The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Pets & Working Animals => Cats => Topic started by: Buffy the eggs layer on August 26, 2011, 04:07:35 pm
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Hi There,
a young cat and her 4 kittens appeared in my garden earlier this week. They were all thin and timid as you might expect. I have spent the week feeding them up and winning them over and now all but one teeny tiny kitten will come when I call them for food. The teeny one takes a bit of persuading and no direct eye contact, no imposing body language etc but its getting there. The mum must have been someones pet as she is clearly an affectionate and friendly cat, weaving round my legs, purring and arching to meet my stroking hand.
I think she may have been a farm cat as she is complety unphased by the chickens and gives them space and respect. I have contacted cats protection who cant come for them for over a week so I am getting them as well fed and used to people as I can before they come to trap them. The mum has a little cough so I have a fear that she is ill and I'm not sure if the kittens will be sick too.
I am alergic to cats so I cant have them as pets but they sleep in my feed store on bails of straw or sit in the greenhouse when it rains so they seem ok. I am tempted to keep a couple as farm cats but Im not sure how that works really and my OH says he cant see the point in looking after something that isnt a pet.
Any thoughts? :cat:
Buffy
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aw cute big mittens somebody has dumped them :farmer:
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I think if you've livestock and feed stores then feeding a couple of farm cats is a good way of keeping on top of vermin - I''m sure they'll be cheaper than rentokill ;)
Our kittens are sort of pet farm cats in the sense that they sleep in the house and are tame, but spend all day out hunting and parading around the place.
Our outdoor farm cats sleep and get fed in the shed - none of them are tame and you can't get anywhere near them. They're all getting fairly old though, which is why we decided to get a couple of kittens and keep them tamer.
HTH
Karen
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Hi Buffy, OH's always say things like that. Keep the pussies. Cats are fab, totally DIY unlike dogs (love our dog but I keep telling her I'm a cat person and to stop being cute). Bet they won't be any trouble. Now, what about names .... (oh, watch that boy/girl thing or you may have a recurring problem) :D
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totally agree ;D ;D ;)
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I'm probably going upset the apple cart here, I can't stand cats! Not bad to have around the place to keep the vermin at bay though, unless you have sheep.
Cats are a necessary stage in the life cycle of toxoplasmosis. The most common way for sheep to contract Toxo is from their feed (feed and hay attracts mice/rats which then attracts the cats). This wouldn't be a worry but the only time you really feed sheep is during late preganacy. Toxo during pregnacy will cause abortions and unviable lambs through damage to the placenta.
To be fair this will only affect the ewes once in their life time due to immune build up after the first infection. If the sheep are exposed to toxo when they are not in lamb then they will become immune with no ill effects on the lambing percentage.
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Hi Buffy, OH's always say things like that. Keep the pussies. ;D ;D
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Dougal's right on the toxo risk ....but rather that risk than the rats. To date we have managed to have feral rescued farm cats and sheep with no problems, partly because I believe the risk is highest with ....um.....kittens and ours came at 12 months. So if you have sheep you might want to rehome the babies once weaned and keep Mum, but if no sheep then hurrah!
The only thing is, if you do keep them, please do neuter/spay them, otherwise the numbers will get out of hand very quickly! Cats Protection may be able to help with cheap neutering.
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My two are very friendly but totally outdoor cats (3 months of REAL winter too) They get fed in an unheated out building on dry food, plenty of water and as much live food as they can catch. They snuggle down into the hay store when its in minus figs. I totally agree with the nutering thing...their mum was a "teenager" when she got caught with them, we had wrongly thought she was still too young to do at only 7/8 months!!!
Mum has now decided to move home we see her now and again when she comes to visit the kids but havent found exactly where she went...must be better than here though...
They do say that you do not own a cat, they own you!!
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They do say that you do not own a cat, they own you!!
And that dogs have owners, cats have staff. ;D
lachlanandmarcus, my vet told me that too - don't bring kittens on where there are sheep, as all kittens excrete toxo but adult cats will excrete less (except pregnant females, I guess.) And of course, keep all cats (and dogs) wormed.
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[And that dogs have owners, cats have staff. /quote]
;D ;D ;D bit like my kids too...
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After our resident owl got killed by a truck we developed a big rat problem. We acquired a pair of feral cats from the cats protection league (but the RSPCA also had a shed full of them) and haven't looked back. Mikey the terrier helps too.
The cats have access to a stable for shelter and we put out dry cat food. Jeeves wasn't seen for some weeks over the summer but has come in twice this week so field food must be thinning out. Chardonnay (twines around your legs but can rarely be caught) stays close to the yard. Haven't seen a rat for a couple of years.
I think the animal charities have a steady supply from bonkers old ladies found with 30 cats and a hygiene problem. They don't rehome conventionally - ours were advertised as feral..
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Hi Everyone,
thanks for all the advice. I dont have sheep so thats one less thing to worry about. I have contacted Cats protection to collect them for neutering etc. They are coming to trap them in a week or so. I was just toying with offering to take a couple back from them to help with the burden of rehoming.
I think their role as vermin control would be really useful. If I do decide to take a couple on should I keep boys or girls?
Buffy
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I think their role as vermin control would be really useful. If I do decide to take a couple on should I keep boys or girls?
Assuming that whatever you keep will be neutered, I think girls are more likely to stick around at home - but can also be more prone to giving her human 'presents' of dead (or sometimes, worse, not dead) small furry things. I don't know if girls are less likely to be avid hunters than boys - all my boys have hunted, some of them widely, but the girl I had also hunted although less than the boys - and brought a lot of it in the house, often not dead. ::)
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Thanks for the advice. I have found a home for one of them with our postman. And if I keep mum and one other then I only need to home 2. How old will they be if they are still suckling mum? They are also eating whatever I feed mum so they must be of weaning age. How old should they be when I find them homes?
Does anyone know how much nutering costs and what age it can be done?
Buffy
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I am alergic to cats so I cant have them as pets
So am I! And to dogs! Do you think I am going to give up either of them? NO WAY! I just take a citirzene tablet every day for the rest of my life. No allergy. Simples. ;D
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Its around 6 months of age for neutering, Buffy and you can rehome at about 10 weeks (so do earlier but we always wait a little longer). Boys have to have a pair of garden pea's before the vet will do the deed, our kitten bobby had several trips to the vet to have his pea's checked but alas, the speeding prison staff on our road got to him before the op could be done in the end.
The cat protection league will help with financing the neutering of feral cats - http://www.cats.org.uk/transport.aspx?404;http://www.cats.org.uk:80/what-we-do/neutering/feral-neutering (http://www.cats.org.uk/transport.aspx?404;http://www.cats.org.uk:80/what-we-do/neutering/feral-neutering)
We have goats and sheep here and have always had cats. Our hay and feed is stored where the moggies can't get. we have some amazing rats brought into the house as caught by snowball, the siameseX, as they are attracted to the chicken house. sometimes the rats are dead, other times she brings them in for company (bless...)
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Thanks Plums,
I have contacted cats protection about nutering farm cats and they said that they would come and trap them all in a week or so. Given that they are just being weaned, Im guessing that they would keep them all and neuter mum in a couple of weeks when the kittens are old enough to no longer need her. Im not sure if they will offer me them back or just keep them and put them through their homing process.
Im concerned that the mum has what sounds like a little chesty cough. And now one of the kittens has it too. Could this be feline aids? and if so will they have to be put to sleep?
Buffy
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I guess it could be a multitude of conditions bearing in mind that they are running wild and probably not vaccinated against anything. One of my older cats developed feline asthma, it was worse in summer and she coughed a lot. I made the decision to have her PTS as she was an outdoor girl and being trapped inside would have been torture for her I felt.
Could it be furballs? is she long haired?
Only person who can really help would be the vet but my limited knowledge of feline aids is that normally cats presenting with it (early stages) are losing weight and not eating with swollen lymph glands. I've seen many cats looking for homes via CPL who are positive to feline aids so not PTS but taken to very special homes. Of course the fact that this little lass is sexually active with goodness knows how many Toms will leave her predisposed to lots of nasty illnesses. another good reason for people to get their cats neutered :( I'm glad she has found you, it sounds like she has arrived somewhere that she will get the help she needs and her litter of gorgeous kittens too.
If you say you want to home some I'm sure they'd give you the best possible chance to!! you've already shown these cats more love than anyone else for some time it seems. and...they already know their way about your place!
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Jeeves, one of our ferals, collected a hideous chest infection that nearly killed him and allowed me to catch him and take him to the vet. That was nearly three years ago and from time to time he does his Darth Vader impressions but is generally ok.
Ferals prefer the tough independent life, don't catch well and don't like vets. Cloud of claws and fur comes to mind.
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Thanks for the reassurance you two,
This bunch have certainly made the place home. they spend their time around the house, sunbathing and play firghting on the door mat. And are all keen to nip into the kitchen at any oppertunity to see what goes on there.
I have checked out the CPL and they want £85 to adopt a cat! If they want to take them and treat them thats great but if they would expect me to adopt them back it would be impossible.
My OH thinks we should keep them now but I cant afford to have them all vacs and sniped. The coughing does sound a little like a fur ball so may not be a cause for concern though they are not long haired.
Buffy
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Our vet advised getting mum nutered as soon as poss after having the kittens...we did and it was not a problem at all. cant remember how old the kittens were when they were done but as soon as poss for them too was our vets advice. (mum was left too long and had her own babies when she was about a year old!)
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Kittens can be castrated/spayed from probably 4 months old. Actually Cats Protection vets will do them younger than that. Conventionally vets have said 6 months to do the deed but quite a lot of cats will be pregnant at 6 months - certainly in the on-farm or feral situation. The problem then is of course they aren't much more than kittens themselves and don't develop properly into the cats they should be. They will then be pregnant again maybe as soon as 8 weeks after kittening. Probably they will have a break from breeding over the winter but that's not guaranteed. In this run down condition they are prone to infections and cat flu in its various forms is not uncommon in these situations, so it may be the chest infection is part of this. Worms may also be a problem with ferals.
Feline aids (FIV) is sometimes an issue but it mostly just makes the prone to infections or makes it difficult to fight infections. Enlarged glands is more associated with feline leukaemia which in other ways is similar to feline aids - also a lot less common than it used to be.
If you are trapping these cats I would get them spayed/castrated. They could be injected or spot-on wormer while they are asleep, and if you are worried about feline aids they can be blood tested for it while they are asleep. Vaccinating for cat flu could be done but you'll probably never manage to catch them again for their second dose. -Usually if you trap ferals once, you don't manage it a second time.
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Thanks everyone for all your advice and knowledge,
I will see what cats protection say when they get back in touch. I did also notice on the site that they insisted that the cats are kept in for one month and that they are permanently kept in on an evening for the rest of their lives. Not sure that many indoorr cats would tollerate that.let alone feral cats.
Is it me or is modern life very complicated and expensive..... :-\
Buffy
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I have a lot of farm cats - split over two farms. Some, I can stroke - mostly the toms which is a shame, as I would prefer the females so they can be speyed. They all come for feeding twice a day, but are very independent otherwise ......unfortunately if they are ill, are injured, my only option is to leave them and hope they recover, and they seem to. Tried trapping the females, but ended up with the boys in the cage. I did sucessfully catch 4 females and they are speyed.
I lost two farm cats to wheezy chests, and I do wonder if it was cat flu, or TB from the badgers. The vet was unsure, but said it could be a number of things with them being part feral. The kittens are all born healthy, and only thing we do get is sticky eyes, but kittens are easier to catch, and the problem can be sorted.
My problem will arise when we have to move them with the farm being sold. Could have to move the cats within the next 6 weeks. I have refused to leave them but have to accept that some I may be unable to trap. And also we need to move a long way off, so they cannot walk back. But at least I could get them all speyed or neutered.
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Oh Roxy, I just read this and you sound very caring. It's the price they pay for being wonderfully free that if they are ill they then can't all get the treatment you would like. Let's hope the people who buy the farm are considerate too, not everyone would bother to try to get them and have them neutered. Fingers crossed ;)
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Thank you, Goosepimple.
I do think farm cats are pretty healthy with living outside. We have never had any serious illnesss, other than the ones with the wheezy chest. Sometimes they are limping, which is likely to be either a nail caught on something they pounced on to catch, or maybe a stone off the dry stone wall landed on their foot, but they come right, and we have the usual torn ears where the toms have been fighting. When they have coughs and colds, they curl up in the old caravan where they live, and go to sleep for a few days!!
I do manage to worm them - if you can imagine lots of dishes lay out wth cat food on, and wormer hidden among it. They are crafty though, and will not eat the tablets, but can usually get away with powder if its well mixed, or the liquid. As to fleas, I spray all their bedding, and them too if I can get near enough!!! The friendly ones, I do spot on on their fur.
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We had a tom cat a long time back who lived until he was 19 - he limped for about the last year and a half of his life - we and the vet considered it to be arthritis - a few months before he died I noticed his mouth was gaping open - called the vet and to cut a long story short, he had fluid on his lungs, we had it emptied a couple of times and after each emptying he stopped limping, so not arthritis at all, must have been pain from his lungs/chest making it sore to walk. We eventually put him down as it seemed unfair to stress him with the lung emptying, so perhaps the limping may be hiding something more sinister, You can only do your best for the wee things though and it's always good to hear people taking proper care of things.
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Thanks Goosepimple and Roxy,
the latest update is that I called the RSPCA who were very helpful they are prepaired to check them all over, neuter mum and treat any health problems as long as the cats can be contained and caught. They wont be able to come for a few days so I set up the very large dog crate in the feedbarn where they sleep and fed them in it several times today.
I feel a little sorry for the cats and the chickens as much of my life has been spent training horses and dogs so the cats and chickens get trained the same way!
I plan to get them all coming to breakfast in the dog crate every day until the RSPCA man comes. Then I will be able to shut the door on them without them feeling trapped or freaked out.
Idealy the RSPCA would like to return them to me so I will keep the mum and I have found a home for a couple of others. Any takers for the remaining two?
They will be too young to neuter just yet but will be eligable for snipping through the RSPCA once they are of age.
Buffy