Orchard Animal Clinic

04/21/2025

04/21/2025

Text from Stray Cat TNR ...

It's kitten season! Good-hearted people around the country are discovering kittens in their neighborhoods.

This is your PSA for today 📣: DO NOT SCOOP UP KITTENS AND LEAVE THE MOM CAT BEHIND!

It can be tempting to gather up the kittens and bring them indoors to keep them safe and fed. However, it is important to know that this is not in a kitten’s best interest if they are too young and certainly not in the best interest of the mom.

🛑 Stop and think about how this affects the bigger picture of overpopulation. If you REALLY want to "rescue", try leaving the kittens where they are so you might catch a glimpse of the mother and be able to help them ALL, so you can stop the unending cycle of reproduction. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

Do not assume that kittens are abandoned or orphaned just because you do not see their mother. A mother cat will temporarily leave her kittens for good reasons, like looking for food. She may even be hiding and waiting for YOU to leave. Those kittens you found? They are healthy for a reason, and that reason is because they have a mom caring for them. You can always reach out to a shelter or rescue for advice on how to proceed.

✨Remember, Mother knows best.✨ You can not replace a mother cats’ instinctive care. Plus, neonatal kittens (kittens 4 weeks old and younger) need specialized care to survive, which is challenging for humans to provide. Most shelters and rescues do not have the resources/fosters necessary to provide this kind of care round-the-clock care.

🚩If the kittens are sick, injured, cold, or dirty, it IS time to intervene, whether you see Mama Cat or not.

More detailed information about what to do when you see kittens: https://www.alleycat.org/community-cat-care/finding-kittens-outdoors/

If you scoop up kittens and leave the mom behind, you have left her to go through the same thing all over again in just a couple of months. 😭

STOP the cycle by spaying her AND rescuing the kittens.

04/17/2025

Cut everything you throw away, even bags. Wildlife are suffering.

04/17/2025

Does Trap-Neuter-Return Reduce the Number of Community Cats?

4 Mistakes that Can Sabotage your TNR Efforts and Give TNR a Bad Name.

We received a flurry of comments recently stating that TNR doesn't work. Some of these comments came from people concerned about the effect of cats on wildlife. Others were from frustrated trappers who found that their TNR'd colony kept growing despite their efforts to get them all. Does TNR actually stop colony growth and reduce the number of community cats?

Yes, TNR works great in controlling the population of cats and stopping colony growth, but ONLY if done correctly. If you make one of these mistakes, your TNR project may fail. As a new trapper I made all 4 of these mistakes.

Nothing hijacks our emotions more than homeless kittens, so when I got a call about a nearby business with 5 cats and 3 kittens, I rushed out to get the kittens. I knew it was important to get the babies first so they could be socialized and adopted into homes. And to be honest, I was smitten with kittens. Saving the kittens was a lot more fun than getting the colony fixed. So, I decided to get the kittens socialized, fixed and into homes before I tackled the 5 adults in the colony.

You can guess what happened. By the time I got around to making appointments for the 5 adults in the colony, two of the cats had given birth and the colony was now larger than when I started. I now had 5 adults and 8 more kittens to trap. Prioritizing the kittens resulted in a larger TNR project.

I made appointments for the 5 remaining cats but soon discovered another flaw in my plan. The business owner had reported 5 adults, and I believed him. Big rookie mistake! There are nearly always more cats than reported. Once I started trapping, I discovered that there were actually 9 adult cats. Now I needed more appointments and there weren't any available appointments until the next month. While I waited, more kittens were born. :-/

After 6 weeks of trapping, I had fixed 32 cats, but I was still making mistakes! The colony was in a nearby town, so it was too far out of my way to feed every day. My solution was to go twice a week and leave a huge bin of dry food to last until the next visit. In addition to attracting unwanted raccoons, the surplus also brought in cats from nearby colonies and from a local neighborhood. The business wasn't happy and now there were more cats to trap.

This colony was eventually TNR'd. But the mistakes I made resulted in a much larger and more expensive project. Most experienced trappers know to avoid these mistakes by:

-Assessing the colony size BEFORE trapping. Wildlife cameras or WiFi cameras aimed at the feeding station can help with this.

-Checking nearby homes or businesses for additional cats.

-Prioritizing the timely TNR of ALL cats instead of focusing on the kittens. When possible, it is best to do the entire colony at once.

-Feeding responsibly by leaving out just enough food for meals. When there is too much food, you have increased the "carrying capacity" for your colony and will attract more cats and wildlife.

-Following up after the TNR project to make sure no newcomers have arrived. Tomcats can have large territories and may visit the feeding station intermittently, so it is easy to miss them while doing TNR. Colonies in some residential areas may also have a continuous influx of pet cats who are lost or abandoned.

TNR works beautifully when you avoid these 4 mistakes. It is wonderful to see a TNR'd colony thriving with a stable population. Smaller, stable populations are MORE likely to be accepted by the humans living and working nearby and LESS likely to be targeted by cat haters.

04/17/2025

A Neutered Cat is a Good Cat 🐈

04/14/2025

OAC has open TNR spots right NOW for this week. Don't wait, TNR today. We offer FREE TNR if needed.

https://orchardanimaloutreach.org/communityferal-cats.html

04/11/2025

Just as prolific as cats, this is the bunny version as to how overpopulation and senseless suffering begins.

04/10/2025

We are still working on getting us and our Xray machine up to full speed, but we were able to help a rescue with a semi feral yesterday.

She is doing well this morning after her surgery yesterday, but we are still guarded and concerned. It is unknown at this time exactly what happened to her.

If you would like to help out the rescue with this baby girl or one of the many animals they help here in Utah we have the link below, either monetary which is always appreciated and desperately needed or an item from their Amazon wishlist.

https://checkout.shelterluv.com/donate/czut

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/TQPB6YNOA2G7?ref_=wl_share

AND just a reminder Spay and Neuter today, don't wait.

04/06/2025

04/06/2025

😡😓

Mass firings at the Department of Health and Human Services on April 1 have included nearly 150 Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Veterinary Medicine staff members, many of whom are veterinarians.

04/05/2025

Just don't, these are living, feeling beings. Humans, do better, be better.

Bunnies are NOT outdoor pets! 🚫🌳 Domestic rabbits belong indoors, where they are safe from predators, harsh NE weather, traffic, and parasites. They need bunny-proofed homes, 4+ hours of daily exercise, and a spacious living area—not a hutch in the yard. Sadly, too many bunnies are dumped outside when people realize how much care they need. 💔 This Easter, choose a plush bunny instead! Plush is Enough. 🧸💜

Esker, pictured here, was abandoned in the woods just before her 1st birthday. An unwanted pet dumped after she was no longer wanted. Do your research and do not impulse buy a bunny! Esker will be spayed after her treatment for fleas/ticks - soon, she will be ready to find a furever home