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Stray Cat With Kittens
Hello,
I'm an ocassional lurker on here and a situation has presented itself that I thought you guys may have good advice on... My cousin called me last night telling me they have a stray cat and three kittens that were born in a tire at the tire shop at his work a few weeks ago. He brought them home (including the mother). So now they are in his game room separated from his cat. He wants to do anything he can so they don't have to go to a shelter. I am not sure what steps he should take...
I have found a program that will help with reduced cost spay and neuters, so the plan of action I was going to suggest is first take them all to a vet, find out how old they are (I am guessing judging by picts there are 2 to 3 weeks), make sure they are all ok then take them back home and wait till the kittens are old enough for shots, find out when the mama can be fixed, then try to find them new homes once the babies are 8 weeks... Does anyone know how early kittens can be fixed? I would think the best thing we could do is make sure they are all healthy and fixed before we try to rehome them... we don't need any more strays having kittens.
I am hoping we can find a vet that will do the shots at a reduced rate, but if not, I will pitch in on that with my cousin and my brother, and I'm sure we can get some of our other friends/family to help if need be.
Has anyone been through this before? Any advice? Does my plan of action sound good?
Thanks!!!
Re: Stray Cat With Kittens
The shelter I fostered kittens for wanted them to be at least 8 weeks and 2 pounds.
If you call your local shelter, they may be able to tell you if they (or anyone else in the area) offer a low-cost spay/neuter and vaccination clinic.
Ditto this.
Also - I think your plan of action is great! I'd just get all the info confirmed for weight/ages for spay/neuter and shots and then you're golden! Good Luck!
OK, thanks everyone! I did find a vet close to my cousin's house that offers low cost vaccines, and there is a program (SNAP) that offers low cost spay and neuter, or if they are booked, they supposedly have resources to vets that offer a discount. Thanks for all the info! I know 8 weeks and around 2 pounds is what I had heard before, and one of my cats was around that age and size when I adopted him and he had already been fixed, so it's nice to know that is correct.
My cousin thought about calling animal control, but with over population in the shelters, I figured if we can do it ourselves, it may be better... Plus keeping them away from the sicknesses in some of the shelters (my other kitty had two URIs as a kitten in a shelter before I got her, so I figure less animals = less sickness... )
Thanks again!
The shelter we foster for says 8 weeks and 2.2 pounds for spay & neuter. They said it's ok if the males are a little less because their surgery is less invasive than the ladies'. They also offer a low cost spay/neuter clinic. A CW takes care of neighborhood strays and traps them to get them fixed and I think they have worked with her in the past for spay/neuter.
If you are adopting them out on your own, I think Kellbell has an adoption contract you could consider using.
5 cats. 1 baby.
We were in this position twice before. We found a pregnant cat and we found a cat with 5 newborns. Both times, we got in touch with a local cat rescue (these happened in two different states) and said, "we have these cats. We will foster them if you will vet and adopt them." We had no problem getting the groups on board with that plan, and everything went really smoothly. The second group even had volunteer drivers who took the cats to the vet for spay/neuter/vax, etc., so we didn't have to take off of work to do it.
I would definitely look into partnering with a rescue near you.
My Lunch Blog
I agree with partnering with a rescue - if you let them know you will foster them they will probably be happy to let you use them as a resource for adoption (use their contract, etc). Even if they can't help you vet them, using their contract and adoption process would be very beneficial. If you go the Craigslist route you'd need to be extremely careful - there are a lot of animal predators out there who are skilled at looking like they want a family pet but they have bad intentions. Not that you can't use CL, but definitely use a contract and do a home visit and screen thoroughly. Page Kellbell like pps said, she has a contract that she uses.
Thanks for helping them out!!
- Martin Luther King Jr.
Are you in San Diego County by any chance? Our low cost spay/neuter is called SNAP
If you are in the San Diego area go check out Kahoots or Petco for low cost vaccinations and deworming.
We took in 7 strays (Mom cat, her 5 kittens and another cat) over 2 years ago. They are all fixed and have their shots up to date. SNAP and the low cost mobile vet helped us save a ton of $$.
We did this last year, found a Mom and two kittens. We spayed and vaccinated everyone, the Mom was aggressive to we released her and the kittens tested positive for FIV so we had to hold onto them for a month or two until they re-tested negative (kittens are regularly false positive for FIV and FeLv so we rarely test). The kittens were adopted and are living the good life now! DH and I foster kittens we find pretty regularly, I have an application and contact you all are welcome to adapt and use. We normally charge a $50 adoption fee to cover the cost of some of the vetting and also to weed out creepy people. I post them on craigslist b.c. I live in a normal area where it isn't creepy, but we also have a local cat rescue that lets me bring them to adoption events and that will list them on their petfinder listing for me.
Yes, I am in San Diego. I already started looking into SNAP and one of the links through their website has a link to Pet network Vaccine Service that has clinic hours at a pet store close to my cousin's house, so I was going to look into that for the vaccine and FIV/FELV testing. I didn't think to try Kahoots or Petco thought, thanks for the tip!
Kellbell,
That would be great if you can send me the application and contract in case we need it. I am hoping we can find people we know to take them, I may have a coworker who wants one of them, but just in case it would be good to have that ready to go.
You said you rarely test the kittens for FIV and FeLv due to false positive, do you know at what age they are less likely to falsely test positive? Do you think we should test them?
After spending some time with them all yesterday I would guess the Mama was definitely someone's pet at some point, or maybe has always been a stray and is just very used to being around people. She is very friendly and seemed to like the attention she was getting. She was a little dirty, etc, but my cousin used some pet wipes to clean her up a little. I looked over her and the kittens for fleas or mites and thankfully didn't see anything, so that's good. I have been checking on the local craigslist board to see if anyone has reported her missing, but haven't seen anything. When she goes to a vet to get checked out I'm sure they will check for a microchip.
You can email me, kellbell1919 at gmail and I will send you the documents. Our big requirements are that they be kept indoors and not declawed, other things are fairly negotiable. The Petco vaccination clinic is fairly cheap.
They are supposed to stop testing false positive and negative for FIV and FeLv at 6 months. We normally test the Mom is we have her, and if she's ok we don't bother testing the babies. Babies aren't exposed to the type of fighting and contact with other cats that would allow them to contract the diseases, the only way they can get it is from Mom. They can false positive from antibodies they get in Mom's breast milk, it is possible but rare for them to get FeLv from Mom and nearly impossible to get FIV. The shelter I work with and most of the rescues I work with don't bother testing before 6 months b.c. its a huge waste of $
He so needs to name the kittens after tires:
Pirelli
Firestone
Goodyear