If you can get a larger crate that would be perfect for more than overnight. You can get a box for hiding in it, and a litterbox too.
so we borrowed a crate for a medium-size dog which is about twice the area (and four time the volume) as the trap/cage. I opened both and put them end to end. Oddly, Poppy seems quite content to stay in the cage part and only goes into the dog crate for food and water.
She seems very relaxed but is hardly moving around at all. I wish she was moving more, but perhaps it is better for her legs if she doesn’t move too much. The vet called this morning and said that the orthopedic specialist feels it is ruptured achilles tendons. I am waiting for an appointment to take her to him. I still have no idea what kind of treatment may be required.
If she is going to be staying inside for weeks my thinking is to release her into one of our bathrooms (rather than the dining room which we would miss). The vet gave me some gabapentin pills which I can use to sedate her (if necessary) when the time comes to capture her and put her back in the cage. But in the meantime she is staying in the cage contraption.
That’s actually very encouraging. She’s considering the cage to be a safe place, a refuge. And it’s probably counting as her hiding place relative to the crate.
The cat pan is presumably also in the crate? And she is using it?
This is also encouraging. A cat who’s felt in danger for a significant period of time, and who on top of that is injured, is going to sleep a great deal if she finally feels safe. The body’s trying to rebuild itself. And she almost certainly is in pain – and now she doesn’t have to move around anyway.
It’s possible that you are dealing with a cat who has been inside before; in which case, finding herself inside a house may be making her feel more safe, instead of less so. If she does have to stay inside for weeks, starting with releasing her into a bathroom is a good idea; you could then gradually start allowing her access to more space, if she starts trying to get out of there, and if/when the vet. allows more movement. She’ll let you know; and you’ll be able to tell whether she wants out because of curiosity or out of panic – though if she hasn’t panicked yet at being shut in, she’s probably not going to.
If/when you do move her to the bathroom (or elsewhere), move the cage with her – she’ll be much happier with her familiar refuge there to retreat into.
And thanks for taking such good care of her!
Another update. Today we took her to an orthopedic specialist, where they did a CAT scan (sorry, couldn’t resist! It was actually an ultrasound) and some other tests. They confirmed that she has partially ruptured Achilles tendons in both legs. It will need surgery. Estimate $4,000 and a couple of months recovery. And we never thought it would be necessary to get insurance…
The doc said that not treating her is an option. Her injuries are not life-threatening and eventually she would learn to live with the impediment. But she would never be able to move as quickly as before and might have residual pain.
A bit more history about this cat. We moved into our house in 2018, and the second month we were there, we discovered four newborn kittens in the hedge below our kitchen window, along with their mother. We started feeding them and six years later Poppy and her brother are still around. Although I suspect that their mother had lived in a house at one time, the kittens were completely wild. But after years of regular feeding, the two remaining cats, and Poppy in particular, are essentially tamed. We consider them part of the family.
@thorny_locust had asked if Poppy had ever been indoors. The answer is no, mostly. When the kittens were only two months old we enticed them and their mother into the house with tuna, in hopes of capturing and socialising them. Well, we managed to get two kittens and the mother, but the other two stayed outside. We kept the three of them indoors for a weekend before finally releasing them. It was too hard to see the other two separated from their mother. It is possible (and I suspect) that Poppy was one of the two that were inside. We also captured three of the kittens and got them sterilised, which involved a half day in the house during recovery from the anesthesia.
Tricky decisions ahead. And we haven’t told the kids yet…
You’re doing right by her.
She obviously is not as scared as I thought she’d be. She knows you and trusts you.
I have the feeling she might have to be forever an indoor cat, after this.
Ruptured Achilles is a hard heal on a cooperative human.
A cat who wants to run, climb and jump is gonna be tough to keep restrained.
The caged life might be the only way, in her near future.
Good luck and keep posting updates.
Some of this is a matter of the size of your bank account. 4K for some people is pocket change, and for others is becoming homeless. You read like you’re somewhere in the middle and I’m not going to ask for details.
Some of it is that it seems like you’ve got an indoor cat for at least a couple of months; and maybe for the rest of her life. If she’s not treated, she’s not safe outdoors if she can’t move fast. If she is treated, she’ll need to stay indoors at least until she’s healed; and, if the treatment’s not fully successful, again indefinitely.
I strongly suspect that by the time she’s healed enough to go out, whether on her own or with the aid of surgery, she’ll be reasonably well adapted to staying in; though an occasional cat won’t. She obviously isn’t panicking at finding herself in; and as she wasn’t starving (you’ve been feeding her all along) it seems unlikely that’s from lack of enough strength to panic.
I’d ask the vet. how likely surgery is to be long-term effective; and also what the chances are of “residual pain” and whether they’re talking about something like or not much past ordinary old-age aches or about serious agony. Sometimes a surgery carries a high chance of significant improvement; sometimes it doesn’t.
And, if the vet. approves the increased movement space, I’d try moving her carrier/crate assembly to a bathroom (or small bedroom if one’s available) and opening it so she can get out into the room; as a beginning step towards possibly turning her into a housecat.
It doesn’t read to me as if the vet. is recommending euthanasia.
And you might try a gofundme or something similar to cover vet. costs if you go with the surgery. I’m too broke to offer; but if you ask the mods’ permission to post info about a fundraiser here, I think you’ll probably get permission, and at least part of the costs covered.
– How is the remaining outdoor cat doing, all alone out there? What are your winters like? Two cats keep each other warm; one cat may need at least an outdoor shelter, though maybe you’ve already got that.
I agree. It sounds to me like you have a new housecat. Even if you decide on the surgery, there will be a long healing time, when she’ll need to be indoors.
I agree with the rest of what @thorny_locust said, too.
Another note, more for the long run: if you can, you could build her a catio. That might assuage any remaining need on her part to go out; and also she and her sibling would be able to see and hear each other. They may be missing each other.
if a catio per se is out of the question, you could set up a large cage (say a Great Dane size collapsible crate) outside, on your porch if that works, and put her into it and take her back inside after her wee daily vacation is up. Pad the bottom mesh, of course. Put her out at times when her sibling is likely to be around. Or there are catio-like units that don’t attach to the house for free in and out. I Googled “free-standing catios” and got quite a few hits.
It’s not a great solution, for sure, but maybe it would help. Or maybe not.
Yes, that would also work. I’m a bit concerned about the sibling; it might help to show them that their sister’s alive and being taken care of.
Hi all,
Just an update that Poppy had her surgery today and the vet says things went well. As predicted, she will spend the next 6 weeks in various protective coverings and roughly two months after indoors with restricted mobility. Thanks for all your advice and support.
I personally like the idea of Poppy becoming a housecat, and am curious to see how her attitudes and behaviors change after this. But I don’t want to deprive her brother of her company.
Factual question, do cats actually have bonds like that, or am I just projecting my human emotions?
As for the cost of all this, it is looking like $5000 now. It will sting a bit, but we are financially OK and can swallow it. The question now is whether we go for the pet insurance in the future, and for which cats. Estimated costs look like $250 per year per cat with a $600 deductible. By my reckoning, if we had bought insurance five years ago when we first got/met the cats, the premiums would have added up to $5000. So that would have been a wash…
Cats have bonds like that.
Whether these specific two cats have a bond like that, I don’t know. But I wouldn’t be surprised. If you put her in a crate outside where her brother can see and hear her, you’ll probably find out; at least if he’s around. She may smell weird to him though, having been at the vet, and sometimes (not always) that affects reactions for a while.
Yeah, always read pet insurance policies really carefully. They’re not always an overall benefit.
Thank you again for doing this! and glad the surgery went well. Please continue to update us once in a while, if you can.
So happy the surgery is behind Poppy.
I’m anxious to see how she does and how she, and you guys fair in this process.
I’ve fostered a few feral kittens and they did very well becoming house pets. I’ve never felt I had the patience/ability for an adult cat.
Good luck.
I get the impression that this cat isn’t really feral. She’s been fed by humans all her life, and allowed occasional patting, if I’m remembering the earlier posts right.
I have friends who did make a friend of an entirely feral adult cat. They found him sick and starving on their porch, and didn’t realize until he came back from the vet that he hadn’t come to them for help, but only to try to get at food that was on the porch; he had just been too ill and starved, when they picked him up, to fight back.
He spent most of the next couple of years hiding out in their basement. But they eventually got him to be happy as an in-and-out cat, and to come to them for pats – he even came to me for pats eventually, though he saw me only a couple of times a year.
So it can be done, with at least some ferals: but it takes a very great deal of patience. But again, I don’t think that’s what’s going on with Poppy; or really even with her brother.