Tuesday, November 27, 2007

He'll eat you for breakfast

Today one of my surgery patients was a feral cat - a wild beast caught on a farm where his owners feed him, but don't do much else. I don't think they've actually ever touched him, and they had no idea if he was male or female. They put some canned cat food in a have-a-heart trap (the kind that slams shut when the cat walks in to get the food) and brought him in to me.

This guy was a bad-ass. There was no touching him to give him an anesthetic injection. In situations like this, we open the trap door, drop the hellion into the "box" - a modified aquarium, slide the lid in place, then gas them down with isoflurane. When they are out, we can reach in and pick up the nice kitty and have our way with him.

Interestingly, the fleas become anesthetized, too. You can easily catch them laying in the fur, instead of scrambling away from your fingers.

Today's cat lunged and spit at the glass, convincingly enough to make us all jump back. He was as tough as the Russian mafia, but even he succumbed to the gas. I neutered him, tested for FIV/Feline Leukemia, vaccinated him, and gave him a flea/earmite/deworming treatment. I also notched his left ear, so that you can tell from a distance without touching that he's been "altered."

Inside his trap was the remains of the irresistable treat that got him caught - Fancy Feast. Check out the treatment he gave these cans with his canines:



Don't mess with this m. f.er without drugs....

10 comments:

peevish said...

Crikey. That is a great story. I'd always wondered how vets and clinic staff dealt with the vicious ones...

Laura said...

I'm so glad to hear they caught him and brought him in to be neutered! I didn't realize that a notched ear in feral cats was a sign they've been neutered. Interesting...

get2eric said...

Nasty little bugger. Why'd they bring him in then?

Joey said...

Better the cans than our hands:) Great picture.

Dana said...

Don't you love the challenging ones? He looked so sweet while he was sleeping...Kris was afraid of him! I've never seen Kris afraid of a cat!

Leah said...

Thats so funny. I saw those cans in the trash but I wasn't sure where and who they came from. Great pic. should have posted a pic of the "sweet little kitten"

Emily said...

Oh my! Quite impressive damage to those cans!

I've seen you use the "box" treatment. Very inventive and effective.

Anonymous said...

Heavens above,Jennifer!! quite unbelievable what it did to the cans...

Unknown said...

wowie or in the words of our dear Skippito Friskito "Hoooooooooooooly Guacamole!" your entry today was worth it's metal badumbum tshh! (Those cans of food, wow.) ps my word verification for this comment started appropriately with mf :)

Anonymous said...

See? That is why I don't like cats. They can EAT CANS, what can they do to my feet?

You are so brave.