Tell me your adoption counselor or adoption experiences

[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.

[moosmom]

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!!

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. My heart was broken.

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

[jazzcat]

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.