The Outdoor Kitties

EDIT/UPDATE: I talked to a lady that I work with and she brought me an antibiotic that she used for one of her pets. I am going to start giving him that in some canned food. I gave him a super small smidge of an antibiotic that my sister had left over (the pharmacy gave her too many). I opened the capsule, put a tiny bit on a plate and put the canned food on it. He ate all of it last night and I put some more out there for him this morning. I figured the worst that would happen is he would have a reaction to the meds. If I don't get some into him though, he will most likely die anyway. He will not let my get near him anymore. I am sure he is in pain and scared. I will let you all know how he does. Hopefully he will be fine as I will be leaving Friday night and will not be back until Tuesday morning for the holiday weekend I am spending with my son. I will just resume the meds then I guess.

I have several cats outside that I have been feeding. Last year I also gave them flea treatments and the like as I did not have to catch them and take them in to the vet for that. I had one of the cats die not too long ago. I was saddened by that, but that is the way of life. I now have another grey cat that comes around. He did not stick around too often when the old cat was there. The old cat was kind of the "boss" of my back porch! Now that he has gone, this new grey cat comes around a lot more. It took about two months before he would allow me to just pet him anytime I walked up to him. It was a gradual process that allowed me to be standing at the door, then be on the porch at the same time, to being near him as he ate. When I was finally allowed to pet him, I found a sore on the side of his face. He had obviously been in a cat fight. I figured it would heal on it's own. A few days later, the sore is now a wound and it looks infected. I got some neosporin and smeared it all over the side of his face. He did not come around the next evening due to the storms we had all evening and into the night. I saw him again on Saturday and put more neosporin on his face. I am assuming it hurt a bit because he flinched a bit as I was applying it. I did not see him on Sunday. When I got home last night, he was on the porch. I was thinking "oh, boy, I can put some more stuff on his face". Then he turns around. The poor kitty. The whole side of his face is swollen, puffy and oozing. He even looks like his eye is infected. It has green puss looking stuff all over his eye. I am thinking that he could not really see because he was scared of me and would not let me touch him. He was probably also in pain. I am sure that the infected area hurts. This morning I call my vets office. I wanted to get an antibiotic that I could set out in some canned food to make sure he gets it all. They won't give me any unless I catch him and bring him in. Now, I can't afford to pay the vet visit fee for my own three cats, I sure can't afford to for the strays in the neighborhood. Not to mention if I catch him and take him in, he would probably never let me near him again. Then how am I supposed to take care of him? The gal at the vet office just repeated herself and said to try to catch him and bring him in. I told her thanks anyway. I figured at that point that nature would take it's course and another kitty would die.
Then I ask another animal lover in my office who also helps with the local animal shelter if she thinks the shelter would be able to help. I do not want to take him in. I know that they will put him down. He looks a little mangy from living outside and has this awful looking infection. They are not a no kill shelter, so killed he would be. I just want an antibiotic. She says they don't give out meds like that, and only treat animals that they are going to try to adopt out. BUT there is this lady that lives in the county that rescues cats. Call the shelter to get her number. I call the shelter, they do not know her number, but try calling this other lady named Connie. She helps rescue cats. I do give her a call. She tells me she cannot talk right now as she is not in a place to talk about this, can I call her back? Absolutely I tell her. I call her back and basically she says the same thing. I need to trap him to take him in and then keep him in a cage to make sure he gets the meds each day. Well, I simply cannot afford that. She also tells me that there is a low cost spay/neuter program for community animals like this that I can participate in to keep from having more kittens in our little kitty community. I will definitely take her up on that as the female cat has already had one litter of kittens. I assume she abandoned them as I have never seen them. She was probably right around a year and this was her first litter, so it does not surprise me that she did not care for them. Hopefully I can get her fixed before she gets preggers again! I am really worried for this little grey kitty. I wish that I had the money to get him better care. I will update if there is any progress in the help of the kitty. Most likely he will die from infection before I can find someone to help. With my luck it will be the same as the last time the cat died, I will find his body in my yard when I come home from my visit with my son. Then I will just bury him as well. It makes me sad that there are not more programs to help with feral animals.
If you have any ideas, please let me know.