Spaying/Neutering Feral Cats/Kittens Costs??

bullets

if a member of the public wants to get some feral Cats & Kittens spayed
or neutred is there a program set up to do this for free ? or cheap.
I thought a few years back vets did this for wild cats and they were
released back to where they were caught.

How much does it cost to get a cat neutered/spayed ?

I need to get 7-10 cats spayed or neutred. None of them are mine
they are wild. I dont know how much it costs to do this and I
dont own a car or have a way of trapping these cats.
I dont want to see them PTS. I could not afford to pay
a vet some huge bill for doing this and they are not even my cats.

I have a load of cats running around my garden and my neighbours garden.
Because I am an animal lover they are well fed so now wont go away.
I am worried the Neighbours are going to complain as they see me feeding them all.

At the moment I am feeding
2 Totally Feral Adult Cats that are mates. (Breeders)
5 Kittens from the breeders
3 More Kittens that are still in the nest (2 died I had to bury them)
1 House cat

The Male Tom cannot be touched. The Female Mammy can be touched
on the head only but not held or rubbed.
The Older Kittens are have now become tame and will sleep in the
kitchen all day if left. All get on with our House cat except
the Male Tom who tried to kill him several times while out and about.

(Going through about 5-6 Tins a day plus they love that cheap polish ham)

The Mammy Cat was pregnant a few weeks after she gave birth
to the first litter. She had the next batch of Kittens a few weeks ago.
Two died dureing the course of a windy cold wet night. I tried to save
them but it was too late one died in my arms.

We have always fed any local strays in my neighbourhood and alway
took in one house cat. When one departed the next wild one that
came along got tamed and became the pet.

I have pics:

New and Pasts Guests that I have fed:
http://s64.photobucket.com/albums/h192/bphelan_ie/cats/?start=all

The New Batch:
http://s64.photobucket.com/albums/h192/bphelan_ie/kittens/

Regards,
~B

Wokie

So cute!! Have you tried any of your local rescue groups? You might be able to borrow some traps from them. In some cases vets will give reduced rates for neutering/spaying. Go to the irishanimals.ie forum. There should be someone there who can help you.
Good luck:)

bullets

My girlfriend helps out Limerick Animal Welfare when she can,
but they are WAAAYYY overburdened with more serious problems.

The Wild Cats I am feeding are having a great time getting plently of food
as I am a sucker. Got a Teacher on one side of me who says he does not mind
that cats but they keep away the birds which he like to feed. There are new
Indian neighbours that moved in the other side of me who have a small child
so I doubt they will want animals Poo'ing in their garden with a small kid.
(I dont have back walls in my garden only a bit of wire and a hedge)

We could try get a loan of a trap. Still leaves the problem of paying
a hefty vet bill. Maybe if we only got the females done....

At the moment I have to hide them from the parents if they call down
as their attitude is I should not feed em and get em put down.


~B

Manny7

Hi Bullets,

Some vets will spay wild cats cheaply, however I don't think it's an official program, it's pretty much up to the individual vet. So maybe call a couple of local ones and explain the situation (mention you want to TNR, ie Trap Neuter Release). Otherwise try the irishanimals forum (as Wokie suggested) or the feral cats forum at kittenadoption.ie (my link doesn't seem to be working, try www.kittenadoption.ie and follow the link on there) someone on there might have a more concrete response. Good for you for trying to do something about them, good luck.

Shelli

I know your in Limerick, but maybe you have something similiar there.

In dublin we have the DSPCA clinic, I know it's in Drumcondra twice a week. They only charge the minimum costs, even the medication comes from large stock supplies and is handed out in recycled containers! I'm sure they could help you out, but it'd mean a trip up to Dublin. But if you called them maybe they could give you the name of a place in Limerick??

I wish there were more responsible caring people like you out there, and I hope everything works out for you!

bullets

Thanks for the replies. Will find out from the Local Vets if
they do a discount rate for Wild ones.

Update on the Kittens. The 3 little ones that survived have are
now starting to run round the garden they came into our kitchen last night
as it was raining and went in behind our sink/worktop/counter so we spend the night
trying to get them out. I reckon they are still under 10 weeks. There eyes
are starting to loose the blue colour.

Lovely things like walking rugs at the moment as they are all bushy and fluffy.
Will update with more pics.

Worried the Mammy is pregnant for a 3rd time as she is starting to put on
weight round the belly.

~B

Shewhomustbe...

Hey bullets, hope all the kittens are doing well, and Mummy isn't pregnant.

All my cats are stray and before we, cough, "decided" :rolleyes: to keep them we thought it best to get them fixed, especially Milly (the mom of three of our boys).
We went to our local ISPCA and had to pay 15Euro (per cat) to get a voucher which a local vet would take to spay/neuter them, the ISPCA covers any additional costs to the vet.

Also, you might be better off feeding them dry food like Hill's or Royal Canin. I started off feeding them cans but I couldn't keep enough in the house, especially with the ever growing number.
It also is cheaper (and better for the cats) to feed them the dry food. (Plus if you buy the bigger sizes, eg 10/15kg bags, it works out cheaper again!)

wasted_winter

Shewhomustbe... wrote:

We went to our local ISPCA and had to pay 15Euro (per cat) to get a voucher which a local vet would take to spay/neuter them, the ISPCA covers any additional costs to the vet.

I was just reading your post & was about to reply with the same information!!!

I was once in a position where I couldn't afford to get our dog neutered - I contacted the ISPCA & they sent on a voucher. From what I remember you do have to provide them with minimal information... ie just to show that you do need help & you're not just scrounging! I'm sure they would be more than willing to help!

I'd phone/email all the vets in the area - explain the situation to them & ask if they would be willing to neuter ANY of the cats (there is a lot there & it might seem like a huge effort on behalf of any single clinic/vet - but if they could take one/two kittens each... especially the Toms... that's just a quick snip! )
Plus I'd add the link to the pics - it might help to soften them up because they are all beautiful... even the adults!

Ah... you're a sucker!!! I can't speak... I'm exactly the same! If it wasn't for my mother I'd have a small zoo operating out of the back garden!

Good luck & keep us posted!

wasted_winter

Just a quick after-thought!

I know you can't travel... and trapping them will be a problem (due to their nature & well, lack of traps & cages!!!) but have you considered contacting (bear with me here!) somewhere like the Vet College in UCD?

If they agree to do it you could always look at creating some sort of train to get them to Dublin. I've seen this done before - sucessfully - when rehoming rescues. If you can get them to point X then someone else can volunteer to get them to point Y and so on.

You just need to organise two days - one to get them up there and one to get them back & then a couple of volunteers who can arrange pick-up, set-down times.

And possibly some centres/clinics down your direction could come up with a loan of some cages....

wasted_winter

^^^
Along the lines of my last suggest I've thought of this:
http://k999.irishanimals.ie/

Have a look - they might be able to help!

Roanmore

Our neighbours have gone away and left their dog outside on her own. The dog is now in heat and there are about 10 dogs in around the gardens near us. I feel real sorry for this dog and the barking is keeping us awake at night. I use to feed the dog a bit because it was friendly but won't do so now as it's attracting the other dogs. Is there anything available which can turn these dogs off the scent.

SuzyS1972

Holy **** - how irresponsible :mad:
You can get a morning after pill in effect for dogs - please speak to them the minute they come home as no doubt a large dog can and will scale the wall for a bitch in heat. She'll be preggers for sure in no time.
God that's so annoying.
is there anyone you know or maybe yourself that could keep her in until they are back.

Roanmore

SuzyS1972 wrote:

Holy **** - how irresponsible :mad:
You can get a morning after pill in effect for dogs - please speak to them the minute they come home as no doubt a large dog can and will scale the wall for a bitch in heat. She'll be preggers for sure in no time.
God that's so annoying.
is there anyone you know or maybe yourself that could keep her in until they are back.

We have two cats who are frightened out of their wits at all these dogs showing up in our garden. As for the morning after pill it's probably too late, this has been going on for a week.

SuzyS1972

Just shocking - All you can do then is an immediate spay - prevents the unwanted pups and any further incidents like this - then again of course they obviously don't give a stuff about the dog if they went on holidays and left her there.
you could try explaining to them that if she gives birth to very large pups then this could cause major probs and cost them a lot of money for a ceasarean ( oops spelling ) section blah blah it might prompt them to have a simple spay done.
Not to mention the trouble the pups are going to cause them