Some of this is from reliable sources, some of this is my opinion and experience.

Not a lot is known about how to go about health care for ferals. The inability to touch them limits just how much we can do for them. In fact, the way to know just how sick a feral is, can be if it lets you pick it up. That either means that they have given up and are asking you for help, or they know that their end is near and are asking you for help in ending their suffering.

Before getting to that point, there are preventive measures you can take:

Of course, spay and neuter and vaccinate, flea treat and deworm. An unhealthy colony will improve dramatically once it is neutered. And, while there are differing opinions on how long vaccinations last, the outdoors are beyond our control and very different from deciding not to vaccinate our indoor cats, so the ferals should get starter vaccinations at the very least.

Always feed quality food. Look at those ingredients and try to keep meat as the first one. It can be expensive, but so will be any vet bills as you try to determine just what is wrong with the cats, when they just might be malnourished. Ferals are living longer with the excellent treatment they are receiving and just like our indoor cats, we are seeing the effects of food dyes and high-grain foods. Even if you give the cats table scraps of beef, chicken, shrimp, whatever, be sure that most of their diet comes from balanced cat food. These foods have been created with all the micronutrients that play a huge part in a cat’s physical well-being.

Try to offer water. It is really tough for ferals to get good, clean water. If you are feeding a diet of dry food, it is extra important. I know a lot of people who make special dinners for their ferals, composed of leftover chicken, etc., mixed with canned food – take the time to up the moisture content, too.

Neighborhood Cats has a wonderful piece on nutrition and I defer to them.

Should one of your ferals fall ill, it can be quite possible to treat them. It requires trapping them, housing them in a dog crate with a box for them to hide in to reduce their stress, having a canned food that they just go insane for, and a lot of patience. The possibility of having to medicate a feral is a good reason to treat them to canned food occasionally – they are creatures of habit and if all they ever get is dry food, very likely that is all they will want to eat when they are sick. Very hard to try something new at such a stressful time. Luckily, the antibiotics don’t seem to taste as nasty as they used to – or smell as bad! Watch out, once you make a feral feel better, they can decide that the inside life ain’t so bad! Know when to call it quits, too. A true feral will be miserable indoors and should be released as soon as possible.

In the past year, Feral Fixers has done a couple dentals and three eye surgeries for our ferals and friendlies, besides treating Upper Respiratories and bizarre diarrhea and vomiting! Eye infections were rampant this year, let’s hope it was a one time thing!

Wishing you and your ferals a Happy and Healthy New Year!

Feral Cat Supporters,

Since this is my first “Message from the President”, please bear with me!

We have had a wonderful first year, accomplished much! Look for details on our website!

If you have found your way to this website, you probably know the basics about feral cats, and that information will also be given elsewhere. But there is much more to feral cats than a definition and a description and how-to. Practicing TNR is so much more than putting out a trap and transporting the cat to the spay/neuter clinic.

In order to practice and promote TNR, one must develop the inter-personal skills that do not come easily to many animal-lovers. Many times you will hear in rescue – “I do animals because I like them better.” Well, to help the animals one must deal with the humans, too! While it may sometimes be an enormous challenge to convince a caretaker that TNR is the best answer for the cats that they care for, there are many people who are just waiting to hear that our organization exists and are extremely grateful for any help we can give them. Sometimes, just finding out that low-cost spay/neuter exists is enough to catapult them into TNRing their own ferals and then assisting with the TNR of their neighborhood and beyond. This is indescribably rewarding to us, as it means that the health and well-being of so many more ferals are impacted.

One must keep in mind the number of cats that are euthanized each and every day at animal controls and “kill” shelters. This is due to the sheer volume of cats that are out there reproducing. There simply are not enough homes to support the number of cats being born each and every day. You will never see our organization talk against the people who are forced to euthanize animals. You will see us talk about spaying and neutering every cat we can get our hands on. We want to help create a world in which every cat is wanted.

We hope to change local feral cat ordinances and where none regarding feral cats exist, create new ordinances. This is a slow process, it requires actually doing TNR, proving that TNR is an effective method of reducing feral cat populations, reducing the number of cats overcrowding our shelters and reducing the total number of cats euthanized as a result. It involves educating your neighbor, your local politicians and police departments and shaking them free of the old notions of trap and kill – which has proven to be ineffective. This method has a high monetary cost, while having a high cost in human emotions as well – not only from the animal control employees, but the people who are forced to surrender that batch of kittens they found in their window well, knowing those kittens may not survive due to the sheer numbers that cannot find homes.

I wanted to be brief and informative, but would like to end with a request:

If you can volunteer to help our organization in any way – please notify us. We need people who can do a variety of things – just tell us your skills, we will find a way to use you. Not everything we do involves hands-on with the ferals. We need toting and fetching, creativity, community outreach, you may know the person we need to talk to in order to bring an entire community to TNR.

Thank you so much for interest in and for caring about feral cats!

Let’s all work together to make every cat healthy, neutered and wanted, whether inside or outside!

Tammy McAuley
Feral Fixers President