Feral Fixers President, Tammy McAuley, gives us an update on a colony of cats located by a 7-11 store...
Digby, the cat that was being petted, was brought into the caretaker's home this past week as he did not seem to be feeling well. It may have been that his health was precarious to begin with, perhaps the worm die-off from the de-wormer overtaxed his system but he was lethargic and not eating. We took him to the vet on Sunday for a Convenia shot and wait and see as his symptoms were not clear cut, although he did have a heart murmur. That evening we nebulized him as he began to breathe very hard. While it was slightly better in the morning, it might have been because he was exhausted. Back to the vet, he was in "heart failure". They took x-rays, tested his blood, started him on Lasix. 36 hours later, he was a new kitty, breathing almost normal, lungs greatly improved, eating a little bit and headed back to the caretaker's home. He still has a severe heart murmur, stage 3 -4 and will most likely be on Lasix the rest of his life, but he has already been a surprise - recovering this much, this fast.
He is a good boy, seems to be sticking around for a purpose and, while we aren't able to do this for every cat and perhaps would not do this for a truly feral cat (we just wouldn't be able to treat and re-evaluate without risk to us and the cat), Digby has been the exception. With the support of the caretaker, his quality of life will be greatly improved and hopefully he will find a home that understands what he needs to have a good, long life. The caretaker finds it difficult to turn away any animal in need, so finding Digby a permanent home would be ideal.
We can't do this for every cat, but Digby is yet another that we did not have any question about whether we would provide whatever health care he might need. And, yes, although we haven't gotten the bill yet, it might be really significant. If you could donate to Feral Fixers to ensure that cats like Digby can get the care they need, it would lighten our burden tremendously!
To report on the rest of the 7-11 cats - of the cats we tnr'd, there are 6 that we brought in and are seeing if they would like to be friendly, they were the younger ones. Situations like this increase the need for fosters damatically - please pass the story along!
As a result of working on the 7-11 cats, we also TNR'd two other colonies close by, one composed mainly of females! Our thanks to the volunteers of Illinois Birddog Rescue for the photos and video and alerting us to this situation!