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....