CatActionTrust - Help with feral cats

The Role of the Farm Cat.

Farm cats are a part of the rural scene, but all too often they are half starved and disease ridden. Farm cats are mostly kept in order to control the numbers of rats and mice in farm buildings, and sometimes keep down rabbits. They are usually not neutered and within a few years, the farm is over-run with cats and most of them are weakened by malnutrition and inbreeding or die of preventable diseases. Traditionally, farmers drown or otherwise kill young kittens in order to keep down the numbers.

This is unnecessary, illegal and quite simply unacceptable in a civilised society.

Fortunately, more farmers are now having their farm cats neutered and feed them properly with cat food. (Bread scraps are not a balanced diet and even small amounts of milk will cause diarrhoea). Healthy, well fed cats are stronger, faster and therefore more efficient at catching rats and mice. Neutering the colony is also cost effective as the males spend less time fighting and laid low with wounds and the females less time resting, (during pregnancy), or nursing kittens, thus freeing up more time for hunting rats and mice.

Guidelines for Farm Cats and Welfare Workers

CAT ACTION TRUST Branches, and other animal welfare societies, can arrange to trap cats which cannot be handled and can take them to a veterinary surgeon for neutering. The cat can be given a general health check for ear mites, fleas (occasionally lice), and older animals often need dental treatment.

Injections can be given for ear mites and roundworms ("Ivomec") and for tape worms ("Droncit") and a live vaccination against feline enteritis. This will probably confer the life long protection against this killer disease with a single injection. It is not worthwhile generally giving farm cats other vaccinations since these require two initial injections and frequent boosters - the whole exercise being impractical as well as expensive. Finally, the cats may if necessary be sprayed with long lasting flea spray ("Frontline") or a 'Spot-on' preparation applied at the time of neutering. This lasts for a month.

To identify the cats that have been neutered, and thus avoid re-trapping and an unnecessary operation, the tip of the left ear may be removed while the cat is still anaesthetised. It is essential that the vet does not cut a 'V' in the side of the ear as this takes weeks to heal and may become infected.

Absorbable stitches are used for female cats so that they do not have to be trapped again to have them removed. Ideally they should be sub-cutaneous.

While recovering from the anaesthetic, cats may be kept in a "hospitalisation cage" which the Cat Action Trust Branches can loan. Male cats can be released in a day and female cats not less than 48 hours (assuming no complications) after recovery from the anaesthetic.

At what age should farm cats be neutered?

Young cats, male and female, should be ROUTINELY neutered. Standard practice is six months, or early Spring for last year's females. However, kittens as young as 8 weeks may be successfully neutered, and this is recommended if they are to be released to an outside situation. Adult females may be spayed at any time - whether pregnant, in season or in milk. Indeed it is difficult to find a time when they are not in one of these situations! The operation has been successfully carried out on hundreds of cats when they have been pregnant, in season or in milk.

Avoid, if at all possible, taking the mother cat away from her kittens. Ideally, wait until the kittens are 8 weeks old before the mother is spayed.

What should be done if a farm cat is sick or injured?

It is an offence under Section 1 of the Protection of Animals Act 1911, for the owner to fail to take action when an animal is suffering. Therefore a farmer has a legal (as well as moral) duty to obtain veterinary treatment for farm cats when required.

However this presupposes that the cat can be caught, which may present difficulties! Cat Action Trust Branches will assist, so that the cat may be taken to a veterinary surgeon for treatment. If the condition is untreatable and likely to result in prolonged suffering for the cat, a veterinary surgeon may destroy it by painless injection.

It is not Cat Action Trust policy to assist in trapping and destruction of cats, simply because they are unwanted or have a treatable Veterinary problem. However, the Branches are prepared to care for sick or injured cats and help to rehome the surplus and unwanted.