Looking much more cheerful

Maisie looking much happier now her nose isn't so bunged up. The quick response to antibiotics makes it hopeful that her problem is just that the damage to her facial bone structure makes it prone to bacterial infections, which is much less of a worry than the possibility of a permanent viral infection that's always going to be there.

Snow in Cambridge

Mr Grumpy wondering whether a cat might be able to get a grant to retrain as a polar bear.

Volunteering with the branch

Maisie, one of our injured strays

Volunteering opportunities with our branch probably don't fit the ideal image most people have of "helping at the RSPCA". Most of the animals we have up for rehoming are boarded at a private kennels, so we can't allow volunteers to just drop in and help out with dog walking etc. because this would mean disruption to the kennel owners' work caring for the private boarders.

A typical rescue case for us generally manifests via a call to the branch emergency phone from a private vet who has just received an injured stray with a log number from the RSPCA National Control Centre. This log number guarantees that the RSPCA will pay for emergency first aid. The Control Centre (NCC) is staffed 24/7 and responds to emergency calls from members of the public (or vets who have received injured strays directly). Sometimes an inspector or animal welfare officer will be sent out to deal with the situation (e.g. if the injured animal is dangerous), but if the finder has transport and can handle the animal they are usually requested to take it direct to a vet so that treatment can begin as soon as possible.

The National RSPCA pays the first £60 + VAT to get first aid started and the vet will then contact their local branch to fund continuing treatment and (hopefully) to rehome the animal once he or she is fit again.

This inevitably means that our rescues start off scattered all over our branch area, and we need to move them to our clinic for further treatment; to foster homes for recuperation, or to kennels for rehoming. Inevitably everything is guaranteed to happen at the most inconvenient time possible.

This is why we don't have many opportunities for people to come in and help with caring for the animals, but we always desperately need more foster homes and volunteer drivers.

If you might be able to help with either of these, please email: rosemary@rspca-cambridge.org.uk

What a week!

Kicked off with Maisie, an unclaimed stray with a broken jaw. She was allegedly eating soft food following the operation to pin it, but spent the next six days resolutely refusing to swallow anything unless I syringed it into her mouth. She's now lapping feline AD (appetite diet), still a bit cautiously, and I think she simply doesn't like the feel of the metal that's holding her jaw in place until the bone mends. She's quite young and hopefully will be resilient enough to make a pretty full recovery although she probably won't get back normal vision in her left eye.

We then had a really frightening drama when Benny, a feral kitten one of our fosterers was taming, went completely off his back legs and couldn't stand. One possible diagnosis would have been toxoplasmosis, which is potentially transmissible to humans, and by Murphy's Law he was with one of our fosterers who has small children. Test results are now back and it's definitely not toxo, although the vets are not sure what the underlying trouble actually is and it seems to come and go.

Sadly one cat picked up after a traffic accident didn't make it through the night, and another very elderly stray had to be put to sleep after the vets found a huge bleeding tumour in his mouth. Another traffic accident had a happier result and the cat is being fostered by a volunteer who will probably adopt her. One of the very elderly cats was found dead in her pen first thing in the morning.

Finally our shop manager at 61 Burleigh st, went down with 'flu (probably partly reaction after all his hard work getting the shop up and running).

Update from our homing co-ordinator

Our cat numbers in kennels are now up to 21 and I've got various desperate messages from people wanting us to take cats and everywhere else seems full so it's quite a problem.

Clare (Inspector) phoned me about a 18 month old pomeranian that she got signed over as owner wasn't coping. It sounds as though it's destructive but I dont know much else. It should be very rehomable being small and a "breed" unless it has bad behavioural issues.

I agreed to take a rabbit from a home in Newmarket, again owners seriously not coping.

I had a call from someone who had 2 cats from us some time ago. One has since died and she adopted another from a different rescue. She has had an awful time. Her husband's been ill a while with a brain tumour so can't work and is now in a care home. They had to sell up their home to pay debts and now have to leave their rented accomodation as the landlord's moving into it having lost his main residence. She and the two kids are having to go to a hostel temporarily, which won't allow cats. She really didn't want to give them up but cant afford to pay boarding costs for ages. Bearing in mind that if they were given up for rehoming we would be obliged to at least take Ronnie back and we would possibly be stuck with him ages (he was a long stayer before she adopted him) I have agreed to have them with a view to her having them back when she gets a permanent home. Could be quite some time though!

Its a shame really as I was intending to take on a couple of oldies from the kennels but this will bung me up again!

Maggots! (Fly Strike)

These two videos from Vetstoria.com explain exactly what flystrike (maggot infestation) is. Warning: some upsetting pictures.

Rabbits are the animals most likely to be at risk, but it is possible for ANY animal, including cats and dogs, to be attacked if he/she has open wounds, soiling round the anus, or has difficulty in grooming all parts of his/her body (for example due to old age or obesity). We had a request for help with treatment for a cat suffering from fly strike at our branch this weekend.

There are veterinary preparations which can be used to reduce the danger of fly attack, so if you keep rabbits, this is something you should discuss with your vet. Be aware that sensible diet is an important method of reducing risk: rabbits should have hay and grass as their main source of calories with vegetables and commercial pellets only as a treat, not their main meal. It is also important to keep cages and litter trays scrupulously clean to avoid attracting flies and prevent them from breeding. Avoid leaving uneaten cat or dog food anywhere where flies can get at it to lay eggs.

Any animal with conditions causing soiling of their anal area needs to be checked for fly eggs at least twice daily during warm weather when flies are active. If eggs or maggots are found this is an emergency and you need to contact your vet immediately. Wounds or sores are also attractive to flies and should be checked as well.

Excellent news about Katie

Katie is a youngish cat who we took in a few weeks ago and took up for investigation at the University Vet School because the vet we use at the kennels found a very large lump in her abdomen when checking her fitness to be spayed. The most common reason for this in a cat would be lymphoma, which is an invasive cancer with very bad prospects.

However, the Vet School did an exploratory operation on her tum on Monday and the "lump" seems to have been a very large internal abscess, which they've removed surgically. They're doing culture of the pus to check which antibiotics are best to use, but say provided the wound doesn't break down (some danger of this because it was actually attached to her gut wall) she's got a good chance of full recovery. They waited until today to phone me in case she went downhill after the op.

Pregnant cat

I thought this was going to be simple; her owner phoned first thing asking for financial help because she was unsteady and didn't seem to be able to lift her tail. This is commonly the result of an infected bite near the base of the tail, which usually responds well to antibiotics, so I authorised £50 for first aid at the closest private vet, with the owner to transfer her to the RSPCA clinic tomorrow morning if further treatment was needed.

Turns out she's almost certainly been hit by a car, and she's currently not able to work the muscles that should expel urine from her bladder, so she needs inpatient treatment with periodic manual emptying of the bladder. The second problem is that she's very heavily pregnant and near term. More or less the same set of abdominal muscles are responsible for pushing out kittens... so she'll have to have a caesarian. The muscle problems may or may not clear up with time - there's nothing the vets can do other than supportive treatment as it depends on whether the nerves which control the muscle have been destroyed beyond recovery or just damaged and capable of regrowth. If she doesn't get back enough function to control her own bladder there's really no option other than euthanasia, as it will eventually damage her kidneys.

When all this was explained to her owner, his immediate reaction was to ask for her to be put down straight away. The nurses didn't want to do this and persuaded him to sign the cat over. One of the vets has kindly offered to do the caesarian in her own time (to keep costs for us as low as possible) and the nurses will then take it in turns to foster her together with the kittens to give them all at least a fighting chance.

Rehoming Gallery

Just to flag up that we've now switched our rehoming pictures entirely over to the blogger format, which looks nicer and is probably easier for most people to read. You should be able to use the labels on the right to select particular classes of animals to view—for example clicking the "cats" label will show just cats available for adoption. We're still experimenting with tags, so any comments on what you find most helpful would be appreciated.

Cat population

Two interesting science articles about regulation of the domestic cat population size, tip Saving Pets.

"Each cat-owning household kept 1.3 cats on average, with the majority keeping one (75.8% households) or two (18.7%). For the 260 cats, the mean age was 7.1 years, the median 6 years, with a range of 3 months to 22 years. There were significantly more female (143; 55%) than male cats (117; 45%). Only seven cats (2.7%) were sexually entire, and these were all ≤6 years. Crossbred cats outnumbered pedigree cats by a ratio of 3.3:1." (Demographics and husbandry of pet cats living in Sydney, Australia: results of cross-sectional survey of pet ownership doi:10.1016/j.jfms.2008.06.010 )

"Recently, neutering of domestic cats has been encouraged by veterinary surgeons and rescue organisations as a means of population control for both the pet and feral populations. This is likely to have profound effects on cat population dynamics (and population genetics). In an attempt to quantify this, we have carried out population studies, by means of door-to-door surveys in Southampton and the surrounding area. The aims were to quantify levels of neutering, and investigate the recent reproductive status of the cat population.

The most comprehensive of these surveys was carried out in a 50 ha area in the Shirley area of Southampton (UK). Householders were interviewed from 949 (80.8%) of the 1175 residences in the area. This revealed a population of 315 cats, of which 21 were pedigrees (and were excluded from further analysis) and 294 were mongrels. Overall neutering rates were very high: 96.8% of adult males and 98.7% of adult females were neutered. The oldest cats in the survey had been born 18 years previously, so it was possible to examine trends in neutering over this time period. However, many females were allowed to reproduce before being neutered, so a more informative analysis came from relating lifetime fecundity (mediated by neutering) to year of birth. Mean lifetime fecundity could be calculated for each cohort where all the females had ultimately been neutered. The regression (Fig. 1) shows a dramatic decline in the mean number of litters born per female, from over 0.6 in 1978 to 0.12 in 1991–1992. With a measured median litter size of 4, 0.5 litters/female are needed to keep the population size constant; increasing neutering has meant that the cats in the Shirley survey area fell below this level of fecundity in the early 1980s. In 1994, owned cats in the area could only produce sufficient kittens to maintain the population at approximately 25% of its present level."

(Feral cats: their role in the population dynamics of Felis catus doi:10.1016/S0168-1591(99)00086-6)

So, a combination of education and help with costs where needed can prevent pet over-population and the need to put down healthy animals.

Cat with broken jaw

She was picked up as an injured stray over the weekend and taken to Vet24 for first aid. They established that she'd got a broken jaw and probable nerve damage or crack in one front leg, so they gave her pain relief and fluids and asked me to arrange for Nicola to take her to the RSPCA clinic in the morning.

Got it all sorted, then later that evening they phoned to say an owner had turned up and would do the transfer herself as she was already registered with the clinic. Next day, at lunch-time, Vicki phoned asking if the cat was still expected as it was past closing time and they wanted to go. Phoned Vet24 and they confirmed the cat had been collected together with her notes. Where is she?! 

They'd noted down a mobile number for the owner, so I phoned that. 

Weird conversation with the owner who was clearly now completely spaced out and unaware that her cat had basically just had pain relief; she might seem "fine" now, but she wouldn't be once it had worn off, and anyway she wouldn't be able to eat with her jaw flopping loose.

Phoned the NCC and asked for one of the local inspectors to visit and check what was going on. Upshot is that the kitty is now back at Vet24 and hopefully will be transferred (by us) to the clinic for her surgery on Thursday.

Statistics for January

During January we rehomed five dogs and six cats, neutered fourteen dogs, thirteen cats and thirteen rabbits and provided veterinary treatment for 219 dogs, 124 cats, 9 rabbits and 11 miscellaneous small animals.

Update on Nicholas

As you can see from the photos, his confidence has come on by leaps and bounds. He's still slightly nervous of my own cats (can be beaten up by little Fern who must weigh about a quarter of what he does), but he's stopped hiding.

Once the weather improves I'm thinking of moving him down to the cattery to see how he behaves there as its much easier to rehome from somewhere where people can have a choice of cats to view.

Cat facial recognition software?

Webomatica have been playing around with iPhoto and found that its face recognition component can apparently also identify cats from pictures of their faces. As you might expect, it doesn't work for all-black cats, but I wonder if there are potential uses for people managing large feral cat colonies or shelters trying to identify lost cats, and keep track of animals they've taken in. Taking a digital photo at the point of booking-in a cat would be a low-stress, un-invasive way to track that cat through the system.

Updates on Santa and Joshua

Unfortunately Joshua had quite a serious setback last week, due to slippage of the repair to his pelvis, which caused constriction of his pelvic canal, making it impossible for him to pass faeces normally. This means he's back in the Vet School and has had another operation to put the pelvis back and create what's known as a "false joint" to stabilise his damaged hip, which had dislocated again.

They've just phoned to say it looks reasonable so far and he's now more comfortable.

Better news on Santa, who had another operation to close his collar wound last week, and so far it looks as if the skin graft has taken. He's not out of the woods yet, as it could still break down again, and we won't know for sure for another two weeks.

Why we tell you to keep cats in for at least two weeks after adoption

Cats are not like dogs (which is probably not news to most people). A settled group of cats will recognise one another and bond socially, but they do not roam around together like a wolf-pack. Individual cats will leave the group's resting area to hunt singly, and, if something traumatic (like noisy fireworks) makes the group scatter and run they will re-group by returning to their familiar area. They get to know where there are safe hiding places and will run for them in case of danger.

By initially confining a new cat in one room, until confidently eating, using a litter tray etc., then allowing her to explore the house, and only letting her outdoors after several weeks have elapsed, you are establishing that your home is the safe core area where your group lives. This means your cat's instinctive reaction will be to attempt to flee indoors if anything outside startles her. If something prevents her from entering the house, her instinct will be to hide reasonably close at hand, rather than running away. Once the house is accepted as home, a normal adult cat will cautiously explore the surrounding area and won't get lost. A cat who is released before the house is seen as home, will tend to wander seeking familiar surroundings and will get lost (or return to their previous home).

This is why "indoor only" cats who accidentally get out can usually be retrieved without too much trouble (because they hide close by) and why cats who escape during holidays or trips to the vet really are lost.

Two cats abandoned

The vet nurse at Soham Pet Doctors turned up to start the day shift and found two young cats in a cardboard box sitting on their doorstep. They're about 6 months old and seem to have been well-cared for (and, to give the owner credit, they had at least been left where they were guaranteed to be found and looked after). 

More stocking fillers

The delightful series of animal books by Doreen Tovey have just been reprinted in paperback. 1% commission payable to the branch if you buy them from Amazon by following the links above. Best not read while drinking your tea as spluttering may occur as the hapless Toveys battle with recalcitrant Siamese cats and other animals.

Raining cats

We gave some financial help to treat a cat suffering from pyothorax at a private vet earlier in the week, but it became obvious to the vet that the cat's owners weren't going to be capable of dealing with the situation and she persuaded them that it would be in his best interest to be signed over to us for treatment and rehoming. As the cat was so poorly the private vet was keen to get him transferred to the Vet School hospital to give him the best possible chance, but this can be a convoluted process because of the terms of our agreement with them.

Basically this means incoming RSPCA animals must initially be presented at our clinic (because its teaching utility is the reason why the School give us such favourable charges). By Murphy's law it turned out that today was more or less the only one when none of our volunteer drivers was available. Finished up booking a morning's leave and taking a taxi from my home to the private vet; onward to the clinic; touch base there and on to the hospital. 

This annoying scenario in fact may have been for the best, as it meant I was on the spot when another set of cat owners appeared several hours after the deadline to admit RSPCA cases and with no money or proof of benefits. They'd come from Littleport and must have driven past about ten vets on their way to Cambridge. After some frantic phone-calls, I managed to get them an appointment with one of the vets in Ely later in the afternoon. The two cats definitely needed to be seen before our own next session as one of them had a crushing injury to his tail (owner's initial description of it "hanging off" was fortunately exaggeration) and his sister has a probable broken leg. 

Collected Nicholas (the cat with the pelvic fracture) in exchange for Darcy and his nasty infection.  Nicholas has been using his litter tray quite happily, so should be OK in a pen in my spare room for his two weeks enforced cage rest.

Phew!

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.