If a cat is mainly an indoor cat but does go out, can a new owner train it to not go out?
Here are the facts:
Grandma is 99 and is in the hospital with an infection from the cat. I’m not sure if the cat bit her or scratched her. I’m not sure if the infection happened simply because she had a sore and didn’t care for it properly or if the cat would infect just anyone. I’m also not clear on if the cat had its claws removed or only the front ones removed. I can’t remember. My mother-in-law says she thinks the claws have grown back. This sounds strange to me.
Gosh, this sounds like I’m trying to pawn off a demented cat on someone. I don’t want to have the cat euthanized, obviously, but that would be my mother-in-law’s first choice.
I can’t keep the cat; my husband and I are both allergic and we have a Jack Russell Terrier. But how can I find a home for the cat if he is a biter who put an old lady in the hospital?
I guess I should take the cat to the vet to have him checked over to find out what I should do with him. Keeping in mind I live 45 minutes away and I’m not familiar with transporting a cat to the vet, etc. HEY, THIS IS NOT MY PROBLEM! But I don’t want to kill the cat.
A cat’s claws cannot grow back once they have been surgically removed. The entire end of the toe is removed.
Some cats can be trained not to go out. Other cats get weird.
Infections from animal bites and scratches can happen with any animal, so it’s not dependent on the cat. Cat scratches (and even bites at times) don’t have to be with any sort of malicious intent on the part of the cat. Say the cat tries to jump on the dresser and slips and slides into you and tries to hold on–you could end up with bad scratches without the cat intending to do anything.
The hospital should be able to say if the wound is a cat scratch or bite or neither.
Good luck trying to keep a cat from wanting to go outdoors once it has been doing so all it’s life. I had one cat that absolutely refused to step outside of the house, but it had been that way it’s whole life.
Claws do not grow back if they are truely de-clawed by a vet. If the cat was allowed outside it most common to just take off the front claws and leave the back ones intact in case it needs to defend itself. It’s the front claws that do most of the damage to furniture anyway. Back claw scratches are mostly from the cat trying to get a grip when it jumps off of something (or someone).
At 99 grandma could be very subseptable to all kinds of infections, not just from the cat. Sad to say but she has probably out lived the ability to properly care for and appreciate the cat. It’s a tough decision to put a healthy animal down and I don’t envy you your choices.
Oh, I almost forgot. If you are going to take the cat to a vet make sure to get a cheap (< $10) cat carrier (Walmart has them). The cat may be upset riding in the car with someone she is unfamilar with for that long and she might have a bowel movement. Trust me, it’s almost impossible to get rid of the smell of cat urine and feces from a cars interior.
The zoonotic (animal-to-human) infection commonly known as “cat scratch fever” would have been transmitted to “just anyone” by the cat if it were an infected carrier, but healthy adults normally recover with no lasting effects. Read here.
Your problem is not giving away a cat that’s a “biter who put an old lady in the hospital”. Your problem is giving away an adult cat, period. See if you can find a no-kill shelter in your area. They can arrange to have someone come and get the cat, especially if you make a donation in Grandma’s name.
But before you do that, pause and consider: how is Grandma going to feel when she gets out of the hospital and finds that you’ve given away–or more appallingly, euthanized–her cat? “Didn’t think I was coming back, didya?” she’ll snarl. “Couldn’t WAIT until I was six feet under, hanh?” Et cetera. So, if the cat must be put down, try to make sure MIL has the full responsibility for it, so when Grandma gets home and starts cutting people out of her will, it’ll be MIL that bears the brunt of it, not you.
Why does anything need to be “done” with the cat, anyway? Isn’t it still in residence in Grandma’s house? If it isn’t, it should be. You’re making a problem for yourself unnecessarily. Just make sure it has food and water, and clean the litter tray periodically. If you want to take it to the vet, find someone who has experience with cats and ask him/her to deal with the “getting the cat into the cat carrier” issue. The vet tech at the other end can deal with “getting the cat out of the cat carrier” and “getting the cat back into the cat carrier” issues.
ETA: Grandma should be the one to decide she can’t live in a house with a potentially infected cat, and to decide whether to give the cat away or have it put down. Not MIL. Or you.
The problem is that Grandma has started to get confused. Home health care workers come twice a day but we are going to have them start to stay longer. I think she should have been placed in a nursing home awhile back but of course she did not want to go.
When she hurts herself she doesn’t tell anyone until there is a bad infection.
The cat bites her if she gets up in the night. She won’t shut the bedroom door to keep the cat out because he will cry at the door.
You haven’t mentioned grandma’s mental state, but it would be wrong to assume she’s not able to take care of herself and the cat, once she gets back home. Talk the issues over with her and let it be her decision. I don’t see any reason why you need to take the cat to the vet; just take care of it in grandma’s absence. And if you have to be the one to decide, don’t even think about euthanasie til you’ve exhausted all other options. And definitely not without grandma’s consent.
I’m not really in charge. Her only daughter is in charge. That is my mother-in-law. She knows I don’t want to get rid of the cat.
My m-i-l does not like pets of any kind in the house, if you know what I mean. There is a hardness there. I can’t completely trust someone if they don’t like my dog. So what if my entire life is covered in dog hair? I’m afraid she will have the cat put to sleep and tell her mother she found a home for it.
Gosh, this sounds like the dark ages. But I guess in a way it is. Grandma has now been in the hospital twice because of the cat.
I sent an email to probably 60 people trying to find someone who will take the cat. No responses yet, but it has only been about an hour! I’m hopeful for this woman who is probably in her 60’s who had to put her cat down a few months ago. At the time she told me she would never get another one because it hurt so much to lose it. Hopefully enough time has passed that she misses having that presence of a loving pet.
My SIL got cellulitis from a cat scratch (but you can get it from any scratch…even little tiny ones that you can’t feel or see).
There are no-kill shelters, but you might want to consider whether or not the cat would be happy living with new people (or in a cage forever, if it’s too anti-social to live with others). Sorry to say, but sometimes pets are better off dead (I know…it goes against our kitty-lover sensibilities, but it’s true).
It’s a tough decision to put a healthy animal down and I don’t envy you your choices.
