What a week!

Kicked off with Maisie, an unclaimed stray with a broken jaw. She was allegedly eating soft food following the operation to pin it, but spent the next six days resolutely refusing to swallow anything unless I syringed it into her mouth. She's now lapping feline AD (appetite diet), still a bit cautiously, and I think she simply doesn't like the feel of the metal that's holding her jaw in place until the bone mends. She's quite young and hopefully will be resilient enough to make a pretty full recovery although she probably won't get back normal vision in her left eye.

We then had a really frightening drama when Benny, a feral kitten one of our fosterers was taming, went completely off his back legs and couldn't stand. One possible diagnosis would have been toxoplasmosis, which is potentially transmissible to humans, and by Murphy's Law he was with one of our fosterers who has small children. Test results are now back and it's definitely not toxo, although the vets are not sure what the underlying trouble actually is and it seems to come and go.

Sadly one cat picked up after a traffic accident didn't make it through the night, and another very elderly stray had to be put to sleep after the vets found a huge bleeding tumour in his mouth. Another traffic accident had a happier result and the cat is being fostered by a volunteer who will probably adopt her. One of the very elderly cats was found dead in her pen first thing in the morning.

Finally our shop manager at 61 Burleigh st, went down with 'flu (probably partly reaction after all his hard work getting the shop up and running).

Another elderly stray

It's hard to know what to do for the best when we get calls to pick up elderly "stray" cats. Callers naturally tend to assume that a thin, "poor" looking cat has got that way because he or she doesn't have a home or isn't being cared for. That's not necessarily true, and a very frail-looking animal may well have a devoted home only a few doors away and simply be a very old cat. On the other hand, if the cat really has got lost, and is very elderly their chances of survival are obviously much worse than for a young, fit animal, so we would normally ask the caller to make enquries locally, but agree to collect if no owner is found.

Once we have the cat it's difficult for vets to make an effective assessment without any knowledge of previous history and we'll need to pay for blood tests as a minimum to check kidney function and whether or not the cat is hyperthyroid. Some conditions are treatable and the cat might be able to be placed in a home and live for years; others (such as the last stages of kidney failure) are hopeless and it's not fair to put put the cat in kennels and hope for the best.

If the vet's opinion is that the cat is suffering and ought to be put to sleep then as a welfare organisation we really cannot disregard their advice (bear in mind that this will not usually be "an RSPCA vet" but a normal private vet who is treating people's pets every day).

Just yesterday one of the Soham vets took in a very poorly looking stray for us and this morning they phoned to say he had a bleeding cancerous mass in his mouth and was in pain. In those circumstances it really isn't acceptable to delay in case an owner makes contact. The same day they took in another injured cat for us and he died overnight, so with hindsight it would have saved money to be used for other animals and been better for him if he'd been put to sleep at once. Sometimes these decisions have tragic consequences.

Old strays are another reason why we need more foster homes where we can give a higher standard of TLC than will ever be possible in a cattery environment. These are cats who are unlikely to be rehomed, but are still enjoying life and only ask for warmth, food, a litter tray and a comfortable bed.

If you might be willing to consider fostering animals for the branch, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Foster Carers Needed

We're trying to recruit more people who would be prepared to look after animals for short periods in their own homes. These would usually be cats recuperating after traffic accidents so not yet ready to be put forward for adoption, but we sometimes also need short-term carers for dogs and for socialising puppies or kittens.

Ideally foster homes would be close to Cambridge because many of the cats need to go back to the University Vet School for re-checks on their injuries, but we would be grateful for help from anyone in the general South Cambridgeshire / Newmarket / Royston area.

We cover expenses such as cat litter, food and veterinary treatment and will provide suitable cages or pens for kittens or animals who need to be confined because of their injuries.

If you are fostering kittens or puppies someone needs to be at home for most of the day so they get enough exposure to humans for proper social development.

All homes are visited by someone from the branch before animals are placed there. This allows fosterers to ask any questions they may have and means we can get some idea of how experienced they are, which is particularly vital when we are placing adult dogs who need training in a domestic environment. It also means we can weed out anyone who is taking on more animals than they can cope with.

If you are interested in offering to help as a short term foster home, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Evictions

I hope this morning's call from someone who is due to be evicted from her home and needs to find somewhere for her animals is not the first sign of an avalanche. We've already noticed that the rate of rehoming seems to be slowing as people think twice before taking on new commitments. If this is accompanied by significantly increased numbers of emergency requests to take in animals, then we are looking at real trouble.

We always need more volunteers willing to foster animals (mostly cats, but some dogs and smaller animals too). If you might be interested, please email rspcacambridge@aol.com. 

We will reimburse costs for pet food, litter etc. to fosterers. 

Updates

Samuel, the little terrier, now has a home.

Nicholas continues to eat for England. Still looking very pathetic (partly because his rear end was shaved for the surgery, so he looks like a mini-baboon), but he's progressed to loud wails of discontent whenever he thinks meals are due and he doesn't appear to have any pain at all now when he walks. I'm a bit concerned that he's still so shy; he's not at all aggressive or "spitty", but he hides in his igloo and peers out waiting until I've left the room before he will eat. I was hoping that he could go down to the kennels if his X-ray gives the all-clear next week, but he's not going to "sell" himself if he hides away. 

It might be better to move him to a pen in a more populous area of the house to encourage him to come out of his shell, but that's going to be a problem if Otto and Luigi (or any of the females come to that) decide to take exception to the presence of an entire male. I would really rather not share a home with cats who have decided they're cross enough to start spraying. Thistledown used to pee into electric sockets, which is dangerous; expensively wrecks the house electrics, and creates an aroma which does not give the right impression.

No news yet on the culture results for Darcy.

Updates

Nicola transported bladder trouble cat 1 to the kennels last Friday and I'm hoping that the fact that they've not been in contact about him means he's not had any more problems.

Bladder trouble cat 2 (with the fractured pelvis) started peeing on Monday & I've now got him in my spare room in cat pen (back to the Vet School for a recheck X-ray in 2 weeks). They think the not-peeing was just because it hurt and that he's got no long-term medical problems. He's a very nice looking male (all black), was entire but the Vet School castrated him when they fixed his pelvis. Other than warning any new owner that he's got metal screws inside, which will show up on any future x-ray, he should do well. 

He ate his supper last night and used his litter tray, but still looks rather horrified when anyone comes in the room, poor little chap. Fear of vets seems to be a hazard for cats with pelvic fractures as they get quite a lot of very painful handling during the initial period of examination. My own Elsie has the embarrassing distinction of being banned by the vet unless she's really, really ill because she turns into an insane fear-biter at the surgery. At her last visit she had to be recaptured as she tried to exit through the window-glass by putting her carrier over her and sliding a board across the top, rather like someone catching a wasp with a drinking glass and a piece of card.

The vets phoned this morning to say that Darcy, the pyothorax cat, had a good night and looks quite bright. They'll do another x-ray of his chest on Monday.

The stray terrier has a broken pelvis, which they'll probably operate on today, but they are hopeful that his head injuries aren't serious as he seems brighter in himself. He'll need several weeks cage rest before he can go to the kennels for rehoming and we hope one of our fosterers will be able to take him.

If you might be interested in fostering animals for the branch, please email rspcacambridge@aol.com

What a complicated fortnight

Eight week old kitten (uninjured, but too small for our normal "if it's uninjured and healthy, leave it alone" rule) taken into Vet24 over the weekend. In the meantime, Fountain, one of the two kittens being fostered with a view to adoption, developed a runny nose and we organised transport so he could go to a vet on Monday. By then he was fine, but of course the transport volunteer couldn't alter all her other arrangements to collect the Vet24 kitten. 

Re-arranged transport to get her to the kennels today — by which time the vets had managed to find someone who wanted to adopt her anyway. Excellent news, apart from messing the poor transport person about again, as we really don't like holding young animals in kennels because of the effect on their socialisation. 

Madison and Emily should be moved to the kennels next Monday (unless something else happens) as they're now fighting fit and ready to be shown to adopters. Lomas is booked in for his X-ray at the Vet School the same day and we are all praying that he'll be able to have his fixator removed so that we don't have any more panics.

Cocoa is back!

This is not another microchip success story, as she's returned under her own steam and I've no idea where she's been for the past two days or what she's been up to. I'm hugely relieved however as she's on medication for epilepsy and I was begining to fear that she'd gone off to die somewhere.

Cocoa's history illustrates why some perfectly responsible owners end up having to give up pets after trying everything they can to solve the problem. Her epilepsy means that her house-training is sometimes erratic — this was something her previous owners could deal with until they had small children and the resulting hygiene worries became too much.

We always need caring homes willing to take "imperfect" animals who either have ongoing medical problems or are simply getting on in life. Where we know a medical condition will need continuing treatment we can usually help with the cost of this. If you might be able to offer a home to an animal like this; or if you might be able to help with temporary foster care for a recovering animal, please email rspcacambridge@aol.com

Sunday evening panic

Modern surgical techniques make some absolutely remarkable repairs possible, even where the main bones of a limb have been broken in several places so that they effectively hang loose. For really bad cases, the vets will usually implant a "surgical fixator" - effectively a metal scaffolding bonded to the pieces of bone to hold them rigidly in position so that they can grow back together. The result looks fearsome, but seems to completely relieve the pain of the break. In the accompanying photo Tiger Lily demonstrates how unworried she is by the fixator holding her upper forelimb together.

The downside is the length of time needed for bone to grow back between the broken sections. This can take several months, and until the natural join is complete it's essential that the animal doesn't put sudden strain on the leg by jumping or falling and the fixator has to stay in place (it's removed by a second operation once X-rays show natural bone growth has filled in the gaps).

This means the animal has to be closely confined and only exercised under strict supervision and various sorts of cages have to be used, none of which are entirely satisfactory. The large plastic cages sold for indoor rabbit-keeping are easy to clean and free of snags on which the fixator can get hooked up, but they are rather hot in sunny weather. Fibre-glass or plastic indoor kennels and dog crates are preferable in many ways but the bars can be a problem - as one of our fosterers discovered on Sunday when his foster-cat managed to slip his fixator through the cage bars, and panic, turn sideways and get completely wedged. It then required two of us to release him, one to rotate the cat and the other to slide the fixator through the bars. Not entirely my idea of a fun Sunday night.

More and more cats

Elderly all-black female with probable thyroid trouble handed in from Tennison  Road area; very thin dark tortoiseshell with suspected kidney failure in via Vet24. Plus a returnee originally rehomed in June who didn't get on with the existing resident cat.

On the upside, one of the vets got so fond of the kitten with the ruptured diaphragm and fractured leg that he's going to adopt her, and the cat with two broken hind legs is being fostered with a view to adoption if he gets on with the pair of resident cats.

Elderly Tabby/tortie?

Has anyone in the Cambridge area lost an elderly dark tabby/tortie cat? She was brought in just over a week ago suffering from severe dehydration as well as being very thin, so may have been living rough for some time. She seems to have had an infection at some point which has left her third eyelids permanently partially raised, but this may have happened after she got lost. She initially had to be put on a drip and we thought we were going to be forced to put her to sleep, but she's picked up after being rehydrated and put on a renal diet and she's now maintaining reasonable body condition without artificial fluids.

Fenella's story illustrates the problem of unidentifiable older cats. She's so friendly that she must have had a home at some time, but without a micro-chip it's unlikely that we can re-unite her with her original owners. While she's reasonably well we can ensure her a good quality of life with one of our fosterers, but with so many cats it's not possible to give older ones the same kind of nursing care they would be able to expect in a home of their own.

If you might be interested in fostering animals for our branch, please email rspcacambridge@aol.com with subject: fostering

Foster Homes Needed

We are looking for people who would be willing to help with short-term care of animals before they're fit enough to be transferred to the kennels. This would usually be injured cats needing "cage rest" - basically time spent confined in a fairly small pen in order to prevent them doing damage to broken bones or wounds that have been stitched.

Fosterers need somewhere indoors suitable to put up one of our pens (tiles or vinyl flooring are ideal because they are easily cleaned).  We provide suitable pens and pay for food and cat litter. Most injured cats would need to attend the RSPCA clinic for several check-ups before being passed as fit for rehoming. We can organise transport if the fosterer doesn't have a car (or isn't available at the right times). Ideally pens should be in a room where they can be shut away from your own cats in order to reduce the risk of disease being spread.

Because of the need to return to the clinic in Cambridge, we are particularly looking for fosterers in or close to Cambridge, but would also be interested in helpers further afield.

If you are interested in fostering for us, please email rspcacambridge@aol.com 

State of play

On the plus side, the kitty with the extreme hair-cut, little Tommy, the yorkie, Hendrik, the Shi Tzu cross, and Bob, with the dislocated hip, all have homes booked. 

On the downside, there's another cat waiting for collection from Arbury road vets (with a drain for his nasty abscess that will go on leaking pus for several days - oh joy!). 

Plus one angry hamster, product of an unexpected litter. This is more common than you'd think, considering that Syrian hamsters are solitary and should be kept in individual cages. The child who owned the original hamster appears to have given the babies out like sweets to her class-mates, some of whose parents weren't happy to be landed with the chore of cage-cleaning. 

Doing our bit for carbon neutrality

This is Emily, the little black cat from Burwell with the awful collar wound.

Now well enough to go out into foster care and looking a little apprehensive about our transport facilities.

I don't try this with animals with fractures or anything that will be made worse by jolting, but otherwise, most cats and rabbits prefer cycling to being enclosed in a noisy, frightening car. Cambridge is very "cycle-orientated" and there are often short-cuts which mean it's actually quicker by bike. One of my own cats loves travelling by cycle (even to the vet!) and practically sits there waving to her admirers like royalty.