Microchipping and older cats

Fenella is off to the vet tomorrow after giving me a nasty scare. She's not yet chipped, mainly because every time she sees a vet they say, "Poor old lady," (her, not me!), "Why not wait a bit to see how she's going to go on before bothering her?" It's been seven months now, and they're quite right, her kidneys might pack up any day and she'd have to be put to sleep.

However, at the moment she's feeling perfectly well and the latest course of antibiotic has energised her to the point at which a quiet totter round the garden and back to bed is no longer enough, so she took herself off for the day. This is precisely the sort of behaviour that leads to older cats being picked up and handed in as strays. To someone who doesn't know, they look thin and people assume it means no-one is feeding them and they ought to be taken to a rescue organisation. This is probably why Fen was brought to us in the first place. Older cats may not normally wander far, but it is particularly important that they are chipped so that they don't end up taking places needed by genuinely unwanted animals.

Anyway, lesson learned; she's not going out again until she has her identichip.

Another benefit of getting your cat chipped

You can now get cat flaps which detect your cat's chip in order to release the locking mechanism. This ensures that only your own cats can use the flap without the use of uncomfortable and potentially dangerous collars. Cat flaps can sometimes be a bit of a mixed blessing for a timid cat because of the risk that they might allow rivals to invade what should be a secure haven.

There are currently two UK manufacturers, PetPorte and Sureflap. The SureFlap system is nicely appropriate for Cambridge Science Festival fortnight as the technology that powers it was developed by Cambridge Resonant Technologies Ltd of the St John's Innovation Centre

The Christmas Eve blues

Kicked off to a cracking start (excuse bad pun) with a kitten with probable broken bones in one foot (plant pot fell on his toe). As there's no RSPCA clinic session now until Saturday I agreed with the private vet that it wasn't fair on the kitten simply to give pain relief and wait until then, so we covered x-ray and support bandaging as well. If the x-rays suggest that the foot actually needs surgery the owner will go to our clinic on the Saturday.

Followed in short order by a vomiting dog (probably just an upset tum as she is fairly current with her vaccinations).

Next, and more worrying, an ownerless cat from Swavesey area with diarrhoea. She's not seriously ill, and the 24 hour vet was reluctant to have her occupying a cage over the whole of the break as the space will probably be needed for emergencies. The kennels where we board is completely full until some of the private boarders go home, and this is academic in any case as no-one is available for transport as Janine's car won't start. After some frantic phoning, I asked the vet to call the finder and ask if she would be prepared to have her back until after Christmas now the diarrhoea's been treated. To everyone's relief she was very understanding and drove in to pick up the cat. Annoyingly this one actually has been chipped, but it seems to have been done in America and none of the chip databases have any record of her owner's current address. Best guess is that she originally came from one of the bases and was either rehomed in Swavesey or got there by accident after hiding in a vehicle of some kind.

Santa, the cat with the collar wound is doing well, but needs to stay in for the moment as his wound is still draining. Yet another cat with a blocked bladder has been signed over to us as his owner couldn't cope and he's had his operation too and is also looking good.

July statistics

Just got the records for July collated. During the month, our branch:

Provided low-cost veterinary treatment for 205 dogs, 115 cats, 11 rabbits and 14 miscellaneous small animals.

Rehomed 4 dogs, 3 cats and 2 birds.

Microchipped 11 dogs and 10 cats

Neutered 13 dogs, 12 cats and a rabbit

Our total outgoings were £16,904 (this amount also covers wages for our three shop staff, rent for the charity shop in Newmarket and our annual audit fee). We raised £7,811, mostly from sales at the charity shops and clinic fees.

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

Yet another cat

Collected by one of the ACOs from Burwell village, with a very nasty collar wound. This happens where a cat manages to get a leg through a collar and it cuts into skin in the equivalent of our armpit, and shows why it is so important that cat collars should be made so that they will break if they get caught up. 

It will certainly need stitching and probably a tissue graft as these injuries are very difficult to get to heal because the skin is continually being pulled apart when the cat walks. Most of them are caused by flea-collars, which is possibly another reason why they don't heal as the chemicals of the collar are worked into the damaged area.

No micro-chip, and no tag on the collar so we can't easily reunite the cat with an owner. 

Flea collars are dangerous and not very effective as a way of getting rid of fleas. It would have been so much better to use an efficient veterinary "spot-on" treatment and to have used a micro-chip for ID.