I better get at it, too.
K is for Kitty.
In this case, a gray tux girl kitty, whom I trapped with seven others last week, to be fixed. Only she had a right ear tip, indicating she was already fixed. However, she was in dire shape---skin and bones, dehydrated with severe diarrhea.
Oh no!
I took her to Heartland where she was tested for distemper, FIV and Felk. She was negative on all accounts. They gave her fluids and a droncit injection (for tapeworms) and said to see if she improved.
She is improving. Today I found out why she's likely got diarrhea. She's fed human food scraps, like ramen noodles, spaghetti, icky old old chicken carcasses, half rotted, all dumped in a pile on the grass out back of a trailer for the strays. Given that, she likely has all kinds of bacteria overloads, maybe giardia, who knows. It may be a long haul. And she suffers severe malnutrition.
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| This big unfixed black tux is eating noodles dumped out in the grass, which is what gray tux girl had to eat. Until she found the trap, that is. |
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| Once he was in the live trap, transferred from the drop trap, I checked him out. Tame, fat and already fixed. No ear mites even. So out he went and on his way. He passed the "fix" test. |
We're going to try to get the rest of the cats over there fixed, who aren't fixed. Don't know if we will be successful or not. But you never know til you try. As for gray tux Kitty, in my garage, let's all just cross our fingers she can recover. She's also very old. Like this girl, also over there, eating table scraps, but...she too has a right ear tip. No, my eyes are not eagle sharp anymore, nor did I have my binoculars. But I had a camera, and then I zoomed in. There it was, the right ear tip. No need to catch her to be fixed. I love ear tips.
K is for Kitty, be she wild, be she tame
See I don't care the temperament,
Nor if she is named
I only recently heard about ear tipping to see easily if a cat had been fixed. I heard it described as cutting off a lot of the top of the ear. I don't see anything gone in the picture. Is this a common practice and what do they really do?
ReplyDeleteVets vary but the guidelines call for merely a straight cut, down about 1 quarter inch, to take off the tip of the right or left ear. On the east coast, I believe they left ear tip. You can see it but barely in the photo of the black tux staring at me from the street. In the 2nd photo of the torti tux, the last photo on the post, you can see on the ear closest to me, turned sideways, the straight edge cut of the ear tip easily. Most ear tips are so slight they can be difficult to spot, easier on photos. But that's often if you know what you are looking for. It's a common and practical choice for outside allowed cats and feral colonies. Imagine trapping a 30 cat all black cat colony and wondering if you fixed this one already or not. The ear tips let you know if the cat has already been fixed. I would not have known the gray tux girl was fixed, would have assumed not, had it not been for the ear tip. But, you have to have the right angle of view to see them.
DeleteYou can also go to www.feralcats.com to see an ear tip. The Feral Cat Coalition of Oregon's website has their logo on the home page, which shows a black silhouetted cat, with ear tip.
DeleteThanks for the info. I'm going to share it with the person I was having a discussion with.
DeleteVets here (some vets) tattoo inside the ear rather than tipping them. Which would mean that you caught some cats again and again.
ReplyDeleteI do hope that poor old Kitty's life improves. And hiss and spit at her caretakers. Who don't.
With ferals, you could never look inside the ear, for a tattoo, to know if fixed or not, without putting them under again. The ear tips are very practical and helpful.
DeleteIt's unbelievable how stupid people can be. Bless you generous efforts.
ReplyDeleteAwakening Dreams and Conquering Nightmares with a Pen
Happy blogging!