Thank you again for being so eloquent! To make it more confusing, there are tame cats that have been dumped at colonies/barns that for their safety act feral. Once pulled from that situation and given time, come around. That’s what I consider different from real ferals raised in the wild with no human contact.
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Sorry, but your vet needs to read up about ‘bobcat fever.’ I have lost at least one to it. There is no cure (at least, not then, there wasn’t).
I do see ticks on my ferals from time to time, especially in the ears (where I have zero chance of getting them pulled off!).
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From what I have researched since the first person in this thread demanded my vet is clueless, it is not in my area (yet, clearly like all things it will make it her).
I am glad to know about it and it only strengthens my resolve that I finally found something that worked for ticks on my cat.
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I don’t think it’s well-known (probably like histoplasmosis, you don’t know about it until you have to deal with it). But in my area its endemic, as we have quite a few bobcats. Ticks attach to the bobcat, ingest the virus, then hop on a domestic cat. It’s very rare for that reason.
I will also add that, where I used to live, it was over 50 miles, an hour or more travel time, to the nearest shelter. You had to pay a fee to drop the animal there. People just didn’t bring stray animals to a shelter. It’s not a thing in many rural areas. They either take the animal in or shoo them away (or worse if the animal is bothering their livestock or wildlife like deer).
To me, any parasite, even if it doesn’t spread an illness, isn’t something I want, and is something I try to prevent.
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@Bicoastal So what happened? Did you tell the neighbor that the cat was in the shelter? If so, did they retrieve her?
Did you not say anything?
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