Tell me your adoption counselor or adoption experiences

Some of us where I volunteer were wondering about policies at other humane society and rescue organizations.

Our question is about policies for cats that were adopted with a health problem that was not disclosed at the time of adoption, but needed treatment right away. Ear mites is a good example.

This is not an intentional, but an accidental situation. It sometimes happens. And I'm generally speaking of small things, because if it was a large problem, they would probably return the cat. (And we always take care of them.)

We all know that when you adopt, you assume responsibility for vet care and costs. But if you adopt a cat that had undisclosed problems, what then?

Does the organization help pay for treatment? What are your experiences?

Thanks in advance for giving us some insight!

I know my organization pays for the meds, we prefer to get them for you.

I've adopted from the Seattle/King County Humane Society and from Purrfect Pals, a rescue shelter, and I don't remember either of them talking about what I should do about accidentally hidden problems. Purrfect Pals will treat, free of charge for their lifetime, any illness related to an adopted cat's FIV condition if you bring the cat back to their shelter vet.

I have found "hidden" problems within each set of adoptions, but never considered taking the cat back - and I can't see anyone else on P.T. doing so. In a few cases, it was something minor like ear mites (the Humane Society adoptions) and in others something more major.

I had a geriatric panel done on Newcat right after I adopted her last year and it showed she was borderline hyperthyroid, a condition that is now full-blown and about to be treated (about $900). Purrfect Pals wouldn't have been able to afford to do such screening on all their senior cats, and I accepted that.

I'm taking Faline, one of the newly adopted FIV cats to my vet tonight to check on her chronic upper respiratory infection. I found a note about it within the paperwork but it wasn't on her front sheet history and no-one mentioned it at the time. She's discharging dried blood now and I'm concerned.

Blackberry's papers stated that he had lost an eye due to a cat fight. As I was walking to my car with the cats, the tech carrying Blackberry said that I should keep watch on his remaining eye because the other was removed due to glaucoma. A cat fight is a one-time accident, glaucoma is significantly different. If I'd turned around and handed him back at that point, I'm sure they'd have given me my money back and taken care of him for the rest of his life. I didn't even consider such an action.

I asked about Dallas' dirty and runny eyes while at the shelter and the tech said she could give me some ointment, though she forgot and so did I.

In other words, it's been rather haphazard with no-one meaning to hide anything. The only time I've heard a shelter mention policy in this regard is with the FIV cats.

When Mike adopted Yetta from the animal shelter here, she was extreemly ill. He took her directly to the vet. She was so sick the vet was taking her home at night when she got off. It was never a option of Mike's to return her to the shelter or ask for money for her care. She stayed at the vet a week and still came home with medicines she had to take.

Same with Amy, I adopted her on Saturday (free kittens at a pet store) and had her at the vets early Monday morning and it was NEVER a option to return her when he told me it was a birth defect. By then I was already head over heals in love with my little wobbly kitten.

Most of my adopted kitties had some sort of minor problems but I figure those are to be expected and need to be taken care of at my first vet visit...things like earmites, worms, minor URI, etc

All are easily treated. If I ever adopted an animal that turned out to have a big issue - well I would ask the shelter to help pay for the treatment - I imagine they would and not adopt out a pet they knew was ill.

Is this what you meant AbbyMom??

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Originally Posted by sirrahbed

Most of my adopted kitties had some sort of minor problems but I figure those are to be expected and need to be taken care of at my first vet visit...things like earmites, worms, minor URI, etc

All are easily treated. If I ever adopted an animal that turned out to have a big issue - well I would ask the shelter to help pay for the treatment - I imagine they would and not adopt out a pet they knew was ill.

Is this what you meant AbbyMom??

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Yes, I'm talking about the minor problems only. I don't know of any shelters that adopt out cats with big issues. I, too, would expect to take a cat that I adopted to the vet and get these things taken care of. But not all of our adopters feel that it's fair that we say the cat has been examined for these things, but it turns out that they do have these minor problems. It happens, although as I said, not intentionally. We treat all illnesses large or small if they are diagnosed by a vet. We treated a cat with cancer of the eye and then adopted him to a lovely forever home. :)

Frankly, I think that our low-cost vet service sometimes "hurries a little too much."

Thanks everybody for replying!

Thankfully none of the Ctas that I have adopted from the Breeder ,or The Animal Welfare have had any serious health isssues.
Oh except for John Hancock whose teeth all fell out.
And I was responsible for the Vet Bill,as he was a Free Cat.

We (1by1) tend to medicate for minor problems immediately upon admittance of the cat into our group. (ear mites, fleas, worms). This reduces episodes like this one.
If the cat is found to have an intermediate problem, that went unnoticed, like maybe a few bad teeth, we do offer to pay for vet help. (our thinking is that if the cat were still with us, we WOULD be paying....right? So why not keep it in its new home?)
We have has similar incidents with LARGE problems too, even if they could not have been anticipated. Same thinking, if the cat was still with us, we would treat it.

Our adoption agreement states that we do NOT guarentee health or temperament! But when these things happen right after the adoption, we feel obligated to help (like we should not have missed the problem in the first place). I believe this helps us to have a good reputation among the population.

Other organizations in my area hold fast to that NO guarrentee thing. You are on your own!!!

In the shelter I volunteered at, if you didn't want to pay for the small things, they would accept a return of the animal, or you pay for the condition. The shelter wouldn't pay for it.

Most things like that, though, are treated BEFORE the animal is placed in the adoption program.

When we adopted Chloe from a county animal shelter, she had a major URI, and she was also pregnant. Obviously, no one at the shelter noticed her condition or she wouldn't have been available for adoption. We had signed a contract to have her spayed within 30 days, and she was only about 10 months old, so we went forward with the spay. Of course, with the situation, the spay cost was more than a standard spay. We paid the cost ourselves. I don't think it even occurred to us to ask the shelter to cover the cost.

I adopted a 15 year old cat from the Dearborn Animal Shelter because her owner claimed she didn't play with her children anymore. UGH!! :mad:

I took her home and put her in my spare room. She came down with a URI and stopped eating. I brought her back to the shelter to be treated with a nebulizer. I went to pick her up on Monday, only to be told that they killed her cuz they needed the cage space. :mad: My heart was broken.

I will NEVER do that again!!! If only I had known, I would've brought her right to my vet. :(

When I adopted Jazz I noticed that her hair was a little sparse above her eye but the shelter said it was just where she had rubbed it and they gave me some ointment. That was on a Saturday and over the weekend I noticed she kept sneezing so I took her to my vet first thing Monday. Turns out she had ringworm, a nasty URI, earmites, fleas (although the shelter said she was treated) and tapeworms. I called the shelter to tell them so they could watch the other kittens for ringworm and the URI and they waived my adoption fee since I had spent so much at the vet. I made a donation instead. Ultimately it took 5-6 week and hundreds of dollars to get her well. The worse part was my 10 year old cat caught the URI and got very sick which triggered a secondary blood infection. He almost died, spent 8 days total at the vet with another week of taking him for daily antibiotic injections at a cost around $800 for him alone.

By the way, when I took Jazz into the vet that first time and they discovered all the things wrong with her the vet suggested I return her to the shelter and wanted to know if I really wanted to treat her. :( That upset me so much. Luckily that vet was fired from the group a few months later.

I work at a shelter and we treat any of the above mentioned problems for people after they adopt. We have a low cost spay/neuter program on Wednesday so we have a vet on hand that day and request that people bring their new pet in then so we can get them checked. We also tell people that adopt cats to expect a possible URI from the stress of the move and to call us if that happens. We provide the medications if they get sick.
We do our best to clean ears and treat for mites before they leave but sometimes things are too crazy and it gets overlooked. We also have the free insurance for 30 days after an adoption too.
We feel like anything that happens in the first couple of weeks should be taken care of by us. Like it was said before...if they were still in the shelter we would have to do it anyway. :)