Tell me your adoption counselor or adoption experiences

[Laura's Babies]

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.

[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??

[AbbyMom]

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??

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!

[catmandu]

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.

[jenluckenbach]

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!!!

[sirrahved]

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.

[prechrswife]

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.

[catcrazylady]

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.