Need advice from people who have cats

[BabyGirl Rosie]

Originally Posted by gracielove

Is he an un-neutered male? Whole male cats fight a lot and tend to get feline leukemia. As it advances the wounds stop healing as quickly as they should. Many no kill shelters and some towns and counties have low cost spay and neutering clinics that will give the cats shots and do the surgery for less than half of what a regular vet would charge you. If you care about this guy you might consider looking into this.
I got tired of seeing the cats around my home suffering and cats and kittens dying. I started taking one at a time to get their shots and spay or neuter. Now there are no more reproducing cats in my area though I do feed several on my patio. We found homes for many kittens and tamed the feral cats enough so they can come in out of the bad weather though they prefer to be outside and hunting in the woods.I did have to have one male put down because he had a advanced case of feline leukemia but the rest have tested negative.

Wow that is so awesome that you do that!! I can't stand to see strays around. It just breaks my heart. Can't tell you how many pets we have had because they were dumped on us.

To the OP, We have a coop here that carries things for animal care. For example, you can purchase vaccines and antibiotics. Our city does not consider the shots as given if you do it your self. However, it has to be better than no shots at all. And they are very very cheap. I don't know if you have anything like that available where you could pick up some meds for the wound and/or vaccinations. Feline Leukemia is a huge concern. The antibiotic ointment may do the trick! Hoping it does for this little fellow.

It sounds like you are doing a wonderful thing taking this poor baby in and treating it. So many go untreated.

[Candibee]

Originally Posted by gracielove

I care for several feral cats that are on the surrounding property I live on. A feral cat will not come into a house on it's own.At least not without considerable taming first. The cat you have must have had some human contact at some point during it's lifetime. It could possibly have been in an accident or it could have been in a fight. If the wound is swollen it could have a great deal of infection under the skin. You can buy some antiseptic spray for animals at your local Tractor Supply or other pet supply store. Holding a wet warm cloth on it to open up the wound to let it drain may help but if it is badly infected he needs antibiotics. Homeless cats suffer terribly and it's a shame that most people feel no responsibility to help ease the suffering. It's nice that you at least care for this little creature. I hope someone will be able to help you to help this one.
If you cannot take care of him you may need to take him to a no kill shelter. If there is not one in your town you can google to find the nearest one to you. Hopefully they will take care of him for you so he won't suffer any further.

It seems to be healing quite nicely now and we have been keeping him in the house as long as he will stay, with the exception of tonight and tomorrow seeing as we're not home. I think we are going to try and get a voucher from the animal shelter so we can get him neutered cheaper. He's a little over a yr old, he has lived on the hill his whole life. Last winter my mom would leave food and water out for him but he refused to let her touch him and he slept under their trailer where the heating was to stay warm. But then in about March he started letting my mom pet him and now he loves human contact. I was just so worried about him that night that I could only think of coming here to ask about it, but he seems tons better!