Also - thank you for the transfer factor. Grace has been feeling kind of low and it's nice to have something extra to give her. I'll let you know if it seems to help her, in the meantime it means alot to me to have something, (anything) extra to do.
Nina
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Hi Kerry...
I can't remember if I ever sent you a message after Levi passed away. That was a crazy weekend for me and then we were having so many problems with the list and I was enduring my own kind of AOHell. When I couldn't log on, an outsourced consultant told me my AOL software was damaged and my disc drive, for whatever reason, could or would not read a disc to reinstall it and they told me nothing could be done. But I started digging on my own, computer dummy that I am, and decided to try defragging the drives, even though only one drive was 16% fragmented. That seemed to do the trick and I was able to log on again to find an overflowing mailbox.
You have my utmost admiration for all your efforts dealing with FeLV+ ferals who are not cuddly and cooperative with regards to getting meds. It is difficult enough when you are trying to dose a cat who is even halfway cooperative. You did the very best you could trying to help Levi. Perhaps he tried so hard to stick around even though it was apparent he was not going to be able to get well because his alpha personality made him think he had to try and be there for his remaining siblings. He was sure a gutsy little guy and you did the best you could to try and help him. Sometimes our best is just not enough, and this is so often true when dealing with FeLV. If we can keep them stable with immune support and a good diet and try to minimize the stress in their life, that is about the best we can do until it is better understood what it is that causes the FeLV-A subgroup to mutate into one of the more virulent subgroups, and a way can be found to stall or halt that process (better yet a cure for the whole damned gamut of FeLV and its subgroups!) Levi and his littermates were so lucky to have come into your care, and I am sure he and the others know that. The pain of the losses may never go away completely, but we have to put it in perspective and go on trying to help the others still in our care.
I could really feel for what you have to go through after I rescued a little 5 mo. old off the E-list at the local shelter to be a playmate for Purrki, my miracle bably who retested negative for FeLV when he was neutered in Dec. '04. She was on the E-list because she had a minor URI and the new Shelter is not yet set up to hold and treat cats symptomatic for any length of time, so if whatever symptoms they have don't clear in a few days, they go on the list to be PTS. I was not able to isolate Purrla successfully and ended up with a URI epidemic among my indoor cats. URI's are more annoying than a real threat to healthy cats. But even my two FeLV+ furkids isolated in a back bedroom were affected and they are still semi-feral. Tango, the brother, did very well and I only had to wrap him up in a towel the first two times and he was OK after that about getting his meds. His sister, Macarena, however is still so very shy, I as really worried it would set back her socialization and acceptance of me that I've worked so hard to achieve. When I had to go out of town the weekend of the 5-7th, I was worried sick about having to go away and being able to find someone who could come give meds to them. Luckily, I was able to find two ladies through the local network of rescue groups and both kittys actually did much better than I thought they would and neither of the postives became seriously ill. By the time I got back, no one was still couging or congested, just a bit of sneezing, and all were eating on their own.
With regards to the San Francisco program, I will try to find copy of an article about that which listmember Denise Uriarte (also a boardmember and volunteer with PFOF, which stands for Peninsula Fix Our Ferals) shared with me. They have a dynamic young atorney who is or was the director and he lays it out in dollars and cents to demonstrate that an aggressive TNR policy with the bulk of resources dedicated to S/N is more cost effective and better at controlling feral populations than is TPTS. San Francisco is the only large city I know of which maintains a no kill policy at their shelters and are not having to euthanize healthy, adoptable cats as so many shelters must do.
The vet who has spearheaded these S/N "events" and gotten her colleagues to donate their veterinary skills and time to the effort is Dr. Dana Gleason. She has a practice in the East Bay area but I don't remember exactly where offhand...will have to dig into my offline saved mail for that. She had been doing it for a while in the E. Bay and this past August began an effort to include the Peninsula (West Bay area) and down south to San Jose, as well. I have worked with three of these events so far and I can't tell you how impressed I am with the way she has managed to get the events organized and running so smoothly. These ferals would get no better care in the most prestigious private practices (which would probably not accept ferals, anyhow). Because of all the labor being donated by vets and other volunteers, the only costs are for the supplies and meds, so we can keep the cost very minimal: $15 is the minimum donation requested per cat for a spay or neuter, with vaccination for a 3-way and rabies, treatment for fleas or ear mites and worming, if necessary, and whatever else needs to be done while the cat is under anesthesia, such as extracting obviously infected teeth. It is a one-shot deal with most ferals, who are not likely to walk into your traps a second or third time. We are now trying to push hard to get as many ferals microchipped as possible (cost for S/N, etc. plus microchipping is $25) as we have issues with local Animal Control facilities who routinely euthanize all ferals brought in. So far, we convinced them to get a scanner that can be used to scan ferals while still in a trap and they have assured us all ferals will henceforth be scanned, and if they have a chip will be released to the colony caretaker to be returned to their colony. We still haven't got a workable line of communication for dealing with "managed" ferals who are notched but unchipped -- it is really hard for me to go and see notched ferals (which means someone has cared enough to get the cat S/N'ed hoping to give it a better chance for some kind of life) on death row waitng to be PTS and know that our efforts on their behalf have been for naught.
Thanks for caring about the fate of ferals, though you would, of course. But not everyone involved in rescue efforts does give much thought or effort in that regrd.
Sally in San Jose
