u/Funny-Negotiation-10

Hi everyone, I wanted to share our situation and ask for suggestions or support.

Context:

My parents (seniors, late 60s/70s) live in Bangalore. My sister and I are both married and live away — I’m in the US, she’s in Chennai. Over the years, my mom has rescued and had several cats adopted, and now cares for 6 of them. These are rescues that haven't found adopters and as a result we have been taken care. It's getting hard now.

They live in a pen on the third floor of our independent house. Mom and Dad live on the first floor (ground floor is rented, second floor has guest space, third floor is cats’ area).

Our cats:

Biscuit(7 yrs, FIV+, neutered, vaccinated, full jaw extraction for gingivitis).
Raja, Rani, Ricki(3 yrs, littermates — Raja unneutered/unvaxxed, Rani & Ricki spayed/vaxxed). We're looking at getting raja spayed this month. He is very anxious and he gets violent, like he'll raise hell so we have got some sedatives to take him to the vet.
Sheru & Sonu (2 yrs, born before Rani & Ricki were spayed). Sheru is rikkis son and Sonu is Ranis daughter. Sonu and Rani may be bonded.

Except Biscuit, Raja and Sheru, all are feral/unsocialized.

Our concerns:

Daily care is difficult.

Mom climbs two flights of stairs every day to clean the pen. Dad helps with feeding but is scared of cats. This is becoming exhausting for them at their age.

Currently we are looking at expanding the pen until the second floor so they can use the second floor as well. The pen though is large enough as of now and they are all litter trained.

No long-term plan.

We’re worried what will happen to the cats if something happens to our parents. My sis can take Biscuit to Chennai, but i cannot (long distance travel to the US, I am also immunocompromised and disabled. Returning is not an option but I am able to finance. Even if I could return, I'm unable to care for them consistently due to my disability).
Adoption is uncertain.

Ideally, we’d love to find homes for them one by one. But they’ve grown up like a colony, are anxious/skittish, and struggle in new environments. Even brief attempts to bring them into the house stressed them out terribly. They have been especially anxious since their neutering (at Cartman).

This is all they know, mom, dad and us. It breaks our hearts to stress them out and break them up like this and we love them a lot especially our mom.

Why we’re reaching out:

Main need: fosters who can take them, socialize them and get them adopted, especially the anxious ones. As we know cats require lots of time patience and treats to start trusting someone, so they may be a long term commitment. Their current life and the current humans feeding them are pretty much all they've ever known..
We need advice on finding caretakers in Bangalore who could help with daily cleaning/feeding, even part-time.
Guidance from people who’ve managed long-term care for feral/semi-feral colonies indoors.
Any ideas on safe adoption, or how to prepare for emergencies.

Our current living situation cannot support indoor lifestyle for cats unless they're in their own pen. My mom also has OCD.

We are looking at expanding the pen. It is already quite spacious, they have their toys and they have sunlight ventilation water and litter. Since it's difficult for my mom to climb all the way, we are consulting and planning to expand access to second floor. Even after that do not have a long term solution for at least 4 of the cats

They adore my mom — it’s like she’s part of their colony — and we’ve done our best with the resources we had. We just want to make sure they’ll be safe and cared for, now and in the future.

Please be kind, we’re trying our best. Any advice, solutions, or helping hands would mean a lot.

DM me if you’d like more details.

Will provide exact location once approved.

Hello ladies.

Bit of background, I am 33, I'm a physician and I've been having recurrent episodes of itching in the you know where. It responded to antifungals but kept coming back. I also have an autoimmune disease for which I take immunomodulators every month. This may or may not have contributed to the yeast infection.

I am in the US, but I am visiting home this month, in Bangalore. The itching restarted on the flight back and as soon as I landed, made an appointment with a gyne at Kangaroo Care.

She took a look at my V, and saw that it was inflamed, swollen and burning. It was especially painful when she did a digital vaginal examination. Now I've had pap smears before and I'm a nervous woman, but it never hurt before the way it hurt on that day, like a baddd friction burn. It was sooo painful. I communicated this to her.

But because I had no discharge, the gynecologist told me that there's no problem (!!!). So I asked her why it's itching and burning, and she said I just have to "improve my immunity."

Now no doctor worth their salt, who has any understanding of autoimmune disorders, will ask you to "improve your immunity" with Vitamin C. She never answered my questions. How are you going to say this to a PHYSICIAN!! and what other bullshit are you telling your other patients, many of whom will believe your gaslighting! Are you a gynecologist or a witch doctor!!!

Anyway I took matters into my own hands, went and prescribed myself a fungal culture, and started myself on empirical treatment. I was used to following due process in the US because I do not yet have a license to practice there. But here I AM THE DUE PROCESS so I went and did that.

But I developed a UTI and worsening of symptoms while on treatment. This was when I started feeling hopeless, because what guarantee do I have that another gynecologist will be able to help me? The ones I know personally, who are really good and competent gynecologists aren't even practicing in Bangalore anymore.

That's when I went to an infectious disease specialist. She was so good 😭😭😭😭 she took my concerns seriously, did the tests, prescribed the antibiotics and now I'm feeling much better. I also saw a dermatologist after (she was so rude but also helpful, that's a different story).

Just sharing here because I know diseases like this are a plague on women, so common so rampant yet so many incompetent doctors who are supposed to be specializing in this.

Please consider that there are other specialists who will be able to help you, who will read the literature, collaborate with their necessary colleagues. And meet you where you're at.

As an internal medicine specialists, I've seen many patients who have not seen/been correctly referred to the appropriate specialist, ending up spending tons of money and finding no answers. Don't let any doctor make you feel bad for searching for answers on Google or chat gpt when they themselves are failing at their job.

Confident experienced cat fosters and adoption help needed

Saw an infectious disease specialist when gynac was useless