Cat Chat Feline Forum

We had an 'emergency' cat that a lady reported was visiting her garden and drinking fairly frequently out of her bird bath, black and longhaired but apparently VERY matted and with bald patches. She'd not been feeding it, but we asked her to put some food out and were sort of expecting an elderly mog on its last legs and sent out trapper out to try to get it pronto. Amazing what a bit of tuna can do - she laid the trap then left, and apparently hadn't even made it back home when she got the call "it's in the trap"!

So, as my pen was free after Smithy found his forever home I said I'd take him and went off to meet her half way. I knew I'd found the right place as I could hear him yelling as soon as I stopped the car - one very, very unhappy boy with huuuuge mats and bald patches and a completely bald neck, all the way around, like a turkey. And his mouth was open so often we got a good look at his teeth - not as old as we thought. Poor little sod was soooooo scared, he yelled at me all the way home, a really distressed-sounding yowl, and as soon as I let him out of the trap he shot up the wire and yelled at me from the ceiling ..... so I left him be for a while to get his bearings.

However scared he was, he was hungrier as he ate his dinner, and for two days he hid in his little house and yelled at me from his bed as soon as he heard me come round the corner, but on the third day I decided to open the house and have a good look at him, put my hand out, went to stroke him ..... and he just suddenly relaxed into my hand. 24 hours later he was sitting on my lap! Here he is still taking refuge in his bed.
So, I took him to the vet earlier and he has a slight heart murmur but no other obvious issues, is probably around 7/8 and has been neutered but not chipped. Must have been well loved once as he's a real cuddlebunny, and I made a start on his coat today and managed to cut a couple of big mats out before he started to get a bit sore and snappy. Hopefully he'll already be feeling a bit more comfortable, especially now he's been de-flead and wormed, and I'm just praying the bald patches grow back. I've never seen that before, where a mat has pulled away and taken every single hair with it and left such a large area completely bald - it really is his whole neck area!

What a beautiful color, I want a cat like this
He is beautiful already, imagine how great he is going to look once his coat is all sorted out and well taken care of

Awwww! He's a little beauty. He'll be stunning when his coat grows back. What a great job you've done there, Crewella.
Keep us updated on his progress.

Poor baby! But he is in the right place now. I wonder what his story is? Gentle fusses from me.

Poor boy - in safe hands now. I also wonder what the story is with these cats. OH always thinks of the simplest explanation - "They probably got lost" but we know how disposable pets are to some (I won't say people)

So like Laz.

Thanks guys. He's doing well, and I managed to cut a mat off his side yesterday that was, I swear, 5" long and 3" wide!!

Hi
What a gorgeous boy imagine how he is going to look after the luxury spa treatment he is now going to get.

MarkB wrote:So like Laz.

And my Harry

what a gorgeous boy - if only I could Helen, I'd come over and nab him from you x so my kind of cat

Thankfully he seems to quite like being brushed, so when there's not longer mats and sore patches he should be relatively easy to keep groomed.

He is, bless him, the noisiest cat I think I've ever met - so much so that I wondered if he was deaf (he isn't)! He still yells at me as soon as I appear round the corner, but it's now for his dinner - a different kind of yell, but just as loud and every bit as insistent!

...... although I mentioned this to OH last night, who looked bemused and said he's never heard a peep out of him!!

Awww I do love reading the stories of your fosters, Helen, they are always 'my' kind of cats! One day when we have some outdoor space I would love to try my hand at fostering the hard-luck cases, but I suspect I'd be hopeless at letting them go!

I can't magnify the pic on my phone, but if the bald patch is in a ring around his neck it may well be from a flea collar. We used those on Tiger, the cat we had when I was a kid, and as he had a magnetic cat flap he wore it all the time. I'm not sure whether/how well the fur will grow back, because Tiger was only without his collar in his final few months. His fur never did grow back, but he was an elderly gent with cancer by then, so a younger, healthy cat may fare better. And, even if it doesn't regrow, being long-haired should at least help to cover the area once you've nursed him back to peak condition!

Hi Helen Crystal my Himalayan/Siamese had something like this. It occurred when I was os for 2 weeks. Took her to vet who asked if id changed her diet, moved home -no. First time I'd left her on hols & he put it down to anxiety she thought I'd abandoned her. He gave her some antibiotics & fur came back. He does link lovely. Vivian

The bald area is about 3" wide on the back of his neck (made me stop and think when I went to apply the Broadline ...... I had to put some on top of his head!) so I think that's too wide to be from a collar? He does have some areas of short hair in other places, so I'm hoping it is just where mats have pulled away. The vet wasn't sure either, but the skin looks fine so we'll just have to wait and see if it grows back. Paws crossed.

Yay, I spotted some black down on the back of Buzz's neck today, so hopefully the bald area is starting to grow back! He's such a good boy, I've noticed that in all the areas where I've cut mats away all the scurf and remaining dead hair has gone, so he's obviously trying hard to groom and keep his own coat under control. I'm wondering if the bald areas are where he's tried to groom away the mats and ended up bit by bit pulling them away at the roots - several were sort of flapping as they weren't fully attached all the way round!

A completely different character from Greebo, then, who was another black fluffy in a dreadful matted state, but I always got the feeling Greebo didn't give a damn!!

Crewella wrote:Yay, I spotted some black down on the back of Buzz's neck today, so hopefully the bald area is starting to grow back!

Yay! he's gorgeous, he really is

WOW WOW What a wonderful story of Buzz's rescue. What a truly wonderful person you are Crewella. Stories like this are so amazing and the transformation of the cat is incredible.
I have a similar story but with a white fluffy cat. she was found in our garden in a terrible state. lots of fluff bobbles but her main problem was the fleas. she was infested with the damn things. she couldn't sit or sleep still. up and down all the time. the constant itching must have been driving her mad. huge blood patches where she had been sitting from all the fleas. And so weak from all the lose of blood.
after much searching for an owner with no joy. she was bathed, combed, de-fleaed/wormed, constant combing out more eggs/fleas/dirt. Proper feeding, as much sleep as possible AND WOW she was amazing after. although she is very old, not eating as much so quite thin due to the aging process, she is remarkable, truly. she adores my daughter, who was the person who found her first, she must have been in such discomfort and after probably couldn't quite get over the happy comfortable feelings she was experiencing and has ever since.
SO, this beautiful Buzz must be the happiest cat in the world all thanks to you. x

Oh well done to you and your daughter, Smither, for taking your girl on. Especially as she's an older girl, as they do start to struggle on their own as they get older. I love a happy ending!

Buzz is doing well, his fur is growing back and he's filling out, but still a very noisy, chatty sort of cat. He has one of those two-note 'mwow-wow' miaows that can sometimes sounds like 'hello'.

Whenever I come round the corner now I hear "Ewwow"!

Crewella wrote:Buzz is doing well, his fur is growing back and he's filling out, but still a very noisy, chatty sort of cat. He has one of those two-note 'mwow-wow' miaows that can sometimes sounds like 'hello'.

Whenever I come round the corner now I hear "Ewwow"!

Purdy has a 'hello' meow as well. But the one that gets me everytime is when she 'knocks' at the back door to come in. When you open the door she trots past without a backward glance and she has a special, unpronouncable little trill that I am sure translates as 'tut,that took you long enough, you just can't get the staff these days!'

She should be more appreciative, as she did at least manage to get staff fluent in 'cat'!

I've not posted much about Buzz, partly because he's just been pottering about in his pen with nothing to report and partly because he was definitely up for rehoming so I'm wary of getting too involved. Poor little sod has waited all summer for someone to notice him, but at last a lovely lady saw his details and fell for him. They seemed to hit it off when she came to see him, he was letting her cradle his head in her hands by the end of the visit, so he went off to his new home today. Yay!!

It was only when I'd managed to get him into the basket and he started shouting again that I remembered just how loud he was when he first got here! I didn't envy her the drive home!!

Good to hear that he's gone to what seems to be a loving owner - hope she didn't have a long drive home!

Yay, great news Helen!

What a lovely outcome. Can I just ask, when they are micro chipped can they not trace the owner. I just surmised they'd have some way of tracing

That’s great news! he looks so lovely bless him. Wishing him all the best, in his new home at last

Aww that's very good to hear Sounds like it was love at first sight and she'll forgive him for being so operatic lol.

Can't think offhand of a suitable song that he might have been singing but this might be appropriate:-

http://www.bing.com/search?q=mark%20kno ... =CT3210127

With very best wishes to Buzz and his new person for many happy years together, and hugs to you - you must be missing him x

Thanks guys, yes I do miss him .... but I'm sure the neighbours don't!

Nanny Pamy yes, if they are chipped we do stand a good chance of tracing the owner, though sometimes we've done that only to find the owner died or moved without updating the details. Buzz has obviously been a loved cat at some point, but they didn't chip him.

Very appropriate Lilith, also because 'Local Hero' is my favourite film of all time and very close to my heart!

Hi Crewella that's great news on Buzz - will the lady let you know how he's doing? Just love to read when a fur baby finds a furever home. Vivian

Sadly the two resident cats were very upset by Buzz's appearance, there were ructions, and Buzz was returned. Personally, I don't think he was given enough time or the right introductions but, hey ho, it's probably better that he's back and will hopefully go on to find a good home as an only cat. OH is really upset and wants us to take him on, but he's only about 6 and should find a home without too much trouble - we have more than enough ex-stray boys around here! There was a space at the main cattery, so he's gone there as he's much more likely to be seen by people wanting to adopt. Please keep your fingers crossed for him.

Poor thing, certainly not given enough time - I always say they need a month to get used to each other

Ah, poor baby. I think they could have tried a little harder. I hope he finds his forever home very soon.

A week? That's no time. What a pity. It can take years in some cases (usually devil kittens like my horrible Moll.) I'd have thought a laid back lad would be comparatively easy to integrate. DEFINITELY all paws and tails crossed here for a new forever home soon!