Semi-feral cat pulling fur out

[Chocolate]

A very chatty and easily-spooked cat appeared at our house over a year ago. She looks like the usual farm cat to me, but I wonder if she has been abandoned as she clearly knows about houses and would like to come in. To shorten a long story, she now sleeps in the garage each night, high up on the mezzanine in a series of 'caves' I have been able to make from large cardboard boxes along its length. There are a variety of comfy places for her and she clearly makes use of them. They are all well hemmed-in by other boxes and one is thickly based and lined with new, clean duvet material. The temperature is always at least 6 degrees above that of out side. We were able to get her neutered with the help of the local SPA last year but only after she was drugged by a pill from the operating vet so we could get her to him. (She dumped her 4 kittens with neighbours first so we knew she could increase the population!). The garage is only used to store our wood and various pieces of gardening equipement. It is brick-built and roofed with beams and tiles and is totally dry with a cement floor.

She will only stay if we lock her in, and she is very happy to be so. Last November she was accidently locked out and we didn't see her for over a month though we searched long and hard. When she came back she was skin and bone and very grubby, shouting her head off. From the moment of her return she began to pull her fur out in large lumps, leaving large expanses of pink skin exposed. Three months on she is 'tatty' , still pulling fur out but some of it has grown back, but less dense. It obviously itches. She will not eat any food with powders or pills hidden in them and quickly finds and rejects these parts of the food, or refuses to eat anything. We are able to stroke her, which she likes, but not able to lift or hold her. If she sees anything like a Frontline pipette in our hands, she vanishes, so we cannot treat her for any little visitors. Neither can we worm her. She seems to be wired for flight!

She eats the well-known widely available dried food 'For Indoor Cats', and another cheap one (due to the high sugar content perhaps), the occasional meaty pocket or pieces of cooked chicken. This week there have been two headless baby bunnies brought into the garage which we hurriedly removed to outside and we have seen her playing with live and dead mice.

We love cats, have two indoor ones which she spits at and attacks through the closed windows being used to defending herself we think. She is a wonderful companion, answers and comes to the name we have given her and has taken to accompanying me in the garden and commenting all the time on my and her activities. She is lovely. However we don't know if she is carrying any diseases as it is impossible to have her vaccinated as our indoor ones are, and as they were here first, it really is their home and I do not want to introduce them to any of her diseases if she has them.

I really don't know what to do to help her. Any ideas anyone?

[val douest]

It seems you were able to drug her in order to take her to be neutered so I wonder if it would be possible to do the same again and to have her thoroughly examined by your vet.  He would take some blood which could be tested for feline leukaemia etc, and he could frontline and worm her at the same time.  Hopefully he could sort out the cause of her skin problem, too, which sounds as if it could be some kind of mites or mange.  With all that done at least you would not have to worry about her passing anything on to your other cats.  

We have been feeding a feral cat for a couple of years now but he is much warier than yours and won't allow us to come closer than a couple of feet away.  I tried to worm him with powders mixed into his feed but had the same reaction as you - complete rejection. I then discovered by accident that he adores cheese and for a week or so he had a few little balls of St Paulin (it's very mild) scattered among his croquettes.  I then rolled a worming tablet into one of the little cheese balls and he ate it with no problem; he now has a Drontal worming tablet once a month and also a Johnsons 4 fleas pill, both popped in a cheese ball.  I think it's because his dish has a mixture of soft and crunchy things in it that he doesn't realise what he's having.  He is very long-haired and I would love to give him a good grooming as in places his fur is very matted - I don't think that will ever happen though.  Maybe you could use the cheese technique with your visiting cat, though you would have to get her well used to it as a treat first (if she likes it, of course! ).  It might be a way of drugging her for the vet visit, too.  

However, if your other cats are totally indoor cats then I don't think you need worry too much about what diseases she may pass on.  She is obviously an outdoor cat and although she would like to be in the house it is not practicable to have her as an inside/outside cat while the others are shut in. I am sure she will come to no harm with dry and comfortable quarters and regular meals.  Another thought to help her skin and fur problems: there are some croquette-type treats specially formulated to help.  They are called Mark & Chappell Skin and Coat treats for cats and kittens and are available from many of the internet pet supply sites; I don't suppose they will work miracles but maybe worth a try.

I was surprised that she is happy to be locked in, as our feral moggy gets totally panic stricken if he can't get out and away.  He can now manage the cat flap (much to the consternation of our two full-time felines) but goes completely to pieces once he's in and has to have a door opened so he can rush out.  He's only after the other cats' food and as he is now fed regularly and is never really hungry he doesn't  bother much any more.

I hope you manage to sort her out - good luck!

Val

[Chocolate]

Really good advice, Val.

Some things I hadn't thought of. Also I didn't know that a cat could be given an anti-flea pill. Where can I get them from please? I recognise the Johnsons name from way back when I had the Johnson's Cat Book, (no longer printed now I think). I will google for an internet site selling the Mark and Chappell treats; I am keen to try all avenues and certainly will continue trying.

Your ferel cat sounds lovely. He is lucky to have arrived at your house. Not many people will have the patience to keep going with a cat that is problematical.. If he is long-haired, do you think he might have been abandoned or the product of someone's 'special breed' cat? The French do like long-haired cats and I think usually the feral or the barn cats are short-haired, as is ours. Perhaps he had a bad experience when 'tipped out'. Would the sedation route work for him so that your vet could remove the worst of the mats?

It has taken two years for us to get to stroke ours. We dare not try to pick her up but have to act strictly on her terms. On first arrival, she was so hungry that it wasn't difficult to put the vet's pills into her food to drug her. It is now though. She is very alert and aware. She is a dear thing though.

As to her being locked in, she seems to prefer it and is happier. Again, it took two years to get to this point, and I agonised over her being out in the really cold bad weather.Then one evening, in she went and straight up onto the garage mezzanine. She does take her time though to go in in the evening and likes to keep us on a long piece of string waiting for HRH to decide it is bedtime. If we don't then she is attacked by (and attacks first sometimes) another feral cat who is twice her size and very nasty. I know he is hungry too but we can only cope with one! The area teems with wild-life and he appears to be pretty healthy. We put a cat-flap into the garage window but in he came and there was a terrible fight with fur all over the place; mostly hers. It took a long time to get her in again. The flap is now removed and she inspects everywhere before taking possession each night.

Thank you Val for the time and trouble to give me the above advice. I will give it all my very best effort. Now off to a well-known supermarket for cheese; two or three varieties in case she is as picky as usual.

[val douest]

I have checked the flea tablets (Johnsons 4fleas) and they are available from www.chemistdirect.co.uk at £3.02 for 3 treatments).  They don't sell the Mark & Chappell treats but you can find these on www.petplanet.co.uk.  It might be worth googling both items to see if you can get a better deal on delivery for them elsewhere, though the Chemistdirect people will send any size of order to France for £7.49 and it would not be hard to make up a worthwhile total from general pet foods plus all the sorts of things you would normally buy in Boots if you were in the UK.

I have often wondered about our feral 'persian' but there seem to be quite a few very longhaired farm cats around here, usually black, and I assume someone locally once had a particularly active longhaired male whose descendants have populated the area!  We think our chap is quite elderly as he walks quite stiffly sometimes; at the moment I think we will leave him be but if he becomes obviously unwell or is in discomfort we may try the drugging route and have all his problems looked at in one go.  Having heard the tale of your little cat being terrorised in her garage by the other feral visitor I can quite see why she much prefers being locked in to the perils of a cat flap!

Anyway, good luck with administering the tablets - let's hope she likes cheese!

Val

[Suninfrance]

One of my feral cats does the same and pulls the hair off her back in chunks.  Fortunately, I am able to handle her, although she does get a bit "scratchy" when I do, but the scruff of the neck hold, is a good one.   She didn't seem to have any kind of infestation, but her skin was a bit raw looking, so I bathed it in Bettadine (which you can buy from the Pharmacie or Vet).  She wasn't keen, but it has stopped her from pulling her fur out and her skin has improved.

This little one is the most timid of the litter and I think it may be a nervous thing with her. 

The two babies of my ferals like to be indoors during the winter evenings and don't mind at all being locked in overnight.  Their mum however, loves to come and sit by the fire, but will not stay in overnight (which is a good thing as she does tend to spray).  However, that problem seems to have sorted itself out, since a friend loaned me a spray called "Feliway".  Clean the area the cat has sprayed on, then a quick squirt of the Feliway and the cat won't go near it.

Jan

[suein56]

[quote user="Chocolate"]I really don't know what to do to help her. Any ideas anyone?[/quote]

One of the kittens produced by a semi-feral cat we had - mum was pregnant when we 'acquired' her but we did not know it - was very nervy and used to lick her fur until she had numerous bald/red patches on her. The vet said she was stressed - probably due to being one of 6 cats we had at the time - and prescribed some hormonal type tablets as the problem was more pronounced in spring and autumn. Eventually this cat calmed down but not before we only had a total of 3 cats. It is more usually a problem with female, anxious, easily stressed cats.

As it is a long time ago I am unable to remember the name of the product our lovely vet prescribed - sorry.

Sue

[Bluebell]

We adopted a stray (abandoned in our garden) a couple of years ago. He was very aggressive towards our other cats (and although a lot better now still has to be kept separate from them). The vet aligned his behaviour to stress and prescribed a herbal-based pill - IPAcalm.

It does calm him down, but can also make him a bit dozy so we only use them when he displays his more extreme behavioural traits.

Funnily enough, he just loves small dogs and is prone to chase sticks. We wonder if he was originally brought up in a household with dogs as opposed to other cats [8-)]

[Chocolate]

Thank you everyone for the advice and support. I have, at very short notice, to go to England next week, (would you believe to look after my daughter's indoor cat!) so am going to follow up the pill supplies route and try to help her.

A friend uses Feliway I now understand, as a plug-in, like those air fresheners, so I could set one up in the garage for her. Might go in and sniff it myself! Would it have a calming effect upon humans do you think?

She clearly loves cheese, as a treat, so we have begun to gain her confidence with 'clean' cheese - no hidden extras at the moment.

I could believe that perhaps stress or hormones could be an explaination here but she showed no signs last year at all. Perhaps it is a mite or small visitor problem but we will carry on down all avenues.

I love the idea of Paysan's cat with the sticks. We once had a Siamese who chased paper balls and returned them to our feet like a dog. What confusions do we put into our cats brains at an impressionable time I wonder?

Thanks again everyone. I will come back with any news as perhaps it would help others.

[Chocolate]

Thought an up-date might be useful. Once in England I was able to get Johnsons4fleas sent to my daughter's address from Petplanet over the internet. My little cat has now had 2 'doses' a week apart and even though I didn't see fleas dropping off her, crossed fingers but I think her fur pulling problem has begun to settle down. Or perhaps it is a seasonal thing as someone mentioned. She does like firmish mild cheese and the small pill just slipped down.

One word though. I also ordered Drontal worming pills from the same people hoping to do the same thing in the cheese but have not received them as yet due to a mix-up between English and French addresses. (Them not me). I am sure all will be well soon and HRH will be totally sorted out. She has now appeared with a large mark on two sides of one of her back legs and definite teeth marks showing. However she is keeping it all clean and it seems to be healing itself. That cat! How many of the 9 has she used up I wonder.

Many thanks everyone, especially Val for the advice and support. We are delighted to have made a difference for her in the ways we can. Hopefully our experience will help someone else.