Continuation of free kittens in Butler

[rebeccahowes]

Hi Emerald! I was not sure what last page meant so I decided to open a new thread just in case. I never expected to have so many viewers and replies when I started my thread. It has been truly amazing. I feel very blessed. Thanks for all of your help. My daughter is bringing me a cat carrier tomorrow to help get the three cats to the vets on the 22nd. I am so excited to get my cats the help they need finally. I owe it all to you and the petoftheday.com people. Thanks!

[MoonandBean]

So glad you found the kittens . Give your daugher a "high five" from all of us here

[kb2yjx]

Glad to hear that things are moving along nicely! After a rough start, I am glad we are your friends!!!!

[Moesha]

Don't forget to let us know how the surgeries go!!!

[Emeraldgreen]

Rebecca, I hope all goes smoothly tomorrow with the 3 cats heading to the vet. You'll certainly have your hands full! You're doing a wonderful thing and it's so great that by tomorrow afternoon, your 4 house cats (including the already neutered male you have) will all be fixed! YAY!!! I know you have the ferals booked for May which is awesome too!! We'll be thinking of you tomorrow and look forward to hearing an update on how your lovebugs are doing. Take care.
p.s. is there a quiet room in your busy household that the cats can use to 'recover' in for a few days once they're back home? I know your daughter's room is already booked with a four legged guest and her mini meowers.

[rebeccahowes]

Today is the day! I managed to find three boxes to take the cats to the vets. I could not get a cage, but the boxes will work. I have plenty of rooms for the cats to relax in. I have a whole basement that they can recover in if they want. When I got my male fixed a couple years ago, he came home and acted like nothing happened. It is going to be fun trying to get three cats in boxes, but it should be way easier then next month when I have to catch three ferals and take them to the vets. I am taking three today, but next month we are scheduling the ferals one at a time. We thought it would be a lot easier to deal with catching one feral at a time. I am just so happy that people have helped me with the finances. I have wanted to do this for a long time, but something would always come up financially so I could not get them spayed. I will let everyone know how things go. They will come home tomorrow eve.

[MoonandBean]

Glad to hear that things are moving along nicely! After a rough start, I am glad we are your friends!!!!

awww.....that was so nice! Ditto!

[rebeccahowes]

I just got back from the vets. I posted two pics for you guys. One is the three cats lined up in their cage and boxes. My daughter brought me a cage. The other picture is three hearts. These are the tags that prove the cats had their shots. My three tame cats handled the vets pretty well. I pick them up tomorrow. My one cat, which I just got homes for all of her kittens, was pregnant again. I cannot believe it. My other female cat was pregnant also. She has never been pregnant before. Everyone had tapeworms and round worms and fleas. It was a nightmare. The vet gave them shots and orally gave them worm medicine along with an extra shot for worms. I asked how much all of this cost and the lady said she would let me know tomorrow. She believes that the vet is going to charge me a cheaper price then he does for regular patrons. They said I have a total of 355 in my account. I am worried about the flea situation though. He said they can get the worms back by eating their fleas. I asked him if putting flea collars on the seven would help and he said no. His solution was to get advantage flea medicine and put it on all seven cats for six months. He said that would get rid of the fleas on the cats and in the house. The only problem is that the advantage for one cat for six months is 67 dollars. That is quite a bit for seven cats so I don't know how I am going to solve the flea and worm problem. By time I get the other three females to the vets, I am sure they are going to be pregnant if they are not already. If anybody has solutions on how to rid my cats of fleas without costing so much, please let me know. Also, if I can get the advantage I am wondering how to catch the three ferals once a month. The vet was funny. He had a couple of contraptions that he made to catch ferals. To top of the whole event, my 20 year old was my ride to the vets. She got her permit about six months ago and she is a very scary driver. We had to drive on a freeway which she had never driven on before. I thought we were going to die trying to get to the vets. I think I almost had a stroke by time we got there. Coming back was even worse and I have to do it again tomorrow when I pick up the cats. Finally, the vet gave me a lecture about having cats that I could not afford to take care of. I just kept my mouth shut. I truly did not want to be in this situation. Only one cat that I have was a true decision that I wanted a cat. The rest must have heard I am a cat lover and all showed up at my place expecting me to give them a home. I could not turn them away. There are a bunch of strays outside and I leave them food and water. I promise I will never get into this situation again. It is tougher than raising my six children. I will let you guys know what happens tomorrow after I pick up everyone and what the cost came to. In the meantime, I would appreciate and feedback on how to rid fleas without it costing too much. Thanks everyone! Rebecca

[Emeraldgreen]

WOW! What a day you've had!! I'm so glad that you managed to get there, despite the scary ride! It's great that you will have your cats home with you by tomorrow. You did it!!!
I'm glad that the vet has treated the 3 cats for worms and I'm sending you the Drontal tablets so you'll be able to take care of your already neutered male and the 3 ferals. There are 14 tablets in total so you'll have enough to give everybody 2 treatments 3 weeks apart if you want. This is generally recommended for heavy loads of worms (yuck!). You could ask your vet if he thinks it's necessary. If not, then you'll have some on hand for another time if need be.
As far as the fleas go, I wonder if the vet would be willing to do something for you. Revolution is a topical flea treatment that you use in the same way that you use Advantage. You spread the fur at the base of the neck until you see the skin and then squirt the whole tube in that spot. Here in Canada, one treatment for a cat is about 12.00 or more. But, my vet used to sell Revolution for dogs to a local shelter and provided them with the correct dosage to give each cat. So, one big dog Revolution treatment was usually enough to treat 4-6 or more cats I think. One canine Revolution (it's the one for the big dogs and is teal coloured and is 2mls and has 240mg) used to cost around 19.00 but it would make treating the cats much more affordable. Here in Canada, Revolution is considered a prescription so basically it means the vet has to have seen the pet at some point and feel comfortable that it is safe to give it to the pet. I think the main reason is because of the ingredient it has in it to kill heartworms. Do you have heartworms in PA? Where I used to live, there were no cases of heartworms so we didn't have to worry about that but in other parts of the province, there are heartworms.
Anyway, he knows your situation and he might be willing to sell you some canine revolution and he might even divide it up into separate syringes (without needles of course!) so it's premeasured and all you'd have to do would be to squirt it on the cats. How you'd squirt it on the ferals is another problem and I don't have a solution for that but I'll definitely think about it!!LOL
I have some Teal Revolution that I bought for my big dogs and never used. Again, like the Drontal, it's a few years old and I don't know if it would be effective. But, my concern would be that you might have heartworm issues in PA and it could be harmful if your cat has heartworm? Perhaps you could ask your vet if he thinks it would be dangerous and if there could be any harm in trying some Teal Revolution that is a few years old? I have a chart from my old vet that says exactly how much to give cats that are under 8.8pounds and how much to give to cats that are over 8.8 pounds so I could definitely help you with that. I also have some syringes that are still in their packaging that you could use to draw out the liquid from the Revolution vial for each cat. I was given them for Tiger for one of his dozens of treatments the vets were prescribing him before they realized he had cancer. You just have to remember that you take the needle off after you've drawn out the fluid and carefully dispose of it. Then you just spread the fur and squirt it on. I really think you should ask your vet about it tomorrow though. Just tell him you have a friend that has some Teal Revolution and they want to give it to you and that it is 2.5 years old but has never been opened. I have 5 of them so if each one treated 6 cats, you'd have 5 months worth. I have to find that chart though and see how many doses you can get out of it. Anyway, it's worth a shot.
The other thing that I could send to you to help with the fleas is a can of spray called Siphotrol. It is for the house NOT FOR PETS. Here is a link about it so you can see what it's all about SIPHOTROL . Again, 2.5 years old but never used. When we left my last vet, I stocked up on everything because of the staff discount I got because of the website work. We've been really blessed and in all the years we've had pets, no one has ever had fleas. We've dosed them with Revolution though because of mites which it also treats. The flea spray I bought in case house we were moving to had fleas but I never ended up using it and it didn't have fleas anyway.
It's a powerful product and from other pet owners I have learned that it is very effective. It is used to spray inside your house. When you use it, you do have to take you, the kids and the animals out for a few hours but then it's fine to go back in. I realize this will be an issue right now with all the baby kittens etc.. but perhaps later, after everyone is fixed and the kittens have new homes, you can use it to make sure flea eggs don't hatch into fleas.
Basically what it does is sterilize any flea eggs and keeps them from hatching for up to 2 years. You spray it on drapes and on couches, carpteting and where the floor meets the wall in the cracks etc.. It's a one time thing, you spray it and it's supposed to keep working for 2 years. It's important at the same time as spraying to wash as many things as you can, like bedding, towels, clothes that in the laundry or laying around, curtains if possible etc..
The other super important thing you can do in conjunction with the spraying and treating each cat with a topical flea treatment is to vacuum. Vacuum everywhere you can think of and keep doing it. It really has an impact on fleas and their survival and that along with the other two things, you should be able to get it all under control. The can is for 1,000 square feet and your house sounds like it's pretty big with all those levels so you'd probably have to pick up another can to do your whole house. I think a can for 1,000 sq. feet is about 22.00 and you can also get them in larger cans, for 2,000 sq. feet and they are about 35.00. It's a good thing to do because even if you successfully treat all the cats for 6 months, flea eggs that are already in your house can still hatch for a couple of years but this spray stops that.

[MoonandBean]

I wrote an email to the company that makes advantage. I'm sure it's a longshot but I asked them if they could help. I told them we'd post it all over pet forum I'll let you know if I hear anything. Otherwise, we all know you're doing the best you can and we appreciate all your good intentions and hard work. The vet should be grateful for people like you in his community