we have a couple of stray cats that came with the house and over the past 2 years, we've been feeding them...they let us pet them, but for the most part, they ARE strays and we've never really entertained ideas of doing more than feeding them when they come around

recently, though, one of the cats came back and one of its hind legs is drawn up so far that we thought it was missing completely...over the past couple of days his back has started to look twisted and he's emaciated, despite eating...we're not really willing to drop hundreds (or a thousand) dollars on this cat, but we ARE willing to take it into a vet to at least find out what's wrong...obviously, a vet that would see it for free would be best and then we'll decide from there if the vet thinks they can make it better...if they suggest putting it to sleep, we'll do that, too

anyway, suggestions? the vet we take our dogs to is 90 minutes away (and about 25% the cost of vets around here, and just an all-around awesome guy)...for obvious reasons, though, we're trying to keep it close to raleigh/cary

5/24/2010 10:50:58 PM

inbeforeagunpic.

5/24/2010 10:52:50 PM

burial at sea

5/24/2010 11:00:15 PM

You could trap him and bring him to SAFE Haven for Cats.

5/24/2010 11:01:07 PM

feeding strays is a terrible idea

5/24/2010 11:04:13 PM

After Hours Emergency vet clinic on Vick rd. in Raleigh will let you sign the cat over to them. They will provide care to the cat and adopt it out if they are able, or euthanize it if necessary.

5/25/2010 3:17:38 AM

Quote :

"You could trap him and bring him to SAFE Haven for Cats."

trapping him isn't hard...at this point, he'll let us pick him up, so this option might work

Quote :

"feeding strays is a terrible idea"

why? we got them all fixed, so it's not like they're making more cats...at the very least, they keep rodents out of the garden and that makes them more than worth it

Quote :

"After Hours Emergency vet clinic on Vick rd. in Raleigh will let you sign the cat over to them. They will provide care to the cat and adopt it out if they are able, or euthanize it if necessary."

thanks for the heads up...i CAN look up their information, and will once i get to work, but in the meantime, do you know if they're open during regular hours? like i said, we're willing to pay for treatment or euthanization (if it comes to that), but only if it's something reasonable...we'll even adopt it and keep it inside during recovery

thanks for the responses...i AM surprised there hasn't been more crap posted since this IS chit chat, but i suppose it was pretty late when i made the thread

5/25/2010 6:16:55 AM

Quote :

"After Hours Animal Emergency Clinic 409 Vick Ave, Raleigh, NC 27612 map Business Hours Open All Nights Weekends & Holidays"

But if I remember correctly the Leesville Animal Hospital has a similar system. You can try giving them a call at 870-7000.

[Edited on May 25, 2010 at 6:27 AM. Reason : 7]

5/25/2010 6:27:17 AM

The NCSU vet school will sometimes--but you have to be willing to surrender the animal for adoption elsewhere. We found a very sick kitten once, and took her there. Really good people to work with.

5/25/2010 7:32:43 AM

this is penny before we took her to the vet



this is her last night, after we picked her up

6/19/2010 1:44:49 PM

holy god what did they do to it?

6/19/2010 1:45:52 PM

jesus fucking christ

PENNY IS NOT PLEASED

6/19/2010 1:48:22 PM

^^ amputated her leg...it was completely dead...in that they would tap it and she wouldn't even notice, the muscle and nerves were so dead

no idea what happened to her to begin with

^ she's really not bad...she'll let us pet her and her appetite is strong, she just doesn't like being picked up

[Edited on June 19, 2010 at 1:49 PM. Reason : .]

6/19/2010 1:48:23 PM

so you guys are keeping her then?

i'm happy that you helped her

6/19/2010 1:50:27 PM

So that's it, her leg was dead? No more to the story? Why was it drawn up so much? I can't even see it in the before pic

what took so long anyway, its been almost a month

[Edited on June 19, 2010 at 1:52 PM. Reason : lkj]

6/19/2010 1:51:33 PM

Quote :

"so you guys are keeping her then? i'm happy that you helped her"

yeah...we adopted her

we're going to keep her inside for the next 3 weeks so she can heal and if it turns out that she does well as an indoor cat, we'd like to keep her as one

the vet supported putting her back out if she doesn't take to being an indoor cat...the vet and we agree that if she can manage to survive a month with a dead leg, she can probably survive like this...it's a last option, though

Quote :

"So that's it, her leg was dead? No more to the story? Why was it drawn up so much? I can't even see it in the before pic what took so long anyway, its been almost a month"

yeah, that's about it...we don't know how it happened, and the leg was really that bad...it took a month because she was hard to catch

[Edited on June 19, 2010 at 1:55 PM. Reason : .]

6/19/2010 1:53:45 PM

awwwww!! YAY PENNY!

6/19/2010 2:00:07 PM

You should get her a peg leg

6/19/2010 2:01:40 PM

Quote :

"they keep rodents out of the garden and that makes them more than worth it"

you feed them

you pet them

they patrol your garden for rodents

you got them fixed

these were your cats all along and it is your responsibility to care for their health

can't believe there was ever any question about it

[Edited on June 19, 2010 at 2:12 PM. Reason : .]

6/19/2010 2:11:24 PM

well, to be fair...i didn't pet them (penny, anyway) until she was captured...she didn't care for being petted before

they're neighborhood cats...considering they would disappear for days and only show up for food in the morning, i'm assuming they were fed other places, too

6/19/2010 2:13:06 PM

didn't you say that you got them all fixed though?

6/19/2010 2:28:07 PM

yeah...almost two years ago, though...and i caught them individually with critter traps and took them to operation catnip

6/19/2010 2:37:03 PM

Quote :

"we've been feeding them...they let us pet them, but for the most part, they ARE strays and we've never really entertained ideas of doing more than feeding them when they come around"

u started out the thread with this

then every post after that pretty much contradicted that

but i am glad the story ended happily

[Edited on June 19, 2010 at 3:38 PM. Reason : ....]

6/19/2010 3:37:57 PM

IT'S ALL A LIE

some let us pet them, some don't...their moods change depending on the day and so it's hardly consistent

JUST LIKE MY POSTS

*shrug*

but yeah, she's sweet

6/19/2010 3:40:31 PM

why did you not call her tripod?

6/19/2010 5:52:27 PM

should have called her speedbump

6/19/2010 5:53:22 PM

i'd name her Lieutenant Dan.

6/19/2010 5:56:48 PM

gg Ricky

6/19/2010 10:00:41 PM

^, ^^, ^^^

6/19/2010 10:30:46 PM

^ ?

6/19/2010 10:34:50 PM