Update on the bunny

They've done an X-ray and now think he may simply have a dislocated hip, so they're going to have a go at putting it back under sedation. 

and a rabbit!

Not looking too great, I'm afraid. He was picked up near Ely and taken to Pet Drs vets, but he doesn't seem to have the use of his back legs. He's a grey lionhead and has obviously escaped from someone's garden. They're giving supportive treatment in the hope that it's the effect of bruising that will heal with time as there doesn't seem to be any actual fractures to explain his inability to stand.

More cats again, and updates

Another traffic accident via Cathedral vets in Ely (dislocated hip, which they will probably pin there to avoid the need to transfer to the Vet School, then to the kennels) and another entire tom with septic fight wounds admitted at Pet Drs in Soham — fortunately testing FIV/FeLV negative.

The cat admitted to the Vet School hospital last week has had his pelvis plated and can walk fairly normally, but he still can't urinate without help. They think this is a temporary problem which will go away as the pelvic bruising heals up. He's not terribly happy in the hospital because it's very noisy and strange, so ideally we'd get him out to a foster home where he could get more peace and quiet, but it's difficult because it needs to be someone who's willing to be trained to express his bladder manually until he gets back normal muscle control.

Spirit, the blocked bladder kitty has been castrated and is FIV/FeLV negative and seems to be passing urine with no problems, so Nicola's planning to move him to the kennels tomorrow.

Freedom Food

Gave a short talk on the work of the local branch to Anglia Ruskin Student Animal Welfare Society and the validity of the Freedom Food scheme came up in the Q&A session afterwards. Looking back on this, I don't think I got across the significance of FF as a source of advice on best practice for farmers who genuinely want to improve animal welfare on their farms. The students mainly seemed to view it as a mechanism for checking up on farmers and catching them out (and universally wanted to press for more frequent inspections).

The audit aspect of any welfare acreditation scheme obviously is important (otherwise no-one knows whether farmers are complying with the standards and deserve premium prices), but I don't think the average person stops to consider the importance of the science and knowledge that goes into the development of standards in the first instance.

One of the most valuable (and comparatively little-known) features of Freedom Food is the iterative process by which standards are devised; studied in actual commercial use and then revised on the basis of the findings from those studies.

There's some information about this on the Bristol University Veterinary science website, and also the EU Welfare Quality site. The Guardian has an article relating just to the Freedom food standards for broiler chickens which illustrates why annual inspections might not be sufficient to catch individual acts of cruelty or indiference by workers, but would verify the farm's systems and processes.

Further thoughts

I suppose what I'm getting at partly is that some things (e.g. employee behaviour) do need spot checks, but a lot of the things that go towards improved welfare on farms aren't really likely to be whisked away once the assessor's back is turned. Buildings, for example don't need more than annual checks; and some aspects of good practice can be assessed by requiring record-keeping. Records might be forged, but if health records include veterinary visits, vaccination etc. deviation from the required standards would require collusion from an assortment of professional people with a reputation to lose.

More thoughts

Freedom Food is the only welfare-specific assurance/quality label scheme in Europe, and it was started before the similar schemes in the US. 

Bristol University has some example assessor recording forms and flow charts which illustrate what is being checked; it's not simply a matter of an inspector turning up and looking for examples of cruelty.

I think there are important parallels with Nathan Winograd's thoughts on how attitudes to humans can make animal advocates less effective at helping animals. If we assume that most other people are nasty, uncaring individuals who can never be trusted we end up alienating potential allies, wasting resources and ultimately failing to achieve progress. If we assume that other people are basically trustworthy and want to avoid cruelty, we may sometimes be deceived, but overall we'll make better gains even if we sometimes have to accept that not everyone shares our views about what constitutes good animal welfare.

Small Hedgehogs

The wildlife hospital at East Winch is having another large influx of young hedgehogs below the critical weight for safe hibernation. Hedgehogs need to be at least 500 grams (just over a pound) and preferably 600 (a pound and a quarter) to get through hibernation and late autumn litters often fail to make it before the weather gets too cold for them to feed successfully.

Young hedgehogs are one of the few wild animals who can be given effective help by non-experts: provided they are capable of eating solid food, it is feasible to give them a chance of survival by providing them with room-temperature warmth and a supply of cat or dog food (non-fish-based) and water. Milk is best avoided because it can cause diarrhoea.

Any hedgehog seen moving around during daylight hours is almost certainly in trouble, as they are quite strictly nocturnal.

Update on the blocked bladder saga

Still doing well and the vets think he should be fit enough to be moved to the kennels on Thursday. To my amazement he's actually an entire (they think part of his problems may have been the result of being kept permanently indoors - boggle!), so I've asked them to neuter and vaccinate him before we move him as the kennels aren't keen on having un-neutered tom cats because of the smell.

Myxomatosis

We're still seeing cases of myxomatosis in pet rabbits, probably because of the unusually warm and humid weather. Unless the rabbit has been vaccinated this is almost always fatal. For best protection, rabbits need to be given booster vaccination every six months.  They may still get the disease, but will usually only suffer a mild infection, which should be thrown off with careful nursing.

Myxomatosis is spread by biting insects, including midges and mosquitos, so pets don't need to be in direct contact with wild rabbits to get the disease. Cambridge is a high-risk area, because of the large numbers of wild rabbits living on common land along the river and the streams which feed into it and on the chalk grassland areas of Cherry Hinton and the Gog Magog hills. 

Update on special needs cat

I called in to collect medication for one of my own cats yesterday and the vet called me through to show me the FIV positive cat. He's a really handsome cat and very friendly. The lady who found him and has been feeding him really doesn't want to have to have him put to sleep, but she can't put her own cats at risk by having him back. 

To re-iterate Janine's post: anyone adopting him would need to be able to keep him away from cats who are not FIV positive, either indoors or in a secure run. He isn't currently showing any signs of a defective immune system, so he may remain healthy for many years.

If you might be able to help, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

Further update on the blocked bladder saga

After discussion with the Vet School and the private vets who started his treatment we've agreed the best thing would be for him to stay at the private vet over the weekend to see how he goes on medication. If all is well by Monday and he's urinating normally with no signs of bleeding, we can probably think about transferring him to our kennels with a view to seeking a new home. If antibiotics aren't solving the problem, then we need to think about a transfer to our clinic (and from there to the Vet School Hospital) on Tuesday. 

A possible alternative would be to get him into Block Fen animal home as they have a vet nurse on the staff and a fully kitted-out surgery for animals on the site, but I phoned them today and they're completely full up at present. (If you're as mystified as I was by their Google map, which appears to show a shed in the middle of a field, I think the answer is that Google uses satellite pictures from quite a long time ago).

Meanwhile Richard thinks he's got the other cats sorted out. Their owner will keep two neutered females and the other two will be rehomed with her sister, who promises to get them neutered and to deal with their flea problem. 

Update on the blocked bladder saga

Well, Richard, our local inspector has visited the owner and persuaded her to sign the cat over to us for rehoming as she really isn't in a position to manage his ongoing condition. We're going to help her with the cost of flea treatment for the other cats and CP will cover their neutering (as they've already issued the vouchers for this). 

Richard thinks she'll be able to cope with the remaining cats once they're no longer producing kittens to add to the colony. 

Never-ending saga of a cat with a blocked bladder

This all started innocently, with a call from one of our local private vets asking for help for one of their clients. The cat had a completely blocked bladder, so needed urgent surgery to remove the stone which was causing the blockage. Without this, his bladder would almost certainly rupture and he would suffer a painful death. 

I agreed that we would cover the cost of emergency treatment to save the cat's life, but explained that we can only give help at private vets on a one-off basis and that the owner would need to register with our clinic and use that for future help. At that stage it turned out that this lady has several more cats, so I asked her to get them all registered so that they would be eligible for out of hours treatment in an emergency as well. 

The operation was successful and, a few days later, the vet called to notify me that a CP (Cat's Protection) volunteer had offered to drive the owner and all her cats to our clinic for registration. 

Yesterday evening the poor CP volunteer phoned to say that she'd collected the original cat from the vet, but the owner was now refusing to let us see the rest. This is never a good sign, and it turns out that CP had already been trying unsuccessfully to persuade her to have them spayed (at their expense). Agreed the CP volunteer should bring the sick cat in for a check-up in any case as he needs ongoing treatment for the bladder problem.

Unfortunately the Vet School decided that they legally couldn't see him without the owner's permission. Frantic examination of the rules on conduct of vets threw up the suggestion that, as vets are entitled to hold animals if the owner won't pay, it would be legally possible for the private vet to take him back for continuing care. This isn't a solution, but it's better than taking the risk that the owner will have him back and just ignore his condition until he's at death's door again.

At this stage, I'm afraid we've got no alternative to passing the problem to our local inspector, as the cats are clearly at risk and the sick one can't stay at the private vet indefinitely. I don't know how much of all this is due to the level of fear of the RSPCA which is encouraged by irresponsible reporting and campaigns by vested interests, but it certainly can't help matters.

Update on cat from Girton

He's now been examined by the orthopaedic surgeon at the Vet School and he definitely needs surgical repair of his pelvis to make it stable so that he can stand and use his back legs properly. At the moment he still isn't urinating by himself, but they don't think his bladder is paralysed—just very difficult to empty under his own steam because of the soreness of his pelvic muscles. Both his hind legs respond to stimuli, so they're hopeful that there's no significant nerve damage. We won't know for certain until after the surgery, which they're hoping to do tomorrow.

Urgent: special needs cat needing a home

URGENT post from Janine

I have heard of a young stray black male cat (around two years old) who was taken by his finder to a vets in Cambridge to be scanned for a microchip. He hasn't been chipped. But whilst at the vets he was blood tested and unfortunately found to be FIV (Feline Immunodeficiency Virus) positive.

He is not showing any symptoms and, despite having been very timid when he first turned up at finders, he is now a lovely friendly fellow. It seems a great shame for him to be put to sleep which, at the moment, is the only option if a home can't be found.

I've a lot of experience with FIV cats & have a run specially for two FIV cats. But, as it's full, I can't take him myself at the moment. If you know of anyone who may be able to take on this little fellow, I would be happy to give as much information as I can about FIV cats.

Basically what is needed is:

•  to be kept away from FIV negative cats to prevent it being passed on. It is however only contagious to cats, not other species, and not easily transmitted: has to get into bloodstream - usually through biting another cat

• this means either being kept as an indoor home (or with an outdoor run if available) and not mixing with cats unless they are also FIV positive.

• FIV positive cats can go on for years with no symptoms. However, if or when the virus affects their immune system, any illness they get can then affect them very quickly and so they need a close eye on their health.
  

Please let me know if anyone can help.
Best Wishes
Janine

If anyone can help with this cat, please email rehoming@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

October figures

Just finished the spreadsheet of welfare activity figures for October:

Rehoming: six cats, three dogs

Low-cost veterinary treatments provided for 296 dogs, 210 cats, 11 rabbits and 10 miscellaneous small animals.

Fifteen dogs, nine cats, three rabbits and two ferrets neutered.

Eight dogs, six cats, one rabbit and one fancy rat put to sleep on veterinary advice that further treatment was futile and only likely to prolong suffering.

Falling Through the Cracks

The RSPCA and the RCVS (Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons) have an agreement which governs the way we decide the financial criteria for allowing owners to attend RSPCA clinics and hospital. Basically this is designed to avoid creating a situation where charity clinics could undercut local private vets for routine operations and eventually drive them out of business. 

The agreement is that our clinics and hospitals only treat animals taken into RSPCA care for rehoming or owned by people on  state benefits (including pensions, working tax credit and students in full time education living away from home). Anyone who is not on state benefits is deemed to be capable of arranging treatment by a private vet — because they would normally be able to insure their animals or else pay using a credit card or bank overdraft if they do not have cash available. Diverting people who are on benefits to charity clinics is not likely to undercut private vets because these are people who probably would be unable to pay anyway.

Virtually all other welfare charities who run animal clinics operate similar criteria, although some have more restricted lists of benefits that they will accept as proof of low income. 

Most of the time this is clearly in the best interest of everyone, including the animals, because there is no way we could afford to run a complete "NHS for animals" providing veterinary care for all domestic pets — even if the RSPCA's entire resources were diverted to running clinics. If the private vets closed because we were taking away their clients through unfair competition everyone would be worse off. 

It can be very hard, though, if an owner's application for benefit is delayed through no fault of their own. This seems to be happening more frequently — usually because the owner has lost their job, or because a partner who was earning moves out. We can legitimately give a small amount of help via private vets as that doesn't contravene the agreement against unfair competition, but there are limits on what's possible. 

Our home-checkers are wonderful

I don't know which RSPCA animal home originally decided that Times journalist Alice Miles was not really suitable to adopt a dog, but they appear to have been spot on in their assessment. 

Incidentally, her experiences trying to house-train her puppy demonstrate exactly why we say that there are potential problems if people who work full-time adopt dogs.

If you think we have problems!

IFAW vet Dr Prasanta Boro rescues a really large kitty! Respect!

Another traffic accident cat

He's an entire male, all black and picked up on Huntingdon road, Girton by ACO Justin. Justin was concerned that he might have a ruptured diaphragm as he seemed to be struggling to breathe, but the emergency vets have x-rayed him and think he's probably got away with a pelvic fracture and shock. They're going to give him fluids and stabilise him over the weekend then X-Ray again on Monday to confirm whether he can go out to a foster home for cage rest or if he needs to be transferred to our clinic for surgery.

I've just added him to our database of incoming stray cats and clicked Google's analyse form button. The result is very interesting, although it's only a small sample. All of the injured male cats without exception are entires. The sex ratio is slightly skewed in favour of females (9 females to 6 males).

I'm not surprised that neutering would reduce male cats' risk of being found injured or ill, but I am surprised at such a dramatic effect.

I suppose it could be that neutered males are more likely to stay close to home, so if they're hit by a car their owners are more likely to find them and take them to a vet themselves. Possibly owners who neuter are also more inclined to chip, so they'd be contacted by the emergency vet and the cat wouldn't enter our system.

It will be interesting to see figures over a whole year and find if there's any difference outside the breeding season.

Further thought

I'm wondering whether some of cats recorded as female could in fact be neutered males. There is a bit of a tendency for people to call any cat of unknown sex "she" and, faced with an obviously injured animal, gender identification isn't uppermost in most finders' minds. We have occasionally taken in cats and only identified their sex further down the line when one of us thought to up-end them and look, so it is possible that some of those who don't survive or are rehomed by the vet didn't belong to the gender that was originally reported.

It does underline the importance of checking out reports of found cats that don't match the details of a lost cat in every respect.

Internet Resources

Archie the cat's website documents Archie's recovery after injury to one of his hind legs meant it had to be amputated and shows how well cats can adjust to life on three legs. We have several three-legged cats up for rehoming and Archie's story may give some prospective adopters confidence that it should be no detriment to their quality of life.

The Interactive Bunny is a fun learning tool to encourage people to research what rabbits need before acquiring one as a pet. 

Ghost: still looking

Unfortunately the home we thought we had found for Ghost didn't pan out, so he's still looking.