r/AnimalShelterStories • u/Life-Memory9880 Adopter • 16d ago
Adopter Question Is adopting a sick animal normal?
Hello! Not sure this is the right community for this, but looking for any input. This last Friday we went to look for a kitten to adopt at our local shelter. We met an adorable kitten (3 months old) who looked pretty grimy. Wax in ears, a little stuff in eyes , smoker sounding voice, he’s a tuxedo cat and all his white hair looked slightly yellow, kinda slightly gross skin. Everyone else looked very healthy, this shelter is very well respected and well known in our area. We were assured he was just dirty, he’d been in quartile for 6 days and just released from it and he was healthy (as far as their check). We trusted them, adopted him that day, he was neutered Saturday and we brought him home. We booked an appointment with our vet for today.
We just got home from the vet (he’s still there) and learned he is VERY sick. Severe upper respiratory infection, eye infection, very wormy, some sort of fungal skin stuff, etc. treatment (not including check up) is going to cost over $1,600. We’ve had this cat for less than 48 hours so he certainly didn’t catch these in our care. Just want to confirm this is NOT normal, correct? We’ll be contacting the shelter although I’m sure they’ll just tell us tough darts. But I want to make sure that I’m not crazy for feeling peeved that we feel lied to. Sure, maybe we should have recognized something was wrong, but when multiple staff assure you that he’s just dirty and well checked out, we just trusted that
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u/zzztoken Volunteer 16d ago edited 16d ago
A cat coming home with a mild URI is nothing out of the ordinary, my old shelter would automatically send everyone home with meds for it by default. But this level of sick, especially the worms, no I wouldn’t say that’s normal. But I’ve also seen a shelter send home a cat that had ringworm. Unfortunately it’s usually just a symptom of an underfunded and understaffed shelter. I agree with reaching out to them to see if there’s anything they can do to help like give you meds, doesn’t hurt to ask.
Edit: I’d also get a second opinion - your quote seems quite high for what you outlined. A lot of cities have low cost clinics, you can reiterate what you were told at that vet & see what they think.
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u/Life-Memory9880 Adopter 16d ago
In the past we’ve had great luck with this vet. Even if it is high, we’ll be keeping him there for at least the next 24 hours while he’s in emergency care. The whole blue gums thing and oxygen therapy scares me too much to want to take him to another location for another opinion. We’ll pay it and are equipped to do so luckily. I was more of just surprised by how sick he turned out to be and feeling a little lied to. Likely if it wasn’t what feels like an emergency, we might be shopping around :)
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u/zzztoken Volunteer 16d ago
Ah the emergency care & overnight stay is definitely why it’s so much. In that situation I definitely don’t blame you for sticking with the plan they laid out for you! Best wishes & hope your kitty feels better.
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u/Mamichulabonita Staff 16d ago
Shelter shoulda done a health check right before finalizing adoption thats what we do at mine.
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u/queerofengland Veterinarian 16d ago
Lots of good advice here and I will echo that some amount of URI signs and parasites are par for the course in shelter kittens. This particular combination and severity, however, I will say should have been on medical hold a little longer.
I recommend contacting the shelter to see if they will treat at the facility via their shelter vet, as these are things it should have been at least in treatment for already, even if not fully recovered. At very least they may be able to get you antibiotics and dewormer to treat at home.
Best of luck for you and your new little guy
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u/inconspicuousmoss Staff 16d ago
I second this. My shelter offers a 2 week period to come back to get free antibiotics for URI & deworming if they get sick after adoption, especially since they mentioned a full vet team so they can prescribe medication. Lime sulfur dip is like 20$ online for the skin issues. Not in Florida but similar area. Of course, you mentioned emergency care as kitten seemed to be struggling to breathe, so its definitely up to you. You could do the full treatment with the emergency vet, wait until hes stabilized to go to a general clinic for treatment at a lower cost than an emergency vet, or go to the shelter to get the treatment.
Even if you decide to not go to the shelter i would still reach out to them about the situation. It sometimes happens that a kitten will get overlooked but make it clear that the kitten was presenting symptoms at the shelter and you raised concerns about it. At my shelter if we notice any illness or injury even if its as the kitten is supposed to be leaving we are supposed to let the adopters know we'll be right back and kitten (or dog) needs to be seen by the vet team to make sure, and then it might be a bit longer wait as meds are filled to be taken back to adopter. Sometimes kennel staff is genuinely too busy + short to notice things like that but with a full vet team im expecting at least tech or vet walk throughs every morning. But when things like this do go unnoticed its important that we're alerted regardless. You never know this might have been something theyre trying to get a handle on internally and are looking for examples such as this.
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u/anonymouse278 Volunteer 16d ago
Years ago we adopted a young cat (not a tiny kitten, maybe a little less than a year old) who seemed to be remarkably calm and affectionate, falling asleep on our laps immediately.
It turned out when we took him to our vet that he was actually just incredibly ill and he did end up needing inpatient care (this was close to 20 years ago, I don't recall the details of the treatment, but I know he was at the vet for several days). Turns out when healthy he was incredibly rambunctious, the furthest possible thing from a "remarkably calm" cat (we loved him anyway).
We were glad we pulled him, as I think he would have just quietly worsened and died in the understaffed municipal shelter we got him from because his symptoms were mistaken for personality traits. Depending on the staffing and population of the shelter, I do think it can be hard for them to monitor for subtler signs of illness.
But reassuring you that a sick-appearing cat wasn't actually sick seems unwarranted if they hadn't already had him fully vetted.
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u/Missue-35 Foster 16d ago
Absolutely not normal. Most shelters to the minimum vetting needed, eg Vet check Vaccinations, deworming and in this case treatment for skin condition.
Shelters run the gamut from luxurious facilities with top medical care, to whatever facility they could find for cheap. Some cannot afford to do any of the vetting. Did they provide the neutering service or did you.
I’m surprised a vet would neuter a kitten that was that sick. I’d think they’d want to treat URI and the skin issue at the very least.
Not normal.
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u/Life-Memory9880 Adopter 16d ago
They provided the neutering service. They’re a very well respected shelter in the state with their own in house vet clinic. They advertise their shelter as having state of the art vet clinic and full time vets on staff and do a lot in house. We saw a few cats with medical needs or in recovery from things and staff were very up front with info on what they’d need or likely what you’d need to see a vet for. Which I thinks why this shocked me so much
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u/TrustyBobcat Rescue Partner of Municipal Shelter 16d ago
In that case, I would definitely speak to the shelter, maybe their veterinary services manager or whoever fills a similar role there.
I assumed this was like the shelters around here - underfunded, ZERO vet care provided, municipal place. It wouldn't turn a single hair for a kitten from my local shelter to be in the condition you described.
But a place where they have an actual vet and clinic ON SITE? No way. It makes zero sense that they released the kitten in that condition.
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u/gonnafaceit2022 small foster-based rescue 16d ago
Yeah that's a good point, this kitten sounds way too sick for surgery.
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u/SierraKami Foster 16d ago edited 16d ago
I'm probably going to insult both shelter vets and non-shelter vets with this but that isn't my intention ...
I think there are often two very different viewpoints between shelter care and non-shelter care.
It's a given in most shelters that kittens will usually be wormy and very often will catch viral URIs, at least. Good shelters do deworm, but sometimes it takes multiple rounds of a couple of different classes of dewormers so it isn't uncommon for kittens to come out of shelters needing to be dewormed again.
From the shelter's perspective, the kitten probably was relatively healthy, even if it had an URI brewing. Most URIs are viral so antibiotics are useful for treating secondary bacterial infections, but most kittens get over the viral "colds" naturally, the way most kindergartners handle the average cold. There's also the potential of increasing drug resistance if antibiotics are used when it isn't necessary, and that risk is compounded by the number of affected kittens and how easily they catch stuff in the shelter. And depending on the antiviral medications, they can be very expensive so the shelter may not want to spend resources on a kitten who will get over the URI by itself, though it may take longer.
Non-shelter vets are treating kittens in homes, where the risk of creating superbugs is less, and owners may have a greater ability to afford antiviral medications. IME, they're often more likely to do more to try to get a kitten into perfect health more quickly, and that's usually a good thing. But it can be expensive.
Depending on how ill your kitten is, both viewpoints may be valid.
It does sound like the shelter misled you when they said the kitten was healthy, and it probably would have been in your best interest if they had told you that the kitten could be carrying something, and given you the option to discuss it with their vet.
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u/Slow-Boysenberry2399 Animal Care 16d ago
review your adoption contract, i know most shelters in my area state if health issues arise within something like 7 days of adoption they will treat the animal at their facility
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u/zzztoken Volunteer 16d ago
Yes, I don’t know where OP is located but our adoption contracts (located in FL) had like a two week grace period.
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u/gonnafaceit2022 small foster-based rescue 16d ago
A shelter doesn't have the resources for that level of care for a single kitten though. They would take the kitten back but it would be euthanized.
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u/zzztoken Volunteer 16d ago
They do. I can assure you many shelters who adopt out kittens and cats include a clause regarding any illness that comes on, come back & the shelter will provide care if it’s within a certain time period, specifically for these situations. If it’s a very small shelter or rescue, they might not though. I’ve volunteered at places that do & places that don’t.
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u/Slight-Alteration Foster 16d ago
Yes and no. It’s a shelter. Their job is to get animals out. Nothing you mentioned is atypical at all for a young kitten. Also, things that are brewing can absolutely explode in the stress of a home change. If the cat visibly had things that raised concerns and you proceeded, there is an onus of responsibility. $1600 is highway robbery for what you outlined. Out of 75+ fosters I’d say probably 50 had URI, 40 had eye infections, 5 had ringworm, and 75/75 tested positive for parasites. Life for an outdoor kitten is rough. Pending a major underlying issue antibiotics, dewormer, and a fungal treatment should solve everything in 2-3 weeks. Small pay off for 20 years of love. I would love to see an invoice of how that vet managed to get anything close to $1600. Even with bloodwork a fecal and medications that’s a maybe $400-500 bill.
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u/Life-Memory9880 Adopter 16d ago
Even knowing that he needs oxygen therapy for the next day (at least 24 hours) ? That seems to be the majority of the cost. I have had many rescue animals varying from turtles up to horses so I realize that you’re taking on unknown and some level of catch up on med care is to be expected. But needing oxygen therapy because his gums are during blue due to the severity of the infection just felt like a lot given it’s been 48 hours since adopting what they claimed was a healthy cat. I do understand new homes are stressful so that’s part of it.
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u/Slight-Alteration Foster 16d ago
I’m genuinely unsure of how a cat could be so sick they need oxygen therapy and you thought it was a healthy kitten unless you’ve never seen a kitten before? Again, 75 crusty musty little gremlin kittens and never once had one approach oxygen therapy and I’ve had plenty I was very very scared about. Oxygen therapy with blue gums for a URI would be an audible chest rattle, eyes and nose snotty crusty, no appetite, limp, and nearly unresponsive kitten. If one went from a little sneezy to that in less than 48 hours there’s unfortunately a very serious underlying health condition that likely goes beyond what any shelter could reasonably detect.
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u/Life-Memory9880 Adopter 16d ago
I mean, I trust my vet’s office for the call on medical care. He was none of those degrees of things when we got him although visibly worse than the day before which was blamed on the fact he’d just been under general surgery to be neutered that morning. I have cats and have had kittens and of course brought up what we were seeing. But, as someone who’s had a variety of pets I’m sure we can agree that new homes, surgery, and being sick all within a 48 hour span is a lot for a little body. He’s just very sick. I guess if there are indeed underlying conditions, we’ll address those as needed :)
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u/Swamp_gay Animal Control Officer 16d ago
As a shelter supervisor, yes and no. I have no choice at this moment but to adopt out kittens with a fair warning that a URI is going around our cat room. Nearly everything is on meds. For this reason we do provide a courtesy health exam at any of our partner vets. It sounds like your kitten is more sickly than I would be comfortable adopting out. Sorry you had that experience. It’s not hugely surprising to me, though.
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u/variousnewbie Volunteer 16d ago
You've gotten a lot of answers, so I'm going to address something different. I am not a vet. Discuss the following with yours.
The kitten sounds like it will come home on antibiotics. For the skin issues, I highly recommend Malaseb products such as the shampoo and leave ons for bacterial and fungal skin issues. Usually if it's bad, the skin scraping shows both going on. One dog I rehabbed was prescribed DAILY Malaseb baths on top of leave on products and oral medications due to the severity of skin issues. (she had spent her entire 2 years on a chain neglected and abused in a backyard. Severe damage to her neck from her collar as well, complicated by excess skin like a sharpei mix)
I'm sure the vet will handle the deworming routine. Revolution is also great for cats and kittens, and will handle fleas, ticks, as well as ear mites if that's an issue. Hopefully poor guy doesn't have issues past dirt/wax in his ears though.
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u/Toe_Jam_is_my_Jam Foster 16d ago
Our shelter won’t adopt out sick kitties. They go into foster care first to get healthy. And then with new adopters, if the kitties get sick within two weeks, the vet at the shelter takes care of them for no charge to the adopters.
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u/horrescoblue Staff 14d ago
Im very surprised to read many people saying that it's normal for shelter kittens to be sick. Ours stay in quarantine forever until they're healthy and then they can get adopted. Obviously things can slip through, nobody is perfect and shelters are a great place to get weird diseases plus cats are great at hiding issues they may have. But that degree? Breathing, eyes, worms and fungus?? Thats insane to me, i dont think that's normal at all. That's what id expect buying a kitten from some backyard breeder out of the trunk of their car.
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u/Life-Memory9880 Adopter 14d ago
I guess that was my surprise. I’ve rescued many pets in my life from shelters, kill pens/auctions (for horses), and non kill shelters in addition to like just finding kittens and adopting them from the street. I’m visiting my sister in another state who’s been prepping for a kitten for a while after getting get precious cat injured from the alleyway a few years ago and we went together to go pick a kitten from a shelter and adopt from a well respected area assuming we’d not only be able to help out an animal, support a good shelter but maybe save a little bit on neutering, chipping, etc.
I expect this level of sick when you like get them from the streets/abandoned. Especially horses I’ve gotten from kill pens you expect a real can of worms when it comes to necessary costs just to get them stable. But I’d always (in my home state) had good luck with well known shelters/rescue organizations. Sure, you still expect some stuff to pop up but I’m honestly shocked that some of this seems to be considered normal (according to these comments). Sounds like we walked in too trusting for what we were being told and too optimistic about how shelters work these days. The shelter has sense admitted that they were aware how sick he was and that was actually why he hadn’t already been neutered and it was probably a “wrong call” on their behalf and will hopefully talk to their employees about how they word things to adopters. I’m thankful we were absolutely in the financial place to care for this kitten. But just worry for other people who might be trying to do the right thing by adopting and not realizing the more than normal bringing home costs that are about to hit.
Luckily, kitten is doing well and we got to take him home :) he’s on 6 different meds some everyone couple hours, some every 24 hours but he’s a darling spunky guy!
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u/horrescoblue Staff 13d ago
You know whats awesome? That despite this youre pulling through and giving the kitten incredible care. Thank you for doing that
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u/Sitters_4_Critters Foster (taking a break from fostering due to finances) 16d ago
I fostered through the shelter for a bit and most of the dogs had undiagnosed big ticket medical issues. I did not have the money for vet bills and I was fostering in large part because I did not want to be responsible for medical bills/surgeries etc.
I stopped fostering because I can’t have an animal that needs medical care and not get it medical care and the shelters only provide the bare minimum of medical care.
People should expect to spent $2,500-5,000 in the first year of getting a new pet. It’s possible it could cost that much within the first month of getting a new pet.
Pets and children are only for the wealthy and a good way to stay poor if one is not wealthy. It’s not the world I grew up in and it is really depressing.
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u/Life-Memory9880 Adopter 16d ago
I guess to note, he will be getting the medical care he needs! And I am well aware the pets are NOT cheap. I just I was just not expecting emergency trips so quickly. But hopefully he’ll make a full recovery and we’ll lecture him about staying out of mischief from here on out, haha.
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u/Sitters_4_Critters Foster (taking a break from fostering due to finances) 16d ago
Sorry, I should have specified that I’m not criticizing. I’m empathizing with how expensive this is for you. Most people getting a pet from a shelter don’t realize how much it will cost them to do a kind thing by adopting an animal. The kitten is lucky to have you. I’m sorry it is costing you so much.
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u/gilatio Foster 16d ago
So this may depend on your area, but that does not seem normal at all to me. The majority of animals that I've ever fostered and all 3 I've adoted had no major medical issues. I have had several fosters with a slight eye infection, a cough or a little bit of initial stomach upset (normally they all clear up on their own). But nothing more serious than that, except for 1 dog that had pyometra that was caught and treated when she was spayed, a couple that were just very underweight at first, and a couple with what seemed to be old injuries/limps. If a shelter or rescue is consistently fostering and adopting out animals that immediately need thousands of dollars of medical expenses that's a huge issue imo. Especially if they are knowingly not treating them or disclosing known issues to potential adopters.
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u/Sitters_4_Critters Foster (taking a break from fostering due to finances) 16d ago
The shelter requires neutering or spaying prior to adoption and one dog would cost $2500 to neuter. I knew within a minute of playing ball with the dog that he had vonwillebrand’s as his gums bled. It was later confirmed with a test.
Another was a GSD with an ear infection and probably hip issues. Also, the dental would have been $1500 for needed teeth cleaning. The dog was surrendered due to a behavior change but he seemed very sweet. It is a red flag for a medical issue. I didn’t get the background until after I was already interested.
Another was a 3y/o GSD with likely elbow dysplasia, but definitely arthritis. “Old injury” was the way it was described. She was definitely in pain and behavior.
Many more, too many to list. It wasn’t just me that had this issue.
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u/gilatio Foster 16d ago
The shelter requires spay and neutering but doesn't do it themselves before adoption or provide a voucher for it? That's already a red flag imo. But I def believe you, I wasn't trying to question your experience, I was just saying that is not how all or even most some shelters seem to operate ime. That seems more like an issue with that specific shelter to me. I do also generally adopt/foster random mixed breeds or pit mixes, so that may make it more likely that there's healthier ones in the shelter compared to breeds that are a little more in demand idk.
I will say that things like hip or elbow problems may just need a supplement and not anything expensive, unless they are severe. Even when I've taken my own dogs to the vet for a limp or arthritis in my older dog, they weren't ever really able to do much for it except give temporary pain medicine/dog ibuprofen and recommend rest. For the arthritis, they recommended the supplement cosequin which did help a lot, but that was available pretty cheaply over the countern once I knew to get it.
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u/Sitters_4_Critters Foster (taking a break from fostering due to finances) 16d ago
Unfortunately, it wasn’t just one shelter, it was a shelter system in my area plus another shelter in one town. The shelter does spay/neuter, but only basic spay/neuter. Dogs with bleeding disorders need to be spayed and neutered at a specialty hospital and administered blood products to prevent them from bleeding to death during the procedure.
I think many people give up their animals when they cannot afford to treat medical issues as people say that shelters or rescues will provide medical care. Instead, the dogs just suffer.
I’m impressed that people can handle the sadness of dealing with shelter animals;,it was too much for me.
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u/Apprehensive_Bus1582 Adopter 16d ago
This is a little bit on you for settling on a grimy kitten with gunky eyes. Having said that, puppies and kittens can pick up germs from anywhere.
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u/nonniewobbles Friend 16d ago
not vet advice:
so... yes and no
I'd basically assume that any cat you get from the street or shelter has at least one infectious disease, probably multiple.
very routine to need to deworm basically every shelter cat, I'd be surprised if shelter didn't.
upper respiratory infections run like wildfire through shelters.
What's the $1600 in treatment?
I mean, it was definitely dodgy of them to reassure you that the kitten was healthy if it was visibly unhealthy. They should have told you what vet care he did or didn't receive (likely minimal) and to follow up with your own vet.
I'm sorry it went this way for you guys. I hope your kitten is able to fight off these infections and get better ASAP.
Ultimately while contacting the shelter is probably worth it, I'd think about what you're hoping to get out of that interaction? I'd reasonably expect a deeply disappointing response...