Please Help Identify Remains

[failure2launch]

Hello,

This question is for veterinarians (or advance 3/4th year veterinary students) and/or forensics experts. I have a colony of feral cats living in my back yard that I care for (e.g. feed, get spayed/neutered/vaccinated, etc). Unfortunately, two individuals disappeared at about the same time around two years ago. One was male and the other was female. While doing some wiring work, I found a feline skeleton under my house. I suspect that it belonged to one of these animals. The photos aren't the best, but if you could please tell me the approximately age, sex, size when alive, and any other info, it would be very helpful. I've already buried the remains, but it would be nice to be able to put the animal's name on the grave marker and know what happened. I really liked both of these feral cats (they were friendly for ferals and even allowed me to pet them at times). The male's name was Mickey. The female's name was Catness. I always have wondered what happened to both of them. If you can help, I'd be very grateful. It would really put my mind at easy. Thank you so much for being wonderful human begins that help pets and their owners. You guys are wonderful people who really do make the world a better place.

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[DVMDream]

I am sorry for the loss of your two cats, but it is impossible to tell you any of that information from a heavily decomposed skeleton. Aging animals (I mean dogs/cats, horses/goats/cattle are different) is incredibly inaccurate after adult teeth become present, aging can be determined (somewhat) in young puppies and kittens but once all the adult teeth are in, it is a guess and often times a guess mixed with other physical exam findings... ie body condition, coat condition, eye changes, presence of arthritis, presence of dental tartar/periodontal disease, etc. Sex isn't possible to be determined from a skeleton, neither is size (a fat cat has the same skeleton as that of a normal body conditioned cat, only thing that would be different is kitten vs adult). You would be best in providing an estimate of age as you should have an idea of if they were kittens or adults when they disappeared, if they were adults all we can say is they were adults when they passed. If they were kittens, I can't tell via the pictures if they were still kittens or not though some of the bones look small, others look quite large to be kitten bones.

 

[evilbooyaa]

SDN is not for uh.... whatever this is in regards to the skeletons. I guess veterinarian advice? Please contact a local veterinarian for in-person discussion. This is similar in vein to 'SDN is not for medical advice'.