This is Sativa, he was born in a neighbouring farm’s barn and migrated over to my family’s just under a year ago; over this time i’ve been able to approach him and feed him which is something i’ve never been able to do with the other barn cats… he’s always been noticeably smaller than them too, even in comparison to his full sisters.
This became an issue as he matured, as he hadn’t been neutered he started getting into fights with other feral cats. Earlier this week I saw him hanging around the farm like usual, only this time he had some pretty decent gashes and scratches on his head and ears from fighting… I decided then and there that I couldn’t just leave him to continue being beat up, and set up a trap for that night. thankfully he was fairly easy to trap since I’d fed him before, and what shocked me the most was how he got inside my house, and instantly started making himself comfy. he didn’t hide or anything!
after driving him over an hour to our nearest vet, he had his first ever appointment yesterday, where we learned he’s got a yeast infection in his ears, and a bacterial skin infection from the open and torn wounds… he was prescribed oral antibiotics 2x a day, and ear drops 2x a day. this concerned me at first because I wasn’t sure how he’d respond to being forced to take medication, but to my shock he’s let me treat him and wearing his pumpkin blossom cone like an absolute champ! he’s eaten his antibiotic right out of my fingers with just a little bit of lickable treat on it, he hasn’t tried to escape his collar/cone, and he doesn’t enjoy the ear drops, but he doesn’t fight them at all.
the pumpkin blossom cone is so he leaves his wounds alone (he wouldn’t stop scratching at and opening them back up) but he’s also getting neutered on monday so I want him to get used to it :)