Ally: The not so stray cat

[Jay_Bunny]

My friend's friend had to move out of her apartment and where she moved to, she couldn't take her cat, Ally. My friends agreed to foster Ally until their friend got her own place again. They've been fostering Ally for the past few weeks, but Ally was an indoor outdoor cat before coming to them, and surprise, surprise, she has worms! So outside she went since they didn't want her giving their cats worms. Ally is not spayed, no flea preventative, and no de-worming was done when they found out. They just figure it is not their responsibility. The girl who owns Ally said she'd cover the cost of de-worming her but my friends didn't say anything about her doing so, so I take it she still has worms.

Ally greets us just about every time we go outside, rubbing our legs and wanting attention. I suspect she might be pregnant since a male cat was following her around a few weeks ago and he has stopped coming around. If my husband and I had the money, we would take her to go get checked out.

I live in Virginia, and while the weather is not horrible, temperatures do drop at night. Currently, it is 40. Night temperatures all next week are in the 20's. I feel that is too cold for her. Maybe I'm just being silly, but I don't want her outside in the cold like that, especially when all she wants is some love.

So I have hinted to my husband that I wish she could come in from the cold during the night. He agrees but our worry is that she would bring in fleas and worms, and give it to our animals. Our animals are due for a flea preventative and I was thinking, maybe we could just get an extra for Ally and talk to the vet about getting her a de-wormer. This would probably involve us taking her to the vet and such, which we don't exactly have the money for, but I'm willing to do what I can for her. She also needs to be checked for pregnancy. Is there anyway to check at home? She would probably sit still and let me check her belly, but I have no idea what I'm checking for. If she is pregnant, I would guess she is about 2 weeks along.

So, any thoughts?

[Jay_Bunny]

Anyone?

[SatanicIntention]

I would take her to a spay/neuter clinic and get her fixed, up to date on shots and dewormed. Tell them this is a catch and release feral and you don't have alot of money. There are quite a few free clinics now. Maybe go to the shelter and see if they have a list.

It is the most humane thing to do in the cat's situation. Yes, it may be cold, but she will have a better chance of survival if she doesn't have 5 or more kittens to feed and keep warm/safe.

The spay/neuter clinic here charges maybe $25-$35 for a cat spay, then maybe $10 more for all shots. Fecals don't cost much at all and deworming medicine is insanely inexpensive. Our clinic states that if you are low income, they ask that you donate as much as you can and they will cover the rest.

The less we can prevent being born into an already overpopulated world, the better. I know I'm not the only one who doesn't like seeing kittens, puppies, dogs and cats hamburger on the side of the road.

(oh, and just a note: DFW here in Texas euthanized over 200,000 animals last year) Yay for spaying and neutering! (*cough* my show-quality sphynx male is neutered *cough*)

[ThyTempest]

I rambled a lot on this post....the stuff not in bold is really just a story.

Find a vet that is used to dealing with strays, this is crucial. When we moved into our house when I was a kid, the neighborhood was teeming with "stray" cats because our one neighbord refused to spay any of theirs. At times, we had about 15 cats being fostered by us as strictly outdoor/porch cats. We had several put down, a litter or two of kittens aborted and mama's fixed, and now it is under control, 10 years later.

Anyway, a good vet will help a lot. When our old vet left and the new one moved into their practice, we were very worried, but she has been just as good as the old vet....however, the new vet that practices with the older new vet (if that makes sense), is absolutely horrible. She is straight outta vet school and seems to be from a very uppity family, so maybe she just needs time to get used to a small town and people that cant afford optimum vet care.

Anyway, sorry for the rant, but gist of the story is, fleas is easy to treat....I dont know if this is available for cats, but there is a dog drug called Capstar that gets rid any living fleas within 20 minutes or something. Supplement this with Feline Frontline or similar behind the neck drops, and you will have a flea free home, so long as you are not already infested. Basically, give the capstar and the drops to them at the same time, wait a few hours and you should be good. If you have other pets that are not on flea treatment, you may just want to use the drops and keep the cat outside, in the garage or something for a week or two to make sure any eggs that hatch will die off too.

As for worms, easy deworming medicine, one dosage, no probs.

For the cold right here and right now issue, if they have some sort of shelter from the wind, I wouldnt worry about it too much yet, but 40 is still pretty cold. If you can, put some blankets or some straw down where they have shelter. Another simple option that wont break your budget, but will offer quite a bit of shelter, and a decent whelping box is a rubbermaid storage tote with a hole soldered into one of the sides. Leave the lid on and put it upside down to keep them off the ground.

If she is two weeks, you probably would not be able to tell. In not too long though, you should be able to palpate for kitten heads, so long as mommy cooperates. Be firm but gentle, like you were massaging a sore/tender spot on your neck.

Again, if you have a good vet that cares more about the animal getting care than them fattening their wallets, they may offer a discounted or free office visit if you are already bringing in their usual customer (your pets). On several occasions when we were taking one of our dogs in for a check up, a fecal test, neutering etc, we would take our other one in to have the vet look at a hotspot, look at something funky in his mouth, w/e and they rarely charged us anything for the visit, and on several occasions gave us the treatment for free, or at an obvious discount. For instance, we took our Lhasa Apso in for a check-up, heartworm test and shots and asked if the vet would look at the hotspot on our other dogs neck. She said sure, bring him in while she runs the test for the heartworm....so she sees him, says it is or is very close to being infected, trims off the fur in and around it, and gives us some Novalsan scrubs to keep it clean, along with some antibiotics. Apart from the charges for the Lhasa's stuff, we were only charged bucks for the scrubs, meds and the 15 mins the vet spent with the other dog.

Find a good vet. Thats the big point I took 15 minutes to say. Hope you wanted to read something long....I'll put at the top to skip down to here if you are not in the mood for a novel.

[Jay_Bunny]

Since she is not my cat, I can not make the decision to get her spayed. I could probably do just about anything else though since all I'm doing is treating parasites. I'm getting flea treatments soon for everyone. I'll just pick up an extra for Ally. I will also ask about de-wormer. How do I go about doing that without taking her into the vet? A mere check up will only cost me about $30 but other than bringing her in the house, I have no way of getting her poop for a fecal.

20's are the low temperature for this upcoming week and I don't want her outside in the cold like that. Not to mention I don't think the neighbors are very warm towards her. I'm going to talk to my friends and husband about bringing Ally in for the Winter. They have been fostering her since early November and I'm starting to wonder how long this girl wants them to foster Ally. She is such a sweet cat. She keeps trying to get in through our front door when we come home. If she can't get in that way, she'll circle around to the back and meow at our back door.

[SatanicIntention]

If the "owner" threw the cat out to fend for itself in the midst of winter, then why should she care if you did the right thing and got the cat spayed? She obviously doesn't care for the well-being of the cat. She isn't making sure the cat isn't going to get hit by cars, isn't making sure the cat is well-fed and always has fresh water available, doesn't care if the cat has intestinal parasites that could be migrating through her lungs or tapeworms that are sucking her dry(fleas CAUSE tapeworms)... To me, the cat is a stray now.

When I deal with strays, they get trapped, sent in to get fixed, get shots, dewormed, and out they go again unless they have a chance to get adopted(good temperment and everything).

If I were you, I would put the cat in a carrier, take it to the animal shelter and give them the cat. Make a small donation too. This way, the cat is at least warm, has plenty of food and water, will get fixed and vaccinated, and have a good chance of finding a loving home with someone who deserves her.

If you know she is possibly pregnant, why would you allow her to have kittens in 20-degree weather? She could easily die, the kittens could very easily die... Why allow it when you can PREVENT it?

At least take her to the shelter if you don't want to take her to the Spay/Neuter clinic. The shelter will get her all fixed up and find her a good home.

[littleindiangirl]

The cat has been abandoned, take her to a shelter for the sake of the cat. Why is this even debatable?

I had a friend "give" me his dog to take care of for "just a week". Well months later, the dog was still with me and I had no means to care for him. (no pets rule, working full time, school full time, I did NOT have the money or time for a large dog in a wee little apartment) I took him to the humane shelter. I surrendered the dog as a stray.

I told my friend, and they had to just deal with it. If they wanted the dog back, he could go get it. I told him to man up, I didnt ask for the dog, he abandoned him with me, I was completely within my rights to give him up.

Guess what? He never went and got the dog.

Take the cat to the shelter, give up the 25$, and count your good karma as it adds up.

[Jay_Bunny]

If anything, I want to keep her. This is something I'd have to discuss with my husband but in the end, it might be better for her to go to the SPCA.

I just checked the SPCA website and they are doing free spays until the end of March! We are going to give them a call tomorrow as soon as they open to schedule an appointment. Shots are inexpensive and so Ally will be getting those too. I will ask them about possibly getting her a de-wormer and I will get her some flea preventative when I go to get some for my kids.