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Discussion Thread ☕️ Saturday 25 April 2026 (aussie.zone)
submitted 6 months ago by to c/melbourne@aussie.zone
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[–] 4 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (6 children)

spoiler

Oh no. The black kitty has heard some noise and come to sit on my doorstep wanting to be let in.

Not a big deal except I’m kind of trapped inside due to trying to avoid being touched by him and prevent him from dashing in. It feels terrible because I do care about him and he is a nice cat. But I’m pretty sure he’s not been treated for the ringworm (and could still be contagious if he had), also I’m trying not to encourage him away from his owners.

I don’t have a plan honestly. I just don’t know. For now I’m just trying to stay inside as much as possible to rest and sort my own life out. But if he doesn’t get vet treatment and it continues affecting my life I may have to start reporting to RSPCA or the council. Which I don’t want to and don’t think will improve matters but may eventually be forced to.

Because I am still treating the first round of infection I caught from him brushing against my leg. It’s so hard to get rid of. 😑 FFS people, take your cat to the vet or even just use the expensive medicines I left on your doorstep which you received. Why are you making this poor animal my problem

Edit: I’d be glad of any opinions, what you would do if this was you. Or if you have actually managed to sort something like this. It’s a legit problem and genuinely stressing me out. :( I just want to be freed up to focus on myself.

I don’t know these neighbours to just have a casual chat, failed at treating him myself, get really stressed about confronting people and from the constant deflecting via email they aren’t interested in doing anything.

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  • [–] 6 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    If it were me and was that worried I'd worry about yourself melba and ignore the cat if you can.. if you feel your health is at risk it's you first.

    I know you've just lost your special cat, but if this new one is affecting your mental state, then preserving that mental state is the most important thing.

    Perhaps there'll be another kitty soon in the future.

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  • [–] 3 points 6 months ago*

    I agree. My own stuff is enough to deal with for now.

    The problem is I’m trying to avoid and ignore him, but he sometimes blocks me into my house because I’m trying to avoid physical contact and he’s waiting near the door to actively pursue it. It’s stressing me out. As is the idea of continuing to nag or confront neighbours (I don’t know these people and have had some dangerous experiences/sustained harassment in the past).

    To make it clear - I’m very much not trying to adopt or take in the cat. I’m not after a new pet. I’m trying to make his owners take him to the vet and treat him so he stops reinfecting me. (Also for his own comfort because damn.)

    I’ve just tried to submit a report to the RSPCA with photos and a video from my phone but it’s hanging on send. I’ll try again later on the computer.

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  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago (3 children)

    I would be caring for the cat as an outside cat, I would wear long pants , forget the neighbours, they just do not care

    first feed him up and get trust, then get drops to put in food

    but mainly don't stress, he's a cat

    set achievable goals, you don't have to look after him perfectly, good enough is good enough

    and really, sometimes caring for someone else is a good way to destress

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  • [–] 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

    I’ve done the caring for him as an outside cat and it was incredibly stressful for me. A lot of labour and encourages him away from home. I just can’t do it anymore.

    spoilerI had to routinely don long clothes and gloves whenever I saw him then wash hands change out of clothes and shower fully with antifungal products and reapply treatment on my own lesions after. So much laundry on hot with sanitizer, and carpet shampooing. Frequent vacuuming. You have to regularly clean your house to prevent picking it back up from the environment so it’s a whole thing. And I can’t take constantly having to prevent reinfection after handling him. It was also hurting my mental health.

    He refused the ringworm tablet hidden in food, I got two doses down the hatch by wrestling him but then the next two nights he started hiding from me and I had to go looking for him. At that point I realised “this is crazy”, dumped all the cat stuff on the owners doorstep and emailed asking them to take him to the vet.

    I don’t think they have. I’ve handed over all the treatments I have which will be expensive and an hassle to get more of. (The tablets are prescription only and came from the rescue lady. That liquid requires a script to be uploaded to buy it and vets don’t prescribe to animals they haven’t seen. The lime sulfur dip alone was $50 and I don’t know if he’d let me bathe him.) And I’m not legally able to confine someone else’s pet for treatment or take him to the vet myself. They will have to do it.

    And he’s still hanging around my door waiting to rub up on me or door dash in while contagious.

    So unless I want to be on an endless ringworm reinfection treadmill (I really don’t) I am going to have to be a Karen, make a report to RSPCA or the council. And I’m worried about the backlash when I do.

    This is actually kind of a nightmare. I can’t begin to tell you how much I didn’t and don’t want to deal with this.

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  • [–] 3 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    Melba. You over react. You over clean. Fungus on skin is not a deadly disease, so why the drama? Put some daktarin on skin. Wash things normally. Cleaning carpets so heavily can actually make pollution in house worse as you degrade the fibres and the glues. Give drops to cat.

    talk to your doctor and do what they say

    This reminds me of a friend I had. I made her high quality face masks with special medical filter I bought overseas. I showed her how to wash them , telling her they were delicate .

    Then later she told me she scrubbed and wringed them hard to clean them well. I told her she ruined them and made them useless by ripping up all the filter in the inside layer and removing the special chemical that repelled germs.

    She just did not want to believe me that scrubbing was wrong. I gave her no more masks, they took a long time to make and were expensive.

    Good enough is good enough

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  • [–] 3 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

    No, I don’t overreact or overclean. And I’m not dramatic.

    It may be a fungus but is not always a simple easy thing to get rid of if you have a google. My immune system also isn’t good (I’ve been treating it for 2 months and it spread). I can’t get the drops without a prescription.

    Plus other people’s laziness means I’ve had to deal with something shitty that’s not my responsibility. And now have to nag them about it. And risk conflict if I report the neglect.

    The only difference between this and weaponized incompetence is that they don’t even care enough to do it consciously.

    I am so tired of other people’s bullshit.

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