Calls about reptiles

Common Lizard (Zootoca vivipara)
  © Copyright Lairich Rig and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

We're getting a slightly surprising number of calls from people who are concerned about finding lizards in their garden (or straying inside buildings), so I thought I'd try to find a photo showing what species these are likely to be. The only other British lizards are the Smooth snake (a legless lizard) and the much rarer Sand Lizard. 

They are entirely harmless to people (in fact beneficial because they feed on insects and slugs) and, at a maximum size of about 8 inches, have much more reason to be afraid of us than we of them.

All species of British lizard are protected by law, and it is an offence to kill or injure them. If one end s up indoors (perhaps attracted by warmth), the best way to remove it is probably to capture it by putting something like a jam jar over it, then sliding a piece of card or paper under the rim of the jar until the lizard is confined. Alternatively you could use a dustpan and soft brush to gently sweep the lizard up and then release it outside. 

Lizards have waterproof skin which is dry and scaly to the touch. Other lizard-like creatures you may find locally are various newts. These are amphibia (related to frogs and toads) and their skin is moist. They definitely ought not to be indoors as they will dehydrate and die, but may get in by accident, or possibly be brought in by cats.

Newt
  © Copyright Penny Mayes and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

As exotic reptiles become more common as pets, there's the added potential complication of escapees. If you find a lizard that's significantly more than 8 inches long, it may be a lost pet. 

Animal Welfare Figures for July and August

I've got a bit behind with these.

The stats for July are:

Animal treatments: Cats 108, Dogs 238, Rabbits 6, and 4 miscellaneous "small furries"

We rehomed 2 dogs, 11 cats and 2 miscellaneous.

For August:
Treatments: Cats 141, Dogs 295, Rabbits 7 and 3 miscellaneous.

We rehomed 3 dogs, 8 cats, 1 Rabbit and 3 miscellaneous.

Total treatments for the year to date: Cats 813, Dogs 1,970, Rabbits 71 and 28 miscellaneous.

Knackered...

On reception at the clinic all yesterday morning, with Patch, one of the cats I'm fostering fitted in at the end of the session. The abscess under her eye has healed up nicely, but unfortunately her skin condition is, if anything, worse than ever. She's now on steroids to try to clear up the inflammation and irritation and medicated baths to keep the skin clean and wash off allergens.

This morning I had an anxious call from on of our local "cat ladies", about a probable stray she's been feeding (shown in the picture). We're fairly certain that she's hyperthyroid and that someone has gone to the trouble of getting it diagnosed, because her throat has been shaved at the point where blood would be taken for the test. The major problem is that she doesn't seem to be going home at all, which is very bad news if she ought to be on medication for the condition. The vets were able to feel an enlarged thyroid, and she's got all the symptoms: extreme weight loss while eating ravenously, racing heart, thirst and excessive drinking.

Cycled over at 8 and collected her as the "least worst" option since if we take her in we do at least know for sure what's happening, while if we leave her where she is we've got no way of knowing whether or not she's returning home or getting any treatment at all. Hyperthyroidism is a common problem in elderly cats and is usually treatable with medication, but the longer a cat goes without treatment the greater the strain on her heart and kidneys.

To the charity shop at 11, but not a lot of customers due to the awful weather. This was compensated by lots of incoming donations of items to sell, including two enormous ones including loads of very good crockery, which should go well when the students return. The clothes donations included a bag of towels, which are very welcome with so many foster cats needing washable bedding.

We need to recruit more volunteers to help in the shops. If you are interested, please email camshop@rspca-cambridge.org.uk or newmarket@rspca-cambridge.org.uk (depending on your location).

Gift aid starting to pan out

After some initial teething trouble, I think we've now basically got the hang of running the gift aid system in our charity shops, and the first actual funds should appear in our bank account 6-8 weeks from now.

If you donate any items for sale and you are a UK income tax payer, please do complete a gift aid form, as it means an extra 28 pence for every pound raised when your donation is sold at no extra cost to you.

The process works on a bar code system. We take a sheet of bar code labels, all labels on a sheet having the same unique number. One label is stuck on your form and the others go on the price tags we put on your donations. When a donated item is sold, we scan the price tag at the till and the amount and donor number are recorded. During the night the till "phones home" and uploads details of everything scanned that day.

Once a reasonable sum has been recorded against your donor number, we print out and send you a letter telling you how much has been raised, and checking that you still wish to donate it to the branch. 24 days later (to give you a chance to demand your money!) we can put in a claim to HMRC for an amount equivalent to the tax you paid on that amount of income.

The need for the letters seems quite wasteful, but unfortunately they are a legal requirement if we want to operate the system, and there is a facility to avoid printing any which would cost more to post than the amount we would gain if we put in a claim.

It all sounds very complicated, but the degree of automation means it's actually harder to explain, than to do. Once the system has been running for a reasonable length of time, it should generate a steady amount of additional income as the gift aid forms come in and our claims go out to HMRC.

Injured cat

I've just been contacted by the 24hour emergency vet to let me know one of the Animal Welfare Officers has brought a cat in for first aid there. She'll have pain relief and emergency care overnight then one of our volunteer drivers will transfer her to our own clinic for further treatment in the morning. They say they're pretty sure she has at least one broken leg, but I should have more details, including a description, by tomorrow evening.

If a cat goes missing it's important to phone round vets—including the emergency out of hours vet, who may be some distance away—as injured animals are normally taken to the closest available private vet for first aid. Depending on how busy they are and whether the cat is found during the middle of the night, there may be some delay before the local branch is notified.

After a fracture repair operation cats will normally need to be confined for several weeks to avoid putting further strain on the repaired section of bone, which could cause the ends to move out of alignment. They also need to come back to the clinic for periodic re-checks. We are always in need of foster homes where they can be kept during this recovery period as it's a waste of funds and a drain on the kennel staff time to put them into our cattery, and it's also much more pleasant for the cats to be in home-like surroundings where they can have more attention to help pass the time.

If you might be interested in fostering cats for the branch, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

UPDATE:
Sadly she deteriorated in the next few days, and the vets took the decision to put her to sleep as they did not think she would survive an operation to amputate the leg with the worst injuries.

Do you know this cat?

She was reported to us as a possible poorly stray, but examination showed that the fur on her throat had been recently shaved—most likely in order to do a blood test for hyperthyroidism as her thyroid gland feels enlarged. She's very thin, which is why the finder was concerned and phoned us, but this is probably due to the thyroid condition. As she obviously does have an owner who is attending to her medical care, we released her again, exactly where she was picked up. 

If she's your cat, or you know who owns her, we'd be very grateful if you could let us know whether she's returning home regularly for her medication. If not, we can arrange to catch her again and bring her to you.

Good news on Riley

Her real name is Roxy and she's insured, so her owner is able to take on the cost of her treatment. We managed to get a definite ID as she's chipped, although there was some delay because they'd moved since registering the chip and the phone number listed was no longer active.

Let's hope Roxy makes a full recovery—she'll certainly be more comfortable in her own familiar home surroundings than in a cat pen in a foster home.

We always need to recruit more foster carers for animals recovering after treatment. If you might be interested, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Update on Taylor

Taylor's swollen pads are better than they were, but still not normal, so I took him in for an appointment with the veterinary dermatologist this morning. He's now on a different antibiotic with slightly lower levels of the steroids for another five weeks and booked for re-exam. then.

As I'd booked the whole day as leave from work, I thought I might as well open up the bookshop for the rest of the afternoon and was pleasantly surprised to take £25 in only two hours. It just goes to show the shop can be a useful asset to generate funds if we can only recruit enough volunteers to open every day. 

If you're interested in old books, the shop is a fun place to be as there's always something unexpected turning up—and you do get to read books if you want! If you're looking for something that will help improve your CV, this may be for you, and we do give references for job interviews if we're asked.

If you might be interested in volunteering, please email info@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Sunday at 61 Burleigh Street

Huge thanks to everyone who donated so much fantastic china and books this week—please keep them coming.

As summer winds down, we could still do with more lightweight summer clothes since, at this time of year, shoppers are more likely to buy from charity shops than spend on new things they'll only wear for a few weeks if they need to replace clothes.

On Saturday we took in another injured cat, Riley, who will need surgery to repair her broken jaw. Your donations and purchases at our shops provide the funds to pay to treat her and other similar animals, so please keep up your support.

If you would like to make a donation by mobile phone to help with the cost of treating Riley, text the message PETS00 £10 to 70070 to donate £10 to RSPCA Cambridge. Your phone provider will add £10 to your bill and send £10 to our bank account. If you are a UK taxpayer and you complete the gift aid options we will receive an additional £2.80 at no cost to you.  

(The last two characters of PETS00 are zeros, not letters.)

Village vet open day at Milton

Many thanks to Village Vets for giving us a free stall at their open day. Attendance wasn't as good as I'd hoped because of the weather (by 3 it was setting in to rain properly and we all bailed out).

However it was all extra publicity for the shops, and several people took bags to collect saleable items for us.

If you would be able to take some of our collection bags to display somewhere (for example at your place of work), please email info@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Just managing decline...

Bobby needs a home

Is not something we should ever accept.

Currently we are stuck in a series of vicious cycles and unless we can break out and convert them into virtuous cycles things are just going to get worse.

For years RSPCA branches have struggled against a perception that they have almost unlimited resources and are simply being mean when they can't do everything.

We've gone on throwing everything we have into efforts to improve in the hope that finally enough of the animal-loving public will understand we are doing all we can and be won over into giving their support.

Every time we can't do enough someone will go away to tell all their friends that "The RSPCA doesn't care," and, in the next turn of the vicious cycle,  our resources are even more limited.

Unless we can turn this round we'll end up in a situation where injured strays are kept alive just long enough to give an owner some chance of locating them and otherwise put to sleep because no-one can afford the cost of treatment. Understandably, vets hate it when this happens and it's probably one of the biggest reasons why so few vets and vet nurses are RSPCA members. 

Ultimately, the solution is in their hands. If animal welfare professionals want a different RSPCA it's up to them to join and participate. 

We can't offer free treatment to every local pet owner who is on a very low income, but we can give them the option of taking responsibility and registering at our clinic so that they can access low-cost treatment in an emergency.

However hard they work 60-odd volunteers and 200 subscribers have no possible way of satisfying the amount of need that exists. Four thousand people all contributing what they can do to help could bring about a situation where all treatable strays could be saved and found new homes and all pet owners in genuine need could be given access to affordable veterinary treatment.

In some ways the deteriorating animal welfare situation mirrors attitudes behind the rioting in London. People being told there's no point in using democratic options to make their views known because everything's corrupt. Being told nothing they personally can do will help them improve their community. Thinking they're entitled to more and being aggrieved when they don't get it. Believing there's no need to take personal responsibility for anything because someone else will always have to sort things out. Destroying instead of building.

The only way to get anything worthwhile done is to cooperate. None of us can expect to get precisely what we want, but working together gives us a heck of a better chance of getting close. 

Volunteer for the RSPCA and learn new skills... hmm

Very many thanks to the new volunteers who've offered to help at our second-hand bookshop. 

WE STILL NEED MORE, so please email info@rspca-cambridge.org.uk if you think you might be interested.

Volunteering at the bookshop genuinely does mean learning more about the books, music and print trade, how to price items, what will sell and how to present them to best advantage (also use of the till and some general admin skills).

We probably won't ask you to fit a new toilet seat, as Ffi and I have just done that this morning, and also given the kitchen and lavatory a general sprucing up. If you are interested; removing fixing screws that have been in place for something like five years is difficult and involves hanging over the toilet bowl looking as though you are about to throw up.

Many thanks also to the generous donors who brought in huge quantities of books this week. 

Please keep the donations coming. This is a shop that can be made to work to generate useful funds if we can only get enough volunteers and attract interest from the local community to get customers through the door and making purchases. 

Another stray cat

He's an un-neutered male and taken to the 24 hour vet under an RSPCA log number from the NCC because he was fitting. They've just phoned to say they think they've got the seizures under control, but he's very dehydrated and they suspect he may have eaten slug pellets or some other poison.

They're giving fluids and hoping there's no permanent damage to his kidneys. He's quite a young cat, but the next 24 hours will be critical.

Running on empty

Just had a call from the 24 hour vet about an owner with absolutely no money and a pregnant cat who needs a caesarian. There's no way we can cover the cost, and he's going to try the Cats Protection branch, but even if they can help this time, eventually they'll run out of money as well.

Private veterinary surgeries can't work for nothing or they will go our of business. If only the owner had got her cat spayed—CP would have given her a voucher to get it done for nothing, or she could have used our clinic and paid only £35. If she'd done no more than arrange for her cat to be vaccinated at our clinic it would have meant the cat was registered and eligible for emergency treatment at the University Vet School's reduced charity rates.

The small numbers of people who keep animal charities running can't solve these problems on their own. We need support from the competent animal lovers who form the majority of the pet-owning population, and we need to educate the minority to develop at least the minimal forethought to get pets vaccinated and registered with our own clinic or with the PDSA if they're not going to be able to afford a private vet.

Ferrets!

This cute little family were abandoned on our ferret fosterer's doorstep in a cardboard box.

Ferrets make very friendly, interesting pets but there seems to be a growing trend for thoughtless breeding of litters.

It used to be the case that Jill ferrets had to be bred each year to prevent them suffering from pyometria, but modern veterinary medicine has put paid to that.

PLEASE get Jills spayed (or keep them with a vasectomised male ferret) to avoid contributing to the problem of surplus babies.

If you are interested in giving a home to a pair of ferrets, email davedodds992@gmail.com

Help with veterinary treatment

After spending all morning on reception at our clinic, I was less than delighted to see someone from London had posted a complaint on the branch Facebook page about the level of service the RSPCA provides to pet owners who can't afford to pay out of hours fees at a private vet.

Unfortunately this is just one aspect of a vicious circle in which we can't raise enough funds to do everything members of the public think we should, which leads to bad publicity and in turn to less funds and more situations where we can't help.

We run the only low-cost animal clinic in the whole of Cambridgeshire, and if we go under something like 2% of the local population will have no source of affordable veterinary help at all. It's absolutely imperative that we persuade more people who care about animals that the RSPCA can't function unless they get involved and help keep our services running.

Part of the problem is that we are dealing with a lot of people who are having difficulty finding relatively small amounts of money. On the whole, someone facing a £2,000 veterinary bill will understand that it's not possible for the RSPCA to cover it. Someone whose animal needs £100 worth of treatment can't understand why an organisation with a £250,000 turnover can't pay for it all, and, indeed, if there was just one person in that situation there would be no problem.

What is completely impossible is finding that hundred pounds every day of the week in addition to carrying on the normal clinic service for registered patients.

It's not as straightforward as saying that people shouldn't have pets unless they are prepared to pay for them, because at the point where they need a vet it's not a choice of keeping the pet or having it rehomed, but keeping it or having it put to sleep. Plus, of course, if everyone who would struggle to pay a £100 vet bill asked us to rehome their pet immediately, we couldn't possibly do that either.

Dogs and Heatstroke

Sadly we've just had a fatal case of heatstroke in a dog taken to our clinic as an emergency. This wasn't a very old or very young dog and the owner hadn't done anything irresponsible like leaving him in a car. 

In very hot, humid weather even young, fit dogs may be at risk of overheating, so I'm reproducing the advice given on the main RSPCA website at www.rspca.org.uk Dogs are less able to cope with high temperatures than we are.

Heatstroke - early warning signs

Heatstroke can be fatal. Do everything you can to prevent it.

Some dogs are more prone to heatstroke. For example, dogs with short snouts, fatter or heavily muscled dogs and long-haired breeds, as well as very old or very young dogs. Dogs with certain diseases are more prone to heatstroke, as are dogs on certain medication.

If dogs are unable to reduce their body temperature, they will develop heatstroke. There are some signs to look for:

• heavy panting
• profuse salivation
• a rapid pulse
• very red gums/tongue
• lethargy
• lack of coordination
• reluctance or inability to rise after collapsing
• vomiting
• diarrhoea
• loss of consciousness in extreme circumstances.

Heatstroke - first aid

If your dog shows any symptoms of heatstroke, move him/her to a shaded, cool area and ring your vet for advice immediately. Heatstroke can be fatal and should always be treated as an emergency.

Dogs suffering from heatstroke urgently need to have their body temperature gradually lowered:

Immediately douse your dog with cool (not cold) water, to avoid shock – you could put your dog in a shower and run cool water over him/her, or use a spray filled with cool water and place your dog in the breeze of a fan.

Let your dog drink small amounts of cool water.

Continue to douse your dog with cool water until his/her breathing starts to settle – never cool your dog so much that he/she begins to shiver.

Once you have cooled your dog down you should take him/her straight to the veterinary surgery.

Top tips for warm weather

Your dog should always be able to move into a cooler, ventilated environment if he/she is feeling hot.

Never leave your dog alone in a car. If you want to take your dog with you on a car journey, make sure that your destination is dog-friendly – you won’t be able to leave your dog in the car and you don’t want your day out to be ruined!

If you have to leave your dog outside, you must provide a cool shady spot where he/she can escape from the sun at all times of the day.

Make sure your dog always has a good supply of drinking water, in a weighted bowl that can’t be knocked over. Carry water with you on hot days and give your dog frequent small amounts.

Never leave your dog in a glass conservatory or a caravan. Even if it is cloudy when you leave, the sun may come out later in the day and make it unbearably hot.

Groom your dog regularly to get rid of excess hair. Give long-coated breeds a haircut at the start of the summer, and later in the season, if necessary.

Dogs need exercise - even when it is hot. Walk your dog early in the morning or later in the evening. Never allow your dog to exercise excessively in hot weather.

Dogs can get sunburned too – particularly those with light-coloured noses or light-coloured fur on their ears. Ask your vet for advice on pet-safe sunscreen.

Updates from the "Tweetathon"

The team aimed to Tweet about 10% of the incidents coming in to RSPCA National Control Centre over a 24 hour period.

Most of the messages are all capitals because this was done by simply copy/pasting from the NCC computer's outgoing feed of incident details (the information which they send out to the field staff for action on the ground).

This is possible because the control centre staff have to summarise the gist of each problem in a few sentences. By serendipity this means the rather elderly Control Centre IT system is an ideal source of Twitter status updates even though social media hadn't been invented when it was first set up.

RSPCA 24/7 Tweetathon

I've moved up the widget that displays RSPCA_Frontline's twitter feed so that it's more easily visible. Tony Woodley is aiming to display a selection of the incidents reported to the RSPCA National Control centre over a 24 hour period.

The codes E, NE, SE etc. indicate which of the RSPCA regions is the location of the incident.

Please don't forget that many incidents will result in the relevant local branch being asked to provide support in terms of veterinary treatment or care until an animal can be placed in a permanent new home.

You can donate to our branch (RSPCA Cambridge) using text messages on your mobile phone. Simply text the message PETS00 £10 to 70070 to donate £10 to RSPCA Cambridge. Your phone provider will add £10 to your bill and send £10 to our bank account. If you are a UK taxpayer and you complete the gift aid options we will receive an additional £2.80 at no cost to you. 

We stagger on...

Many thanks to everyone who turned out on a damp evening to support our second attempt at holding a valid AGM. We were successful in getting the required seven people elected, so the branch remains in being for another year.

PLEASE! Persuade, badger or cajole your animal-loving friends and relations into joining the RSPCA.

Adult membership is £25, of which £5 is passed on to support your local branch and keep its welfare services running. 

My personal goals for 2012 are to see the branch able to:

• Save all healthy and treatable animals that we take in for rehoming.
• Continue to offer low-cost veterinary treatment for responsible pet owners in financial need.
• Offer rehoming as an alternative to euthanasia for pets belonging to owners who cannot afford to pay for even reduced-rate veterinary treatment.