I like to feed the stray cats around my neighborhood and don’t want to end up doing more harm than good.
In: Biology
Yes possibly, but short of capturing the animal and taking it to a vet, you don’t really have any other choice.
Yes but they would have to be emaciated to be at risk of refeeding syndrome. This is uncommon in stray cats that can hunt or forage (for trash). It is more common in owned pets (dogs>cats) that have food withheld for a prolonged period of time.
I’m not a vet, just a guy who likes to read about urban animals. Technically, any mammal can get refeeding syndrome. But refeeding syndrome only really kicks in if the subject is on the verge of dying from malnutrition alone. The further you get from civilization, the harder it is to just die from malnutrition, and the more likely it is that the starving person or animal will die from disease or be killed by a predator. Stray cats exist on the edge of civilization — they live inside human towns, but hunt and sleep in the hidden shadows of those towns where the people don’t go. If people don’t feed them, then they will try to hunt other animals to survive. And if they can’t hunt those other animals, they will almost certainly die trying, long before they are starving so badly that they would get refeeding syndrome.
Stray cats are generally pretty good at feeding themselves, which isn’t to say you shouldn’t feed them, but they are unlikely to on the verge of starvation. They catch mice, birds, lizards, bugs, etc. and eat them constantly. If they are underweight, it’s because they have bad teeth that make it hard to eat, or they have parasites stealing their food. In neither case will they suffer from you putting out kibble.
If you really want to help those cats, see if there is a TNR program you can get involved in locally. Keep those cats from breeding, and depending on the program, they may euthanize animals with FLV or FIV, and vaccinate against some nasty illnesses. Plus it’s a chance to deworm them.
Yes. I’ve seen it many times with both dogs and cats who have gotten lost or become sick and stopped eating for whatever reason.
And what about imposter syndrome?
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