Yard cats and vets

[chaps89]

Quick question for those of you on yards with yard cats.
If one of them becomes unwell who deals with taking them to the vet and the vet bill?

 

[Polos Mum]

Yard owner presumably - whoever feeds them

 

[MagicMelon]

Yard owner, they own the premises the cats live on?

 

[ihatework]

Yard owner presumably

 

[poiuytrewq]

I agree. Although when I took ours to the vet recently they very obviously didn’t expect me to want to pay- as in gave me the cheapest of cheap options rather than my full options and called her “just a stray”
Maybe it’s a thing ?‍
I’d have remortgaged the house had she been saveable but I know people who wouldn’t.

 

[AmyMay]

Quick question for those of you on yards with yard cats.
If one of them becomes unwell who deals with taking them to the vet and the vet bill?

On my last yard we all contributed to two of the yard cats bills (food and vet) as they were encouraged to stay when they turned up as kittens. The third kitten ended up living in the YO’s house and so he paid all of its bills.

 

[ILuvCowparsely]

Quick question for those of you on yards with yard cats.
If one of them becomes unwell who deals with taking them to the vet and the vet bill?

Yard owne
r or cat owner

 

[turkana]

YO not interested in the cats, so we took it in turns to buy food. Any vet bills and we would all chip in together to cover it

 

[SussexbytheXmasTree]

No one owns the cat on our yard it just adopted the yard about 9 years ago. Original owner collected him a couple of times but he kept coming back. We don’t have a resident YO or YM and I’m the one that buys him wormers and flea treatments. The cattleman used to heat his workshop for him and feed him but since he died 3 years ago they got rid of all the home comforts although his wife walks down and feeds him once a day. I’ve taken to buying him some food this summer as he was looking a bit scraggy and if she won’t fork out for the vet if needed I probably would as I adore him.

 

[Trouper]

No one owns the cat on our yard it just adopted the yard about 9 years ago. Original owner collected him a couple of times but he kept coming back. We don’t have a resident YO or YM and I’m the one that buys him wormers and flea treatments. The cattleman used to heat his workshop for him and feed him but since he died 3 years ago they got rid of all the home comforts although his wife walks down and feeds him once a day. I’ve taken to buying him some food this summer as he was looking a bit scraggy and if she won’t fork out for the vet if needed I probably would as I adore him.

You might be surprised at how yard cats can take to some domestic comfort as they get older - just saying?

 

[EventingMum]

I'm a yard owner and consider myself totally responsible for the three cats here. They are totally spoiled as they have access to the heated staff room which two of them consider home and get fed twice a day including one's predilection for ham and get flea and worm treatments. A client also brings them a weekly treat of a bag of Dreamies and grooms the old one. The only thing they don't get is vaccinated although all were done as kittens, if they were unwell I would take them to the vet immediately. They repay us by being great characters and ensuring we don't have a rodent problem!

 

[SussexbytheXmasTree]

You might be surprised at how yard cats can take to some domestic comfort as they get older - just saying?

Sadly I don’t think he’d get along with my own cat and he loves the farm life. I’m sure his ideal would be a warm bed in a house when he wants it with the freedom of the stables and land. We do heat the tearoom and tack room in the winter and provide various blankets etc. So he’s doing ok at the moment.

 

[fabbydo]

The yard owner. They also deflea and worm her regularly. She has a heated bed in the greenhouse. (And yes, she is the world's most useless mouser!)

 

[scats]

We used to have a ‘cat fund’ pot at our old yard as YO owner had nothing to do with the cats (all arranged by us), though it largely fell to a few of us in the latter days and we’d split the bills between us.

 

[wills_91]

You might be surprised at how yard cats can take to some domestic comfort as they get older - just saying?

At my last yard the yo took the cat home thinking she was on her way out and wanted her to be comfortable, said cat rallied and lasted another 5 years entirely housebound ?. God I loved that cat.

 

[exracehorse]

We have four. One tame. Two semi feral. One downright evil feral. I feed them all. Yard owner would not pay for vetinary attention. They all just turned up over the years so no one really owns them. If any were poorly I would take to the vet but plead poverty and certainly wouldn’t pay for anything expensive. We had one arrive with a broken hip. I caught it in a trap and took to the vets to be pts. Vet sent me a massive bill to euthanise and burn body. I rung up and said I wouldn’t pay as he had no owner and I was being kind to have him put to sleep than die dragging himself around the yard. They did eventually tear up the bill.

 

[ktj1891]

Is it a thing that yard owners don’t really look after their yard cats? My biggest issue is not getting them spayed. Poor cats having numerous litters every year.

 

[chaps89]

Interesting replies, thankyou all
Seems the poorly feral at the yard did see a vet today in the end thank goodness, not sure on the ins and outs of how it came to be arranged in the end but was curious how others handle it as people have been dragging their feet!