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| This ur 2nd warning if ur easily squeamish don't read any further!
i had a litter of 8 kittens about a month ago in my barn. And I realized today I hadn't seen momma for a couple days but that isn't completely abnormal for her she comes and goes and hides a lot. Well I crawl back to check on kittens at the back of hay stack under the pallet and they are all dead. :( so k go ahead and move all the hay and clean it up and realize that a couple is completely missing. One is bloody on the head one had it throat bloody and open, one decapitated, one is missing its limbs... Don't I don't remember the rest... What could cause this? I'm afraid I have something living in my barn now... Thanks for any advice! |
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | Sounds like a raccoon, they like pulling their food apart. And sometimes a wild tom cat will do this too. |
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A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | I had a pet coon and he had his own little kiddie pool that he like to play in and one day in his little kiddie pool I found {this is so gross} but body parts of a kitten, I almost pasted out it was so awefull, Skitter coons name could come and go as he pleased so he would find food and bring it home to play with it in his pool.. |
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| Well that sucks! I even only feed my cats in the morning trying not to attract coons! What's the best way to catch it with out getting my cats? Live trap and marshmallows?
Edited to add thanks for the quick reply I was starting to get a little freaked out... And I'm still finding little limbs too :(
Edited by Kgirl 2015-05-02 2:04 PM
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  Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | racoon :( I lost an orphan kitten I raised "Joe Dirt" to one last summer. |
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A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | In fact now I have some coons living in my hay barn, I keep my horse feed in there and feed my cats in there to , well I did feed my cats in there untill this family of coons moved in, but anyway I was thinking it was just one coon set up a live trap for it caught it turn it loose on a live creek and I thought yeaaa no more eating up all my cat food and going threw all my stuff,, WRONG I guess it was the momma cause I found more little foot prints in my barn and eating cat food, so I just left them alone for now will trap them later, but got bad snake's now so letting the coons thin them out for me. So at night I put my special kittys up in my old feed room and shut the door she's got kittens. But I will be traping the other coons real soon.
I do use a live trap and put cat food in it, they love cat food.. |
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A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | wyoming barrel racer - 2015-05-02 2:04 PM racoon :( I lost an orphan kitten I raised "Joe Dirt" to one last summer.
Awwww, I bet Joe Dirt was a cool kitty. I have lost many cats to coons and coyotes out here.. |
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 My Heart Be Happy
Posts: 9159
Location: Arkansas | Has the mom shown back up? Poor kitties. I want to have cats at my barn to get rid of the mice explosion very badly but it's about half a mile from the house and the coyotes are SO BAD around here. I know the cats wouldn't stand a chance and I just can't condemn them to death by putting them down there. |
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 Night Chat Leader
Posts: 13150
Location: Home....Smiling M Farms | I've seem this happen a lot with tom cats too. |
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Neat Freak
Posts: 11216
Location: Wonderful Wyoming | Southtxponygirl - 2015-05-02 1:14 PM wyoming barrel racer - 2015-05-02 2:04 PM racoon :( I lost an orphan kitten I raised "Joe Dirt" to one last summer. Awwww, I bet Joe Dirt was a cool kitty. I have lost many cats to coons and coyotes out here..
Joe Dirt was as homely as they come, but he was my ugly kitty :( It had just warmed up enough and he was old enough that he was eating dry kitten food so I thought the tack room was a good place for him. That's where I feed the other barn cats. I came in a couple mornings later and all I found was a tuft of hair and some guts. I'm sure it was a coon. I have all but one male around here nuetered. I have a lot of trouble with coons too. Between my father in law and me, we killed over 40 one summer. It was a 2nd yr drought and I think they were just hungry. |
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 Warrior Mom
Posts: 4400
| Most likely a tom. I'm rehabbing 3 kittens right now. Momma had 8 but two died so she was left with 6. She brought one kitten out to the pen while I was riding and I saw he got attacked by something his back looked broken and he couldn't stand on his own. She was carrying him. I ended up putting him down and then her 3 other kittens showed up completely covered in burrs and eyes so crusted they couldn't open them .. very weak and lethargic. I decided to take them in. I gave each a shot of penicillin and hoped for the best ... they have made a huge recovery! I used vetricyn on their little eyes too and it cleared it right up. I'm keeping them inside. Momma cat has been doing alot of fighting lately with another cat and I'm pretty sure that's what happened to her other babies. I know of 2 big Tom's around here lurking around. And I've seen what you described before it's very unsettling |
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 Thick and Wavy
Posts: 6102
Location: Nebraska | I wonder if that's what killed my kittens this year. I thought it was one of the neighbor dogs. I know something has been opening the cat food container, so I'm betting it has been a coon. |
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