Feeding Turtles

To minimize debris in turtle tanks, we have Franklin and Little Foot eat pellets in travel tanks. It helps us monitor their food intake and makes for a cleaner tank in the end. With this, rinsing out filters, and scooping out feces daily, your tank cleanings will only be every 2 or 3 weeks.

Fix a Feral Cat Clinic

The Animal Rescue League of Boston occasional hosts "Fix a Feral Clinics." It is a spay/neuter and vaccination clinic for feral cats (cats who are under socialized and afraid of humans --typically in an aggressive way). These are cats that are unsafe for the domestic life. Therefore, it is best to sterilize them and send them back out so that they do not create more lives for their "colonies." It has always appeared to me that ARL believes in letting the colonies die out instead of euthanizing them which is highly debatable among animal groups (see the wiki article on the subject matter). I personally think it is the most humane option. Outdoor cat life spans are typically no more than 10 years. However, one cat trapper did bring in two cats to be euthanized that she was feeding for 12 years. Usually these colonies have someone watching over them. We call them feeders. Due to their safety, they don't typically handle them outright but may leave food or monitor how they look. If the cat is in pain or very ill, they come to us to end their suffering. Despite many clinics like this in the past, there are still lots of cats out there that need to be sterilized. Today alone, I believe we may have neutered/spayed around 65 cats. Luckily, we did find a couple of cats that were already spayed/neutered. In this case, they were vaccinated and set to go. For vaccines, they get the rabies vaccine and a feline viruses vaccine.

Here are the steps:
1. Catch ferals and bring to clinic
2. Anesthetize cats one by one
3. Once cat is "under," get a basic exam from a vet (note any medical concerns to report to feeder)
4. Prep for surgery (which is what I did and will go more in-depth later about)
5. Neuter or Spay by highly qualified vets
6. Post Op - Receive feline viruses vaccine
7. Recovery (back in trap and monitored)
8. Trappers pick up cats or they stay overnight or they are set up in the shelter!

Sometimes cats that are trapped aren't so feral after all. They may have been someone's pet at one time. It may even have a microchip! In those instances, the cat may be set up in the shelter. Most often, the cats stay overnight for recovery or are taken away by their trappers for monitoring. Recovery can be tricky. After a procedure like this, they have a hard time keeping their bodies warm. Some of the cats were under heat lights or given warm pads if they were cold. Every cat is different on how they handle surgeries, just like humans.

ARL has all these steps down in a circuit around the medical side of our building. It is very efficient and makes sense. After steps 1-3 occur, the cat was handed off to one of four people in the prep for surgery stations. We were in pairs. I was fortunate to be paired up with Jessica, our very knowledgeable vet technician. She showed me how to prep cats for surgery since it was my first time. Our job was to ear tip the cats, express their bladders (or emptying their bladders), shaving the area that will have surgery, and cleaning the area. Once this was done, we brought them straight to the surgery area. It may sound easy but some occasional hiccups may arise. For instance, one female I was shaving and cleaning started having contractions throughout her body. Jessica realized right away she was going to throw up so we unstrapped her from her spay board, and Jessica tipped her face down to the garbage can so she wouldn't aspirate (when food or objects block airways.) Sometimes we may notice a cat starting to wake up a little. This meant the cat needed an additional injection before going to surgery. We were always checking for breathing and heart rate. Just as it can be dangerous for humans to be "put under," so it can be for cats as well.

It was a very rewarding experience. As my manager says, "it is instant gratification." You get the satisfaction that 60+ cats will not continue to reproduce in the wild just by what we did today. They also received some medical treatment they may not have had a chance to receive otherwise.

After my duties, I did snap a couple of shots while helping some of our team with recovery. Pictures below:

Kitten waking up

Many cats in traps

One cat a little more alert

When I arrived at my home today and took a look at Hermes, I was immediately thankful he was given a better life. I was thankful he didn't end up a feral cat. I couldn't even imagine it.

Brushing Hermes Teeth

During Hermes' annual exam last June, we found out that he had mild gingivitis. Like any fanatic cat mom, I wanted to do whatever it took to make sure his teeth didn't get any worse. My vet recommended dry food for dental health and brushing my cats teeth. I was a bit shocked to find out that people actually do this. It has been almost a year, and Hermes gets his pearly whites brushed about 4x a week (though some vets recommend every day). He is also on T/D Science Diet for cats.

You don't get a cat to brush overnight. It takes a proper introduction. The best cat toothpaste I have seen thus far is this one:

Something chicken flavored is your best bet. Hermes took to this one really well. I started out just introducing the toothpaste to see if he liked it. I let him lick it off my finger. After that, I introduced him to the brush. I let him come up to it and investigate.

He then starts to lick at it. If I don't move the brush a little, he will mostly lick the toothpaste right off without actually brushing. However, I can usually gently coax him into chomping down on the toothbrush. While he chomps, I guide the brush around his mouth.

Once he has had enough, I give him a treat of licking it clean. I then throughly rinse the brush before putting it away.

Dental health is very underrated and often overlooked. Dental disease left untreated can lead to serious health concerns like tooth loss to bacterial infections. If teeth are not properly cared for, it can lead to expensive dental procedures since cats would need to be sedated for teeth cleaning and extractions. It is cheaper and safer to do preventatives!

It doesn't have to be all work and no play! There are toys dedicated to dental health as well. Hermes has these ones:

Here are some signs to watch out for. If you notice any of these, contact your vet!

-Dark red line along the gums
-Red and swollen gums
-Ulcers on gums or tongue
-Loose teeth
-Pus
-Difficulty chewing food
-Excessive drooling
-Excessive pawing at the mouth area

But, if you own reptiles, fish, birds, or amphibians, you don't have to worry about any of this. :)

Hermes turns 3!

On April 27, 2013, my cat turned 3 years old. Well, not exactly. I adopted him when he was only 5 months old with an estimated birthday to be around late April. With most animals, having an exact birthday is darn near impossible. As Hermes turned another year, I wondered how old he really was in human years. At 2 years old, he was estimated to be around 24 human years. Depending on some calculators, now he is 29 or 30 years. Once June 2nd comes around this year, Hermes and I will be the same age. It was laughable and yet reassuring knowing that my cat and I are battling our late twenties together at the same time. Maybe we will go through our mid-life crisis together?

As I find myself not keen on the idea of another year older, I wondered if Hermes was also feeling the same way. I decided to give him a pick-me-up with some strong catnip on his new scratching post. He is still a kid at heart. For his birthday presents, I gave him new toys to play with--as always, some were a hit, some were a bust. I should just buy a years supply of mylar balls. Those 50 cent wrapping paper looking type balls never lose their novelty with him.

As Hermes went from college graduate to stable career man this past year, I noticed some changes in him. He became a lap cat and desired more of our attention and affection. He is finally matured enough to realize the important things in life: family. and food.

About Carlie

Spencer and I decided to take on another foster gecko. She was surrendered already knowing she had a pre-existing condition, metabolic bone disease. I just didn't know how bad. First, she was surrendered as "Carl - 2 years old." We found out that Carl was really Carlie just a day or two later. When I first met Carlie, she couldn't even see. The shed of her skin was stuck to her entire face and parts of her legs. I immediately soaked her in warm water for a long time. After the next couple of days, we are able to peel of the skin on her face so she could see. We then slowly peeled off the rest. What was also blatantly obvious is that her spine was crooked and humpback.

Needless to say, she was in worse shape than the others, but Spencer and I were up for the challenge. We brought her to Dr. Mertz at the New England Wildlife Center Odd Pet Vet. He told us that her deformity was pretty much for life (also her minor leg paralysis), but we could help her with shedding. We started her on 0.1 cc of antibiotics per day. She was close to losing her tail and very underweight. We did our best to fatten her up, socialize her, and help her with shedding. After a couple of weeks, she started to prolapse a little under the stress of holding her. She was always able to kick it back in fairly quickly. However, one Sunday night, she prolapsed so much that her lower intestines were out. We put her in a shallow pool of water with a paper towel in it to keep her moist. Unfortunately, she needed serious repair or she would die. We contacted our vet, and he told us that she lost muscle control in her back end due to the calcium deficiency. She will continue to do this most of, if not, her entire life. That's when I realized she would not be adoptable. We made the difficult decision to rush her to my work, Animal Rescue League of Boston, to put her down. Spencer and I miss her so much. She had a wonderful temperament. She was calcium deficient during infancy and childhood which resulted to her demise. I couldn't help wondering what other reptiles like her are suffering the same things due to poor nutrition. When we came back home, I spent a long time watching Helix, our own gecko. I felt so fortunate that he was a healthy boy. Not every gecko is so lucky...

In memory of Carlie who is no longer with us. April 22, 2013

Hermes is a girl's best friend.

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It's amazing how much Salinger eats!

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