Creature Lover

MY MACKY GIRL

When you have 65 cats, you have to device ways on how to monitor the behavior of each and every one of them, including their eating habits.

Thats why we have small cages in the shelter wherein we put the cats in (one cat per cage) during mealtime. We place them inside their cages while we prepare their meals (which consists of fish and rice). Then we give their food bowl to them one by one. We will wait thirty minutes for them to finish their meal. Then we start to monitor each cat.

When we see a cat that’s still restless and seems to want more food, we add some to his bowl. When we see a cat that hasn’t touched his food, we try and give them the canned sardines (that they all love soooooo much- reserved only for the sick cats because its quite expensive) just to check if he takes a bite (Yes some cats are quite choosy. When they dont like whats being served, they don’t eat at all).

When the cat still refuses to take a bite of the canned sardines, thats already a red alert sign for us. We immediately take the cat to the isolation area wherein he will be placed inside a cage for observation. We leave water and food inside his cage. When he still doesn’t take a bite after 3 to 5 hours, we give him hydrite dissolved in water (using a syringe – 1-2 ml every 2 hours) to keep him hydrated. Then we give him nutrivet gel (1ml every 3 hours) to keep his strength. We also try to talk to the cat lovingly and explain to him that he has to eat so that he can go out and play with the other cats (believe it or not, it really works. I have 65 cats remember? so what proof do you still want?).

If the cat still refuses to eat after 2 days, then we take him to the vet for check up (In my case, this wasn’t really necessary coz most often that not, they start to eat again after 7 to 12 hours (just continue giving them hydrite and nutrivet).

We are this meticulous when it comes to monitoring our cats. But it wasn’t always like this. Before, we just feed the cats together putting their food bowls on the floor. Since they are too many, we failed to monitor that one of our beloved cat, MACKY GIRL, wasn’t eating until such time when we noticed that there was a dramatic drop in her weight. By then it was too late. There was a blockage in her intestine. The vet could no longer do anything because she was too frail and sick when we took her to the clinic. That was a very painful lesson that we had to learn.

I still miss my macky girl, but i know everything happens for a reason. She has opened our eyes and helped us develop new ways on how to take care of the rest of the cats in the shelter.

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