Should cats be free to roam or kept at home?

A vet’s perspective on whether a cat should be free to roam or kept indoors only

    i am a great believer in trying to prevent a problem from arising before it has happened. As a vet, preventive medicine is a wide field, encompassing such diverse topics as nutrition, vaccination and neutering. There is also, however, an important aspect for the cat-owner to consider: should my cat have free access to the outside world or should I confine him (or her) to a life indoors?

Dangers of the outside world

    Last Saturday, the veterinary nurse working with me remarked that she had four cats in for the weekend recovering from injuries sustained from being hit by a car. During the course of the morning, I treated three cats for cat bite abscesses and another cat was admitted with serious injuries after an RTA (road traffic accident).
    These are just two reasons for confining a cat. If your cat is not out and about, then there is no chance of him/her being hit by a car or being involved in a cat fight. There is, as ever, more to it than that!

Cat fights

RTA: Yes, RTA and catfights are often concurrent, it not being uncommon to find wounds from a cat fight on a cat which has been involved in an RTA.
    Imagine the scenario: two cats fighting in a deserted road when a car comes along. Alternatively, cats fighting near a road, one dashes for safety across a road just as a car comes along.
    It may be that a car driving along a road disturbs a catfight, causing one or both to shoot across the road, into the path of traffic.
Infection: Mixing and fighting with other cats of unknown health status can potentially expose your cat to infection with many disease agents, for example:

● Viruses and other infectious causes of upper respiratory disease
● FeLV (Feline Leukaemia Virus)
● FIV (Feline Immunodeficiency Virus)
● Ringworm

Ectoparasites: Although the house is now recognised as being a source of fleas, cats will obviously acquire fleas from other animals encountered outside. Ticks may also be picked up from hedgehogs, for example, as may ringworm.
Cat bite abscesses: Classically, bite wounds heal over at the surface and may even have been inapparent to the owner.
    Over the next few days, however, an abscess may form by virtue of infection injected deep under the skin by the assailant’s teeth; the affected cat often becomes unwell, going off his/ her food, seeking out a quiet place and sleeping more, usually reflecting a fever. Swelling and heat of the affected area may become noticeable as the abscess develops.
    If taken to a veterinary surgeon at this stage, we often find that the fur can be readily plucked from the area of swelling to reveal scabbed puncture wounds; if the scabs are picked off, there is usually the welcome sight of pus, confirming a cat bite abscess rather than anything more sinister.
Left to follow a natural course, the abscess ultimately bursts, discharging a volume of smelly pus via a hole in the skin which may be of quite a considerable size.

Treatment consists of:
● expressing as much pus as possible
● flushing out the resultant cavity under the skin
● bathing with salty water (one teaspoonful of salt in one pint or half a litre of warm water) twice daily, if tolerated
● a course of appropriate antibiotic.

Diet 
    Although cats are natural hunters, they will also avail themselves of other food found whilst out and about. This may pose a threat to their health:
Weight-gain: 
● we all know of the cats who are fed at several houses! Dietary intolerances:
● lactose-intolerant cat drinking (thieving!) another cat’s milk will develop diarrhoea, of unknown origin to the owner;
● exclusion diet for investigation of skin or digestive disorder will seem to be ineffective if cat is eating other food elsewhere!
● dietary indiscretion
● adverse effects from over-eating and/ or sudden change to diet;
● adverse effects of access to ‘forbidden foods’ for cats on prescription diets;
● inadvertent ingestion of another cat’s medication mixed with food?

Should a cat be confined? 
    In general, one looks on the cat as being a free agent, with access to the outside world, unlike the dog which is required to be kept within the boundaries of its home, with supervision and control when away from home. Cats kept for breeding are confined for various reasons (disease control and restriction of mating, for example) but the house-cat is what I am really considering here.
     The house-cat may or may not be pedigree, a decision to either totally preclude access to outside or to only allow limited access - under close supervision or in a suitable pen - having been made by the owner. This decision may have been made in order to avoid the dangers outlined above but there are also advantages to being a house-cat:

● close human contact
● no need to vaccinate against FeLV (link with injection site fibrosarcoma under investigation)
● avoidance of contamination of outside environment with feline urine and faeces; strict control of diet
● wildlife not endangered – more birds in the garden, for example

Toxoplasmosis 
    This is a zoonosis, meaning that it can transfer from cat to human with potential health risks. Handling of cat faeces, be they in the litter tray or hidden in the garden, is the major source of exposure, and is therefore a problem with both roaming and confined cats.

Conclusion 

     I am well aware that the issue of whether or not a cat should be con- fined is contentious. The very idea of preventing a cat from enjoying all that the outside environment has to offer, and the ability to do all that comes natural to cats, may be considered cruel in some people’s eyes. I have merely tried to show some examples of the advantages and disadvantages for both lifestyles.
     Myself, I was brought up in the country but living on a sharp bend of a busy road, and we always had at least four cats, often with a litter of kittens sired by one of our own cats or the local stray - if he had not already moved in with us! Our cats had full and free access to the great outdoors, via an ever-open cat-flap in the back door. They had their own sleeping places in the conservatory or one of the sheds, daytime and/or night-time.
    My childhood memories are dominated by fruitless searches for missing cats – foxes were blamed but I wonder what role cars had to play. Certainly, my last cat took us by surprise because we had always thought he never left the garden, until he appeared limping one day, having been hit by a car.
If they had been house-cats, they would not have ventured onto the road or encountered foxes and other cats. Nor would they have hunted and caught mice, rats, squirrels, rabbits, guinea-fowl, doves…
They would also have not enjoyed the rich diversity which the countryside has to offer. They may, however, have lived longer.