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Stray/Adopted Cat Advice

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  • 24-08-2011 2:15pm
    #1
    Pixelcraft
    Registered Users Posts: 742 ✭✭✭


    Hey guys,

    We've recently had a cat that comes into our home in the evening time and stays with us. I don't know a lot about cats so would appreciate any advice.

    It's clear enough that she's not looked after, as she's incredibly skinny - literally just bones and fur and has very waxy ears. Her skin looks a little dry also, but her coat seems fine.

    She does eat a little, and has milk and water. I'm guessing the ears should be treated some how? Also one eye has a dark 'run down' like a poodle would. We'll take her to a vet soon if she keeps coming into us, but in the meantime just wondering if there's anything we should be doing.

    Thanks for any advice!


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    #2
    fro9etb8j5qsl2
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,391 ✭✭✭fro9etb8j5qsl2


    You can get special ear cleaning kits in most pet shops (I get mine in petmania) for 4 or 5 euro. Theyre handy to use but you'll have to have a strong hand to hold the cat down and do it. She'll probably panic and start clawing and bawling wildly as soon as you put the yoke into her ear, I wouldn't worry about this cos more than likely, it won't be hurting her, she'll just be frightened by the feeling of something going into her ear. You'd best give her a worm dose too, some of the symptoms you describe about her could be caused by worms which are a very common condition in stray cats. And flea drops of course :D


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    #3
    Zapperzy
    Registered Users Posts: 2,524 ✭✭✭Zapperzy


    The waxy ears would be a sign of ear mites. She first of all needs all that waxy exudate cleaned out and then ear drops. You could try it yourself but chances are you'l end up with shredded arms. :D The dry skin is probably just from a poor diet, couple of weeks of some good food should sort that out and she'l start putting on weight. She'l also need to be wormed and a spot on for fleas. Worms could be causing the poor weight, and chances are if she's a stray thats been catching mice, rats and birds then she'l definitely have them.

    First of all cut out the milk. Cats are lactose intolerant, milk gives most cats projectile vomit and diarrhoea, some seem to become immune to this but it's still not good for them. You can buy special cat milk that has no lactose but I'd just stick with water.

    If you decide to keep her then book her in for neutering, there's nothing but kittens everyplace at the moment and if she was to have kittens then chances are given her poor general health then they would be very poorly kittens and you would have a hard job keeping them alive before having an even harder job finding good homes. While she's under they can also give her ears a good cleaning.


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    #4
    ryan84
    Registered Users Posts: 65 ✭✭ryan84


    Even if you don't plan on keeping her I would strongly recommend neutering as soon as possible. We had some problems with lots of feral cats and kittens before at my parents house. (all neutered now) So I know how quickly they can get pregnant.

    So two months ago and very small under fed cat turned up at our house. When I spotted that it was female I booked her in for the op straight away. I figured she was too small to have it done but turned out she was heavily pregnant. Luckily they were able to operation on her so no kittens. She came back a lot skinnier. The only weight she had on her was from the pregnancy so either her or the kittens would not have survived.

    So basically it will be difficult to re-home one cat. But one cat and 5 kittens would be a lot harder. Her and her brother are hopefully off to their new homes this week :)


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