so there is room.
 
All excellent advice, Thomas. I'll have to try out the pine bedding.

Rescued pets are the best kind of pets.
 
Thanks. So much good advice and less work than I thought.
It's def a house cat. Outside it was all shy and didn't want to leave its box and whenever it did it tried to enter the house through the doors and even a few windows. It's in the garage now and the kids are crying to play with it. So I guess we'll go to the vet tomorrow and don't wait till Monday :p
I think it likes my kids chicken dinner more than the tuna from earlier or it's just in a better mood now.
 
Jens, Blessings on you for rescuing this animal. Whoever dumped it as Gehazi said probably thought they were treating it better than what would happen in a pound but I believe they were misguided. Housecats do not generally survive being thrown into the wild. Unless they learned survival skills as kittens they usually starve. The advise from the guys is all very good and there is very little I can add except to say that even once you get a snakefence done, that may not keep the cat in. Cats are very flexible, and can jump a lot farther than most people think. Not sure what the fence is like, or the brush/trees around the area so don't really know for sure how that will work.

Also before you go in to the vet decide if you are going to want to have it spayed or neutered depending on it's sex. I definately recommend it, but if you want to be woken up at horrid hours of the night by literal CAT-erwauling then feel free to not have it altered :D Ah just noticed that Thomas already covered that.

I hope the cat brings you and your family many hours of love and affection in exchange for the great thing you have done today. Saving a cat's life.
May the good karma be sweet to you and yours.
 
I have absolutely never regretted a single animal rescue-- I have 9 cats and 5 dogs-- very few things other than human family can come close to the amount that pets will enrich your life if you are a loving person.
 
Gehazi said:
I have absolutely never regretted a single animal rescue-- I have 9 cats and 5 dogs-- very few things other than human family can come close to the amount that pets will enrich your life if you are a loving person.
Click to expand...
I second that. They definitely keep you laughing and thats what keeps me going:D Congrats Jens! I would definitely take it to the vet for a clean bill of health and neuter or spay. I just got a new dog a few days ago. Hes gettin his nads clipped next week:eek: Im about ready to duct tape my little Jack Russells mouth shut for a night so I can get some sleep too! Just kidding of course...may think differently in a few days?
 
Cat lover reporting...

Here's a nice little article I just found.
http://www.todaysveterinarypractice.com/mags/1305/T1305C05.pdf

One piece of advice - Stay away from cheap cat food (canned or dry). Look for food with no ashes or the least possible. Ashes really damages the kidneys on the long run and is especially bad for males.
My last cat gave me 16 great years and was strictly fed with veterinarian grade dry food and occasional sardines.

Good luck with your cats.
 
To support what da' wolf posted, our vet strongly recommends food marked as being for urinary tract health (low ash).

And Jens, they are strange about what food they like. "Max," likes whatever his people are eating - even pasta with meat sauce. One we had like cantaloupe above all things; another potato chips; a third rot-gut white bread (would try to carry off the entire loaf). The latest likes vanilla yogurt but not milk. Go figure.
 
Milk works well for Kittens but is actually not that good for an adult cat.
 
Some vets will give you a discount on services if you let them know that the cat is a stray you've rescued.

Uplander
 
Thanks again everybody.
We got all the shots and deworming and luckily didn't do the castration yet. It turned out she was some bodies cat which went missing 3 weeks ago from some apartment complex nearby. There were some flyers there next to the mailboxes. Somebody else then must have taken care of it for some time close to where we live and then abandoned it later where we found it. I don't think the original owner abandoned her since there were flyers and the looked bleached and washed out from sun and rain. So 3 weeks sounds right which means they must have lost it long before we found it and since we found it in a carrier box it means that somebody took care of it until the day we found it. Poor cat got around a bit.

Kids are sad now but after a trip to the pet shop they are fine. Got us a bunny now.

Almost forgot. Her name is Missi. Kind of ironic Missi ng...
 
The story gets better and better. You made the original keeper, I hate to call a pet keeper an owner, takes us right back to slavery although it's probably a good description for most husbands myself for sure.

You made the original keeper and probably their kids very happy. Your kids are sad but you turned that frown upside down with a bunny. There's tons of critters that need a good home, certainly no shortage of cats and dogs.

So I'm putting this over in the happy ending column. I'm still resisting but it might be close to time for a new rescue dog for us too. My cats still going strong. I'll have to ask the wife what it's name is, never name cats, they don't come when you call em anyhow.
 
My cats know their names and will usually come when I call them! They probably just think they're going to get food, but I'll take what I can get.
 
LOL Guys everyone knows the cats ARE the owners in any relationship so Phillll since they are coming when you call their names, it means they are curious about what you are doing about feeding them NOW!! LOL. I heard once that someone had trained their cat to walk on a leash. My answer was you mean the cat has trained you to carry the leash end while she walks.

Jens, I imagine Missi(ng)'s original family was exstatic to be reunited with her. And I am glad your kids took transferring to a bunny well. That would have been heartbreaking to be all ready emotionally invested then have to return her. 2 moments in a matter of days that indicate you are a truely great person. Kudo's to you and may your karma increase exponentially for your generous acts.
 
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