I have been feeding 2 of my neighbor's out door cats because they looked close to death. They are now looking good. They come at food time and look into my kitchen window! Then they go back to his patio. He continues to have outdoor cats that he doesn't spay or neuter. A new orphan wandered over at food time today. It is black and white and it looks dirty on the white parts (must not be grooming) and each ear has what looks like fungus around the entire outer rim of the ear. I can't keep adding more of his cats to my banquet or I'll have them all (he has lots). But I can't stand to see a starving or sick cat go hungry. If I call the code people I'm afraid they'll grab the two I've been feeding and put them down. My husband and I love them. We already have our allowed number of indoor cats so we can't adopt them. Well, that's background. My main question is, what could that crunkely stuff around the ears be? Any suggestions for any of my issues would be helpful.
Previously I got lots of great advice about trying to save the starving cat's babies. Sadly, the babies got soaked in a series of rain storms and they all died. It's just not a healthy situation.
Daily Kitten Chat Forum » Purrs
weird looking ears
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Penny -
It's so hard living next to someone who doesn't take care of their kitties. So heartbreaking! Unfortunately, if you keep feeding them, you are going to be overrun with cats. I live in a city that has a trap, spay or neuter, and release program. That might be something you could do with the two outdoor kitties that you love. Is the guy next door real possesive about these cats that he is not feeding or caring for? Maybe you could just call those outdoor kitties yours, and to heck with him.
I can't really tell what the ear thing is without seeing it. If he is dirty and ill, he may have an infestation of ear mites. They look like black gunk inside the ear canal. Cats tend to scratch and shake their heads when they have ear mites, and can damage the outside parts of their ears. These will swell up and get distorted, and further infected - and become really uncomfortable. Poor kitty! If his ears don't seem to be sore, he may have healed up this damage, and is left with the scar tissue.
Posted 1 month ago by scaredicat #
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Thank you ScaredIcat,
I am going to try to get my neighbor to catch one of the cats that I feed (the other one is already spayed) and have her spayed. I checked out at a cat adoption clinic today and they said that I could keep her on the porch for a day and then release her safely. I think my cats can deal with that! Then at least she won't be having any more pregnancies. My neighbor likes me because I don't complain (unlike his other neighbors) about the smell coming from his house and because he knows that I love the cats. I don't let him know how much I resent his treatment of his cat family. As far as the new cat with the ear problem, I can't really get close enough to tell exactly what's going on. From a distance it looked like he had feathers all around his ears. But I got close enough to see that it is more like a fungus, all lumpy. It is outlining the ear. When it shows up at the food bowls, the other two leave. I'm not sure they should be eating out of the same bowls. I appreciate your suggestions. -
Excellent! I'm so glad you will be able to spay-and-release. That will give your beloved outdoor kitty a much better quality of life (and keep you from having hundreds of kittens!).
Are you going to feed Mr. Krinkly-ears? How old is he? It sounds like your two outdoor kitties are ignoring him. That's probably just as well. I don't think his ear problem is something that will infect the other kitties, but still it is good that they aren't too close.
It's probably OK if he eats out of the same bowls -- but to keep things peaceful, you may want to provide him with his own food, maybe a few yards away from where you feed the other cats. Of course, your two outside cats will have to taste his food - they'll want to make sure they're not missing out on some super-duper treat.
Posted 1 month ago by scaredicat #
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Just talked to my neighbor. He wants to keep our Snookums (our name for his unspayed cat) in his house after she is spayed. The only problem is he has so many cats in there. Sometimes I see 7 crammed together in one window. We think of it as cat jail. They all look so forlorn. I just want to spay and release. Snookums is so sweet and happy out doors. She didn't do well fighting for food with the cat community next door. That is why she was a nursing mom that was starving to death when we started feeding her. Haven't decided what to do about this. On Mr. Krinkly-ears, he says it's mange. I have been looking up treatment via food. Not sure there is anything like that. Most treatments seem to be things that have to be applied to the cat. Mr. K doesn't seem like a guy who would stand for that. He has started hanging out in one of my flower beds and I have been able to feed him there away from the other 2. I think my neighbor has taken all but these 3 into his house as the neighbors are on the war path. I told him I'd claim Snookums as my cat if the city bothered him but he wasn't interested. Falling in love with a feral is tough. Do you call it feral when someone owns it but just doesn't care for it? Thanks for your encouragement.
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Hi, Penny, bless you for caring about your neighbour's cats. That's terrible that Mr Krinkly ears has mange, because it's highly contagious, it makes the cat feel horrible (it's usually a burrowing mite) and it gets worse and worse, and secondary infections can result. I understand treatment from a vet is easy; but all the cats in his house would have to be treated. If I were you, I definitely wouldn't let Snookums into his house, she is at enough risk of mange through contact with this other cat. Can you talk to the vet about the mange problem while she is being spayed? It would be best if she could at least be treated so she doesn't get it.
I know how you feel as there used to be a feral cat colony over the road from me, which an elderly lady 'fed' (but she fed bread and scraps and stuff like that) and all the cats were diseased and none were spayed or neutered, so the colony grew and its health got worse and worse. Both my cats came from that colony. It is a distressing problem for a cat lover -- you know the animals are suffering but you also know if you report the problem, any humane society will put most of them down. All I could do was try to help the animals I could and feed those that came to me. My heart goes out to you.
PS While googling, I found this website about one person's experience with mange and feral cats: http://mangecure.info/Mange/_MainMange.html
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Thank you so much. I just read the mange management article and my head is spinning! I'll make a hard copy and try to get a grip on it. I would be horrified if I caused the death of Krinkle so I must be very careful. It certainly is thorough. Thanks for locating it. I had been to several sites but none that talked about oral medicine and none that were this explicit.
I have managed to get Krinkle (I guess that's going to be his name) to eat away from Snookums and Shrubby (she is spayed and likes to hide under our shrubs). I guess they are smart to leave the site when Krinkle shows up. He eats his food, which I put near his hiding place in my Bird of Paradise tree. I need to put out more for him as today he ate his and then wandered over to Snookums and Shrubby's area and they both took off.
What happened to the feral colony near you? You reflect my fears exactly. If I report him they'll probably put down his cats, not to mention that I think he'll go mad! If I don't report him, his colony (now mostly in his house) will continue to fester. Some of his indoor cats have boils from fighting and not all seem to get access to the food. I've never been in his house but I'm guessing it's like a big litter box! I guess I need to stop worrying about what I can't fix and try to do what I can with Krinkle, Snookums and Shrubby. My two house cats are perplexed. They sit on our screened porch and watch the food bowls going out... 3 wet food, 2 dry food and 2 water! If I'm late with the food sometimes Shrubby will come close to the screen and my two don't like that a bit! The people on this site are so nice. Thanks for your help. -
Just read all about your Libby. I enjoyed her story and admire your stamina. How do you get your photo to link to Catsters? That's where I got my avatar but it isn't linked together.
Wow! I just checked out Firefly and Tigerlilly from Scardicat. Smiling cats! They're all wonderful.
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Hi, Penny. Yes, I hesitated quite a lot whether to add that link or not -- just because it would be a calculated risk to try to treat Kringle yourself and obviously on the Internet you have no guarantees of reliability of the website. That would be a personal decision and not without risks. On the other hand, as she says, she's simply detailing her personal experience and she emphasises over and over that vet treatment is by far the best if you possibly can. My worry would be, you could try to treat Kringle but without the rest of the colony being treated, he will just get re-infected.
The colony across the road from me -- I'm not entirely sure what happened. I got in touch with the SPCA when they became involved here so that they wouldn't catch and put down the friendly tomcat that eventually became my Jasper. A neighbour trapped Libby as a kitten for me (the original plan was to rehome her) but was unable to trap her siblings so I don't know what became of them, which has always upset me. I tried to trap Libby's mother but she was always too wary for me. The elderly lady's health deteriorated and she went into a home. I think between them neighbours and the SPCA managed to catch most of the cats over a period of years. The neighbour who trapped Libby loved cats and ended up with a sizeable number of her own, some of which she was able to rehome. She spayed and neutered them where she could and rescued kittens where she could. At one stage I was looking after six cats at my own place, most of which I managed to rehome, but you could really only socialise the strays (not the ferals) and the feral kittens, who were young enough. I coped with not being able to help them all by volunteering at my local shelter, where I still volunteer, so that I help those I can. That's all really you can do.
Best of luck!
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Good news! My husband and I were able to catch Krinkles this morning and I took him (?) to the vets for a shot of Invermectin and a bath, and whatever else he needs. He is supposed to come back in a week for a second treatment. Good luck in catching him again when he is feeling frisky! We're so happy for the little guy. He didn't even complain in the carrier, just scratched and scratched. Next, we have a trapper coming this afternoon to help us catch Snookums and get her spayed. She will be harder as she is older and she feels good these days. I have found out that there are a lot of wonderful cat lovers out there.
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Oh:-( Just got a call from the vet. Krinkles has the worst case of mange he has ever seen and probably some underlying immune problems. He recommended the humane end, but I opted for treatment and giving the little one a chance. We are to go back in a week and see how things are going (if we can catch him again). We will make our decision if we reach the point where there is no progress and Krinkles is suffering. So sad. We have all the cats we can handle in our house already or we'd take him in. He'll have to be our yard cat if he makes it.
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Penny a late welcome to TDK! What wonderful people you and your husband are. Caring for these kitties and especially for trying to save Krinkles life. What a tough position your irrisponcable neighbor has put you in. I'm sorry to say that you may have to report him, you have to consider the suffering that the kitties trapped in that house are going thru. I really don't know what I would do if it were me. but bless you for saving the ones you can.
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Since his indoor cats are not feral, it would be best to report him so they can be rescued and re-homed. If they are suffering, which seems to be the case, this is the only thing you can do to help them. Bless you and your hubby for caring! Those of us who care for ferals know it can be heartbreaking.
Here is the website for feral cat TNR: http://www.alleycat.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=191
They are willing to help.Posted 1 month ago by Sheba's Mom in Phx, AZ #
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Did I say that the vet said that Mr. Krinklel Ears is a girl? So now it's just Krinkles. We brought her to our guest bedroom rather than release her. We were afraid that we would never catch her again. I'm sure she didn't like her bath and would not hang around for a follow up sudsing! But she is eating. The trapper lent us a kennel type cage in which we could put a litter box, bedding and food and water. Krinkles ate everything we put in there and drank water. Then she pooped in the bedding, ignoring the litter box. How was she to know. She's been an outdoor cat her whole life (She only weighs 3 lbs). She's talking to us. Mew, mew, mew. We changed her bedding and threw a table cloth over the cage for the night. We have to be very careful with everything so that our cats that live with us don't catch this horrible disease. We're rooting for Krinkles. In the traps....we caught a huge frog! Our neighbor has a pool that is empty and it collects rain water so he has lots of frogs. They are coming over for the cat left overs! They're bigger than a grapefruit. Is there no end to the complications!
Thanks 2BPurring for help with the link. I did what you said and it worked.
The trapper told us to help our neighbor get his cats spayed and neutered through a govt. program. It would cost $10 each. He doesn't have $. I think he lives for his cats, even though he doesn't do right by them. I think it's a matter of poverty. If they came and took them away I think he'd die. We'll try the govt. program before we turn him in. The lady that came with the trapper can make a call and animal control will be over immediately. We'll try the other route first.
Thanks everyone! -
Penny, you are wonderful! I hope Krinkles makes it. Sometimes these neglected cats can surprise you. Jasper has only one eye, no teeth, immune problems and diabetes but he he seems (touchwood) indestructible. I am so glad you are giving her a chance. Did the vet recommend preventive treatment for your other cats?
As for the old man and his cats, is there some way you and the neighbours who want the cats gone could have a whip-round (collect donations) or do a bit of fundraising? (a cake stall or garage sale) or apply to a charity to get help to finance the spaying and neutering? You might be able to persuade the neighbours that spaying will end the problem in the long run so it is worth doing, and a small donation could end a lot of their hassles. Did I mention before that you are wonderful?
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I don't think I'm wonderful...My husband and I (thank goodness he feels the same as me...he cried when Krinkles mewed at him the first time) are in love. Now I'm changing bedding and taking the old stuff to the yard where I spray it with bleach and water, hose it down and wash it in my machine. Then I run an empty machine with just bleach water. The trapper is going to help my neighbor with catching and spaying his cats if he agrees. She is truly WONDERFUL. Snookums was too smart for the regular trap...circled and looked but did not go in. The trapper will do a drop trap where the trap is propped up in the air and she waits until Snookums goes to eat and she pulls a string and the trap comes down. That way we also won't get the wrong cat. She said sometimes she has waited for up to 2 hours. Did I tell you that the first night we caught a possum and a raccoon! My husband came in and said, "You'll never believe what we caught." Some of the krinkles are falling off of Krinkles. I should put a picture of her on Catsters so you can see her. I think I'm allowed 1 non-family picture. (But I kind of feel like Krinkles is family). Thanks for all of your encouragement.
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Great news on Krinkles. She went back for her second visit to the vet. He said he'd never seen such a remarkable recovery from mange. I told him it was because my husband pets and brushes her three times a day. She's his girl! She also had her blood work done and doesn't have feline aids or leukemia. Yay! She got a shot and a bath today and will get her last shot next week. Then we'll get her spayed and I think....if Holdsworth and Taylo,r our house cats, agree...that Krinkles will be ours. Tried to catch my neighbor's cat to get her spayed yesterday. She was too smart for us...just walked around the cage and didn't go in. Later that night we went out and we had caught a possum! It wouldn't come out of the cage so we propped it open and this morning it had made its getaway. So happy about Krinkles.
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If you click on my avatar (?) it will take you to my Catsters pages for Holdsworth and Taylor. Each of them has a photo of Krinkles. Holdsworth's is the day we first were able to grab her and take her to the vet. Taylor's shows her in her kennel right after her first vet visit. She is looking ever so much better but I can only post 1 photo for each of my family cats that isn't of them. I'll change it out as she improves more and more so you can see.
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