Cat dilemma

judgefudge

Hi so a stray cat has been hanging around my garden for months. Recently noticed his eye was messed up so I got a cat trap, caught him, and yesterday brought him to get neutered and treated. Turns out he has an eye ulcer which needs eye drops for 2 weeks. I'm really struggling to care for him because my own cat is getting very distressed by the whole thing and my house is tiny.

At a loss for what to do. Rang the rescues and vets and nobody will take him for a few days to get him back on track. What do I do?

on the river

You have a few options.

You could get family or friends to take care of him for a while.

You could leave him into a pet home for a week or so. it will cost you 30 or 40 euro.

Or you could put him down which im sure you dont want to do.

I hope these suggestions help. Im sure the cat will get better soon. Good luck

Pumpkinseeds

I've taken in 2 extra adult stray cats since the Summer. It's been very stressful for our eldest cat Felix, he's 6. I got some Zylkene pills from our vet. They're a natural not addictive happy pill basically, that takes the edge off anxiety. Felix is on 2 of them a day as he's a big lad, most cats would take 1. You can get them a lot cheaper online from Vetuk. They really do work. I've to collect some more from our vet this afternoon as I'm down to 1 pill.

I know that most rescues are just overwhelmed with animals at this stage so the Zylkene might be a more practical alternative, as well as a Feliway plug in. That's also a lot cheaper online from Vetuk, Neutracare and there's another site I can't think of. Hope that helps and best of luck with it. Poor little thing must've been in agony:(

judgefudge

on the river wrote: »

You have a few options.

You could get family or friends to take care of him for a while.

You could leave him into a pet home for a week or so. it will cost you 30 or 40 euro.

Or you could put him down which im sure you dont want to do.

I hope these suggestions help. Im sure the cat will get better soon. Good luck

Unfortunately no family or friends can help. A pet home? Is that like a chattery and would they actually administer the eye drops etc

on the river

A pet boarding centre will look after your pet but prices vary depending on the length of time the animal is their for.

All instructions given by you will be carried out including administering eye drops. Check out the the DSPCA website for more information and look under DSPCA Pet Spa & Hotel. Also do you live near Dublin if not im sure their is places in rural regions.

judgefudge

They (and most catteries) won't tAke a cat without vaccination records it seems. Which I obviously don't have

taytobreath

What kind of distress is your cat showing?

whenever I introduced new cats there was the initial growling and spitting but it gradually stopped the longer they spend time in each others company.
Oh and good on you for helping and spending all that money on a stray.

judgefudge

Thanks. Well it seems to have calmed down a bit now. I've kept them separate but my cat is hissing and running away from me when he smells the other cat on my clothes. It's just all been a bit stressful today.

Trying to eye and ear drops into a strange cat is no joke!

Pumpkinseeds

I kept our latest cat shut in a seperate room for 2 weeks. The second week I put up a pet gate and let them see each other through it, they could smell each other under the door and it went a lot smoother than it did with the cat we took in during the Summer

boomerang

Do you have a spare bathroom you could put him in? He will be happy enough for a short time with a bed, litter tray and food/water provided. The bathroom is easy to keep clean and disinfect, too. For administering eye drops, it's helpful to wrap him in a towel, tuck it under his chin and enclose all his paws.

morgana

We've just gone through integrating a kitten with our 2 elder resident cats. We did it similarly to Pumkinseeds, although it took about 2 months for all of them to get along.
Feliway definitely did help.
The best thing is to keep the stray separated in one room if you can.
Other than that, in all likelihood they will get used to each other after a while, but be prepared for some feline discontent in your household until they do.

Rosier

Takes a long time for existing cats to accept a newcomer so keeping separate is great wisdom

My two and the new one still do not gell and gradually they are working out territorial matters. Far less actual hissing and confrontation now but that is largely good management. There are rightofway issues in the big kitchen but new boy is not allowed upstairs s o we manage fine

Just takes time and patience and a lot of love.You are doing a great job!