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You get them to come with you. My first stop, as soon as possible, is to my Vet. Ask them to check for a chip and then, examine them, I am thinking for diseases which might harm my cats.
BUT, what should one be asking for? Granted, my Vet knows me so could probably figure out what should be checked, but I should know those details as well.
Visions of being ambushed by homeless kittens........
You get them to come with you. My first stop, as soon as possible, is to my Vet. Ask them to check for a chip and then, examine them, I am thinking for diseases which might harm my cats.
BUT, what should one be asking for? Granted, my Vet knows me so could probably figure out what should be checked, but I should know those details as well.
Visions of being ambushed by homeless kittens........
I adopted a kitten that was a literal rescue. She needed a wormer, a rabies vaccine, and was spayed right away. You might want to consider a bath with Dawn or other flea repellant.
Tell the vet you found this creature along the road and that you know nothing about it. An exam can identify some potentially contagious problems right away, but others may take time (bloodwork etc.). They have probably received quite a few such patients before and can probably tell you what will be best for the creature. It may not involve taking the creature home with you at all. They probably know of rescuers/foster homes that are much better equipped to take on one more. If you insist on taking your foundling home, you'll probably want to quarantine the newcomer initially. If you can't do that, don't bring it home. Even if the foundling is healthy, bringing a stressed out, compromised newbie into an established house full of cats may not be a good idea for any of them.
Tell the vet you found this creature along the road and that you know nothing about it. An exam can identify some potentially contagious problems right away, but others may take time (bloodwork etc.). They have probably received quite a few such patients before and can probably tell you what will be best for the creature. It may not involve taking the creature home with you at all. They probably know of rescuers/foster homes that are much better equipped to take on one more. If you insist on taking your foundling home, you'll probably want to quarantine the newcomer initially. If you can't do that, don't bring it home. Even if the foundling is healthy, bringing a stressed out, compromised newbie into an established house full of cats may not be a good idea for any of them.
Thank you but the ranch does have the capacity to have 12-13 "Daktari" isolation rooms set up.......but if the max, by then I am sleeping on the sofa. Fostering a cat and then a kitten before, they each got their own room and in the cat's case, it's own wing at night.
I rescued an adult cat who was estimated to be 3-4 years old. He was homeless and unsheltered, but was being fed by a business owner. I forced her hand and she had to take him to the vet and have him fixed. The vet stuck a flea collar on him. I told her I would give him a home. She finally contacted me and transferred ownership to me. He was sick and dying and it was during some 100 degree temperatures. The worker at the place of business had explained he had been losing weight and the owner did not replace his little shelter/house and would not let him inside.
She kept him in her house for 3 weeks while he recovered from being fixed (at least she did that). I was about to turn her in. So... she had him for years and was doing nothing for him except some red friskies on a paper plate and water on a paper plate.
I did not take him home I took him straight to my vet (pre-arranged that on a day his groomer was there and I had those appointments set). They determined he had a tape worm. They bathed him with something that would kill fleas, mites and any other creepy crawlies. I had two cats at home and could not risk getting them sick. I had him live in the garage for one week (he had diarrhea from the meds for tape worm). I went out and sat with him several times a day and I kept his food bowl full. I put a nice bed out for him. It was summer so it was not cold or anything. After one week I transferred him to my guest room. There is a large gap under the door and so the cats were starting to realize they had company and vice versa. So, I read to put blankets in there and switch blankets so the cats could get used to the smells. I think I went down that path for 3-4 weeks before I pulled the trigger and let them all mesh together. That guest room is still his when there is no guest. He will sleep there part of the night when he is not with us in the master or sometimes during the day he will escape to that room to get some solid extra sleep. He's there now because he keeps a better rigid bedtime schedule than I do.
Ugh. So, I changed vets because with three cats I needed a vet clinic with more than one vet. My old vet was so upset he did not want to give me all my vet records. He really threw a fit. He was in his 70's. I moved them to a vet clinic with 6-8 vets that was open on the weekends, etc. So, they determined Giardia after a couple of months so I had to treat all the cats for that (with medication).
He had really bad teeth and was having teeth constantly pulled out. It was upsetting. I hired a vet dentist because he had seen 3 different vets and I just wanted him stabilized. After about 4-5 years his teeth were finally stabilized.
He is the sweetest cat in the world. He loves to play and is super strong. He is a little too rambunctious for my now super senior cat (though he was very good for her for a few years). He was really stoked when Mr. Bugs died (Mr. Bugs died six months into the new cat -- I had thought we had another 5 years with Mr. Bugs, but, he spiraled down rapidly over about eight weeks at about 15 years of age (he was a Maine Coon - RIP Mr. B). I have a feeling Bailee will be okay by himself once Bunny bites the bullet.
So, the list was:
-Getting him fixed
-Tape work treatment
-Rabies and Feline Leukemia shots
-Heavy duty flea, mite treatment/bath
-Giardia (he still drinks water from his paw sometimes).
-Bad Teeth (have them evaluated and cleaned and determine if any need to be pulled).
-Special litter situation. He could not be tamed and I have to use disposable litter boxes (he digs to China so what I used for a decade with my other cats did not work for him).
-Couch (I had a tweed couch he decided was a horizontal scratching post // same with the bench upstairs except I still have that -- I bought a gray wool couch and keep it covered with wool blankets).
Cost: Priceless.... But, yeah, 6 years in I was at $10k (several thousand for his teeth -- animal dental specialists are expensive (especially when they double their prices). Lots of vet visits to narrow everything down.
It can be super cheap if they don't have bad teeth. He's only had Exams for the last two years (normal updates to the vaccines). Vet said he is "exceedingly healthy." Yeah, we paid to get him that way too.
He is a beautiful muted orange tabby cat with stripes on his tail. We're in love
Mr. Bugs was also a rescue and he was very low maintenance during the 13 years he was with us. The thing with him was his long fur (so, he had a groomer). The groomer was probably more expensive than all of his vet bills because his teeth were solid and he only had one issue the whole time before he just rapidly spiraled down.
Mr. Bugs was feral and it took 9 years (at 11 years of age) for him to mellow out. Bailee has not mellowed out yet at 7 years (he's approximately 10-11).
Last edited by Wile E. Coyote; 11-14-2023 at 02:40 AM..
Secondly, I am fortunate in that my Vet knows of what I do, how I live, listens to me, and is very encouraging with such things like "A new addition to the family, Tamara?". On a second note to that, it may help that I have a marine biology degree....and they know it.
Third, a kitten, so young that at first we didn't know boy or girl, I fostered got the loft to stay in while my belly dancing teacher searched for his forever home. He, that was figured out by the end of the 1st visit to the family doctor, was a white blue eyed Siamese and blended in with the walls, especially along the video shelves. I would go up there to provide some human time and couldn't find him....because he was in a corner, camouflaged.
A different cat, call her Melinda, was the sister of Melas, caught and released cats that adopted me. She was very shy ...... and it was probably because of her bad teeth. We got those fixed, costly of course, but she died about 8 months into her time with me outside the apartments. Tragic but at least I know the last part of her life was less painful.
As said, the ranch house has the potential for 12-13 Daktari isolation rooms. Admittedly, by that time of that number, I am using house and garage and rooms and secret passages and closets. But this note of communiable undesirables does throw more into it.......even more pet taxis.
On that note of more, more, more pet supplies, there is always the question of a containment fence for dogs to be able to run around on the ranch......but I haven't solved that one yet.
Finally, my way of thinking is that I have this great big ranch house, on a great big ranch, I should share it with some.
A cat along the road is not necessarily homeless. Many people have outside cats or cats who are out all day and in at night. Be discriminating about what you think might be a stray cat, because a loose cat in not necessarily a stray and people's house cats can wander a long distance during the day and still go home at night.
Even if the cat comes up to your house, ask around the neighborhood before you pick the cat up and start paying its vet bills.
About the dog, check for the microchip before you do anything else. If the owner can be contacted, there is no reason for you to pay for a vet visit. In fact, before you even drive to the vet, check the collar carefully to see if there is phone number on it.
Are you making sure the animals don't belong to someone? Other than checking for a chip? Checking with the local pound, putting up some fliers, etc? Some people's dogs get loose, and not all of them are chipped. And lots of outdoor cats out there, that may have lost their collar. (Hope you don't take this as accusatory. It just freaked me out a bit to think of someone just randomly picking up animals and possibly keeping them... lol. I just had to make sure. I don't know what your area is like or what the real situation is from your post.)
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