No good deed goes unpunished!

I always heard its more important to seek medical care when a cat bites you and breaks the skin. I have been scratched by my own cats and strays my whole life and never had problems.
 
npmommie said:
why don't you have the rescue come pick up the stray kittens so they can be cared for properly and have a chance at a home??

They told me they wouldn't come, it was up to me to capture.
 
I am a health inspector and saw your thread. You should see a doctor if you were scratched by a stray cat. Your doctor will probably recommend rabies shots for you. Stray cats can carry rabies. You should not pick up stray animals, they are not vaccinated and are at risk for rabies. I am not trying to scare you, but you should see a doctor immediately.

Did you know that rabies vaccines can only safely be given once? If you are bitten or attacked a second time; the vaccine can be fatal. A client of mine died from it. I would never just assume a wild/feral animal had rabies. The OP was warned about feral cats; they freak out when you try to 'rescue' them. These are kittens; doubtful they've had a run in with an infected animal; they'd no doubt have been killed in the altercation.
 
My grandma once had about 10 stray cats hanging around her house. My mom contacted the local shelter and they told her to come and pick up a humane trap. She was able to trap all of the cats over about a week. Each time she trapped one, she took it directly to the shelter. She never had to touch the cats because the shelter personnel would take them out and give my mom back the empty trap. All of the cats were young and my mom was told they had a good chance of being socialized and adopted out.

Perhaps your shelter could lend you a trap so you can safely catch the cats without having to touch them yourself?
 


They told me they wouldn't come, it was up to me to capture.

You dont have an animal shelter in your town? Animal control will come get them and take them to the shelter. Where is the mama cat?
 
npmommie said:
You dont have an animal shelter in your town? Animal control will come get them and take them to the shelter. Where is the mama cat?

Animal Control will kill them if they don't get adopted in time.
 


mlynn said:
GO TO THE DOCTOR!!!!!!ASAP!!!!

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=8942398

these people found a kitten and the kitten died from rabies a few days later the whole family has to get the shot as well as the other pets in the house.

The kitten was sick when they brought it in. Ive been observing this cat for weeks. Both my dog and cat are current on their rabies vaccine.
 
Did you know that rabies vaccines can only safely be given once? If you are bitten or attacked a second time; the vaccine can be fatal. A client of mine died from it. I would never just assume a wild/feral animal had rabies. The OP was warned about feral cats; they freak out when you try to 'rescue' them. These are kittens; doubtful they've had a run in with an infected animal; they'd no doubt have been killed in the altercation.

I would rather assume a feral animal HAD
rabies than to assume it did not, since rabies IS fatal. Though the odds are against it, that is quite a chance to take. Also, I have done much research on the vaccine since we had to use it, and no where does it say a booster can be fatal. Where are you getting this?

OP, since you have reguarly observed this particular cat, you hopefully can watch it, from afar, for ten days to be sure it still looks healthy at least. The cat that scratched my daughter ran away never to be seen again.

Please warn your neighbors of these dangers...I'm concerned that you said children are picking up/ playing with feral animals...not a good idea! Best to you:)
 
I know you probably don't want or need more "helpful advice", but here goes anyway...

Don't use hand sanitizer (ow) or peroxide on your scratches. Wash with regular soap and water and make sure you put antibiotic oinment on them. Peroxide can actually make a minor cut worse and take longer to heal because the chemical reaction "eats" away at the tissue.
 
If you love animals you will call and have them picked up, you are doing them NO favor by not calling.
 
Zandy595 said:
I know you probably don't want or need more "helpful advice", but here goes anyway...

Don't use hand sanitizer (ow) or peroxide on your scratches. Wash with regular soap and water and make sure you put antibiotic oinment on them. Peroxide can actually make a minor cut worse and take longer to heal because the chemical reaction "eats" away at the tissue.

Thank you. I did use peroxide again this morning but then I put on antibiotic ointment and some band aids. I'll do it again tonight, but skip the harsh stuff. Just Dial soap and antibiotic ointment. Thanks again for the advice.
 
Anytime an animal is found to have rabies, everybody that has handled the animal receives shots. And animals in contact with a rabid animal are revaccinated. When my sister's cat got into a fight with an unknown animal, he had to be revaccinated. I hope you are alright, but I would see a doctor, period.

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/vis/downloads/vis-rabies.pdf
 
The stray was only in the bathroom and it was completely sterilized with bleach before my animals were allowed near it.

And I did contact a rescue, they were the ones who told me to try to catch them. I was going to keep him in the bathroom until I could get him to them but my dog went nuts and wouldn't stop barking at the bathroom door. We have quiet rules in my town so I couldn't let her bark all night and unfortunately they only come around at night.

There is one with a broken leg that I've been trying to catch because the rescue said they would pay for its medical treatment but it won't let me near it.

I'm just trying to do the right thing, I'm an animal lover and seeing them go hungry or in the case of the injured one, in pain, is killing me. If I put food out the skinny one and the injured one don't get much if any because the bigger cats are fighting for it. I stopped putting out food.

You catch them with traps, not hands.

Feral cats are a menace and you should not be feeding them.
 
Last Christmas our college-age niece was staying at our house until she flew home for break. She wanted to pet our cat but he was having none of that. I picked him up to get him away from her and he bit and scratched me. He had bitten me before while playing and I have had plenty of scratches from cats in my life so I thought nothing of it as I cleaned the wound and put neosporn on my hand.

The next morning my hand was red and swollen. I went to the after-hours care as it was a Saturday. I was told that any cat bite should be seen in the ER within a few hours because they can become infected within 3 hours. They opened the bites and drained them and put me on an antibiotic and gave me instructions to go to the ER immediately if it got worse.

Next day I woke up and had streaks running up my arm so it was off to the ER. It was the scratches, not the bite, that were infected the most. I was on IV antibiotics for 24 hours and before the released me they put a splint on my hand to keep it immobilized. Since I had a broken foot at the time I walked out the cast on my foot and a splint on my hand. :rotfl2:

Moral of the story: Cat bites and scratches, even from your own indoor-only cats can be dangerous. Do not mess around with them!
 
Handling feral cats is a very tricky business, but they are a "menace," as someone else dubbed them, created only because humans treat their pets as disposable and "let them go free," when they get tired of taking care of them ... Which really equates to leaving in them the wild to starve or otherwise die violently. Your instinct to help is admirable, and totally possible, but you must go about it the right way.

And the odds you'll become ill or die due to a scratch are roughly the same as winning the lottery.

The best, and most humane, way to cull a colony of TRULY feral cats is trap-neuter-return. You trap only the males (females are released immediately, without handling), have them neutered and then release them back WHERE YOU FOUND THEM, again, without undue handling. You take them in the morning, or the night before, and they're ready to be released that evening, with zero recovery time. Many rescues and clinics will do it for as little as $10-$20/cat. The colony will then die out very quickly. You can get rid of a 50-cat colony in less than six months, simply by neutering the males. The life expectancy of these cats is extremely short.

Trapping these cats and taking them to animal control will ultimately just lead to them being immediately put down, as no organization will even attempt to re-home a feral cat, when there are millions of non-feral cats needing homes.

The idea of whether or not to provide them with a food source is a mixed one. Some rescue groups strictly advise against it, while others say it doesn't really matter. The studies I've seen say that colonies with a human-provided food source that have been part of trap-neuter-return programs, survive only marginally longer than those left on their own, so providing food for them isn't the largest issue. The danger would be eliminating one colony only to trade it out for another, if another group finds the food source, but cats are territorial and while one or two will join a group, colonies tend to remain distinct (like wild cat prides).

For real information, check out reputable local rescues or start with this ASPCA FAQ on feral cats: http://www.aspca.org/adoption/feral-cats-faq.aspx, or this step-by-step guide to helping feral cats from the respected Alley Cat Allies: http://www.alleycat.org/document.doc?id=461.

There is a lot of really, really good information online about how to help. A vacation planning Disney community isn't really the first place I'd look for it, though.

Best of luck, sincerely.
 

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