Help with found cat

Ace2007

Hi all,

Just wondering if you can give me some advice, a black cat recently made its way into my back garden and hasn't left (over a week), I heard a story that an elderly person on the road owned the cat but she is now in a nursing home and cat was left wandering round, so I'm assuming its the same cat.

Anyway I brought her to a vet who said she's about 12/13 years old and possible has arthritis in her back legs. other than that she looks ok, but mentioned that I should contact the DSPCA - they may take blood tests etc to get a full check up done.

Can anyone tell me if it's a simple case of me phoning up and bringing the cat over to them?

I don't mind looking after the cat (spent close to 150 already on her, food/vet visit/litter basket/comfy bed etc) but I've never had an any animals and so kinda lost. I sorta feel sorry for her and hence willing to look after her, but would like to get a full check up done without spending a fortune.

Pumpkinseeds

I just wanted to say well done for taking her in, it's awful when they get left to stray when someone goes into hospital/nursing home. I don't really know what the situation with DSPCA is, it might be worth contacting the Blue Cross. I'm not in Dublin, but I'd say there'll be other posters along soon to give you advice. It sounds like you've pretty much got it all covered though:)

mymo

No help from me either, but just wanted to say it's lovely of you to take her in.
I have a 13 yr old cat here, getting a bit stiff, but otherwise good.
I feed a mix of good quality wet and dry food, you can get senior foods for older cats, I would also worm her if the vet didn't do that.
Hope the blue cross can help you.

aonb

another WELL DONE to you, for taking in this poor cat.
No harm in calling the DSPCA and asking the question
Cats can live to a very old age
Im sure the cat lovers on here will let you know about some suitable supplements that would help with her arthritis (glucosamine etc)

DBB

I'd like to echo what the others have said OP, people like you restore my faith in humanity
If you're on the north side of the city, there's a really good subsidised clinic every Tuesday evening (6-7pm) near Ballymun. My own vet is the volunteer vet there and is a real cat person
If this is an easier option for you, give me a shout and I'll PM the necessary details to you!

Ace2007

DBB wrote: »

I'd like to echo what the others have said OP, people like you restore my faith in humanity
If you're on the north side of the city, there's a really good subsidised clinic every Tuesday evening (6-7pm) near Ballymun. My own vet is the volunteer vet there and is a real cat person
If this is an easier option for you, give me a shout and I'll PM the necessary details to you!

Hi, I actually live in the Glasnevin area so this would be perfect. Would appreciate it if you could send me on the details.

Ideally want to find out if she has any underlying health issues, or should I be giving her anything if she has arthritis in her legs. She has a good appetite anyway

I'm giving her about 1 tin of whiskas a day and then just leave dry nuts in a bowl at night, (which are gone by the morning), I was told Whiskas isn't the best - would there be any advice of the type of food I should be giving her?

DBB

I can't help you with food advice, the other posters in this thread would know a lot more about cat nutrition than I, but I have sent you a PM re the clinic in Ballymun

Rubberchikken

Well done. Kindness is so lovely.
Our cat's been missing two days. We've a v large garden and a lower part that is completely overgrown. The poor thing had gotten stuck between wire fence and corrugated iron.
How my son heard her miaowing we'll never know.
But lots of lovely food and into her bed tonight.
Delighted she's home.

So well done again OP.

Pumpkinseeds

Ace2007 wrote: »

Hi, I actually live in the Glasnevin area so this would be perfect. Would appreciate it if you could send me on the details.

Ideally want to find out if she has any underlying health issues, or should I be giving her anything if she has arthritis in her legs. She has a good appetite anyway

I'm giving her about 1 tin of whiskas a day and then just leave dry nuts in a bowl at night, (which are gone by the morning), I was told Whiskas isn't the best - would there be any advice of the type of food I should be giving her?

Whiskas isn't great. We have 4 cats, they're all under 8. We were feeding them Felix pouches which is junk and very expensive to feed 4 of them at almost 7 euro a box of 12. We switched them to Bozita tins from Zooplus, and while it seems expensive at about 8 euro for 6 cans, they only go through about 1.5 tins a day. It's high protein and is very soft like pate.

I don't know much about nutrition for senior cats but you'll find a really great range of cat stuff on Zooplus.ie and it generally works out a lot cheaper for pet stuff. A lot of people on this forum use it. A bit of tlc, feeding up and rest will do her the world of good. We leave a bowl of dry food down for our 4 too and only give them water to drink, many cats are lactose intolerant and milk can give them diarrhea.

mymo

Another vote for bozita here, I use the tetra packs and one carton feeds 3 cats their evening meal (even a bit left sometimes). It's grain free and pretty good quality. I find the cats seem to stay fuller for longer on it, so I feed less. I have two kittens here at the mo and I fed them whiskers for a few days until I got kitten bozita, they ate loads of it and they stank, they're eating about half the amount of bozita, so it's working out about same price or even cheaper.
There are great deals to be had if you buy in bulk, the multi packs are good value.

Nody

I actually was drawing up a list of foods for one of our fosters for a first time cat owner; this is the list I sent (and I know it's not the cheapest list out there):

Dry
Acana
Orijen
Taste of the Wild
Applaws
Porta 21 Feline Finest Sensible
Adult GranataPet in poultry
Adult GranataPet with duck meat
Porta 21 Holistic Cat Chicken & Rice
Porta 21 Holistic Cat Duck & Rice
Almo Nature Holistic Chicken & Rice
Almo Nature Holistic White Fish & Rice

Golden rule: No wheat, no maize and preferably no rice (or <15% if included)

Wet
Applaws (not complete)
Classic Almo Nature (can, not complete)
Almo Nature Green (pouch, treat, not complete)
Almo Nature Orange (pouch, not complete)
Almo Nature Azure (pouch, not complete)
Schesir (best used as treat)
Porta 21 (not complete)
Cosma Nature (not complete)
Feringa (complete)
Catz finefood (complete)
Schmusy Nature (complete)
Granata Pet (complete)
Cosma (not complete)
Animonda Carny (complete)
Bozita (complete, likely to grow bored of over time, recommend cans over tetra pack)
Grau (complete; likely to grow bored over time)
Royal Canin pouches (likely to like jelly rather than eat the "meat")

The important thing to keep an eye on with wet is if it's a complete food or not (as you can see above many are not!). If they are not complete they need to eat kibble as well to ensure they get their full nutriment requirements. The above is in a rough listing with the top tending to be top of the line quality (there's nothing wrong with Bozita from a content perspective but our cats will simply refuse to eat it for example).

The list is not exhaustive either but as a rule of thumb if you find a feed that contains no maize, wheat or rice you're probably good to go; look up zooplus.co.uk for prices (usually better the .ie and .de if you're buying a lot in one go).

morgana

Re food:
A lot of us devoted cat people here use zooplus.de for our cat food needs as they stock a huge variety of foods and most of them way superior to the supermarket brands. If you buy in bulk (recommended anyway for the free shipping, it works out more or less the same than you would pay for supermarket brands) and you have the convenience that the postie does the carrying for you :P (ours even insist on lugging the big Zooplus parcels onto the kitchen table) :P.

In what to go for, the first ones will probably be a bit of trial and error to see what madam likes :P - ours are on Carny, Catessy (the grain-free pate (very cheap)), Smilla and Vom Feinsten for wet and Orijen as dry (quite expensive). We've now tried Purizon which seems to go down a treat (and cheaper than Orijen, but still similar quality).
All those are grain-free which is closer to a cat's natural diet (and because one of our cats needs to be on a low carb diet - so all have to follow suit, lol).