[sylph]

As I announced below, I lost my cat Simba and it was horrible. My husband was so sweet and friday night took us out to dinner and then we ended up at the pet store. I suspected this place was a puppy/kitten mill but I don't know for sure - it is the only pet store around for miles and miles (we are 45 mins away from it). They had a bunch of kittens and I bawled. I ended up buying one for $110. She melted my heart. It was really against my better judgement but I am such a succer for a little homeless face....

I brought her home... this weekend I noticed that it looked like she almost had a rectal prolapse or something... that alarmed me.

On the paperwork from the pet store it said that I can bring her back and get a full refund if she is pronounced "unhealthy" by a vet. While obviously I don't want to take back a pet like that, I can't possibly deal with another sick cat, emotionally, I am a mess and I cannot possibly go through that again.

I took her to MY vet. The poor thing doesn't do much, she's fairly lethargic but I wouldn't say dangerously so.

Her anal area was really inflammed and she stinks sooooooooo bad. Vet did a fecal sample and found no parasites, but said she has diarrhea and the inside of her colon is extremely irritated and inflamed. Vet said she SUSPECTS there are parasites but she doesn't know for sure since the stool sample was negative. She said that the crusties around her eyes are from a respiratory infection, but her temp is fine, so she should get over it okay.

She said that she is extremely underweight. The pet store claims she is 11 wks. She looks about 8 wks to me, and vet said the same thing. She is only 1.7 pounds at 11 wks???? Vet said that if it is not parasites, then she may have a failure to thrive, a dysfunction in the absorption of food - problems with her digestive system.

By this time, my mom met me at the vet (I was so glad she came, I needed someone!)

I took her with me back to the pet store. Pet store owner is a total pompous jerk. He talked down to me, said there is nothing wrong with her and the letter my vet sent isn't good enough. He would, however, take the kitten and give me store credit if I insisted, but yeah, like I want another kitten from him or ridiculousy priced accessories that we don't need. Frankly, I don't want store credit and I don't want to give up the kitten (talk about mixed emotions) but I don't want a sick kitten either!

He was such a complete jerk and had me leave Mojo with him until Friday when HIS vet can come in and see her. I got in the car, threw out the blanket I had her in because she had diarrhea in it... and started back home.

All of a sudden, I got really worried about her. She is not thriving and this jerk is doing what with her? MY vet said she needed to be treated NOW... his vet isn't going to see her until Friday????

Nah, I don't like that. I called up my vet and asked what I should do because if he is not treating her, I am going to go back and get her.... but I wanted him to have her treated at HIS expense.

She offered to call him. She talked to him and then called me back on my cell. She said he was a pompous jerk and that he did say he had given her the parasite med that she recommended so now it is a wait and see until Friday.

If she is showing signs of improvement, I will be getting her back. If she is not, I don't know what is going to happen.

I'm really sad... I really didn't need this on top of everything else. I *HATED* leaving her with that jerk but I am glad my vet got on his tail about treating that kitten right.

I will be calling the jerk tomorrow to check on the status of her. I am so tempted just to go back and rip her out of his hands and who cares, pay all these fees myself to get her well... but then again, I am just setting myself for more heartache if she really does have a failure to thrive or digestive problem.

I just don't know what to do... I thought I was sad enough over Simba and this has now completely wiped me out.

I knew I shouldn't have gone to that pet store.

 

[Tiber]

wow this really sucks... it sounds like he doing alot of illeagle stuff. How bout a lil call to the Human society or the better busniess brueo (sorry i cant spell)? Maybe with some one breathing down their necks he'll take better care of his merchindise, or get closed. It seems to me that he's being neglectful, and problly wouldn't even take the kitten to a vet, if you dont push it. I'm sorry you have to be put through all this.
And i'm sorry for your loss as well......

 

[sylph]

Thanks... I will...

Thanks for your reply - yes, I *WILL* be calling the humane society as soon as I either get Mojo back, or get a refund (if his vet says she is unhealthy - which speaking of, if his vet says she is unhealthy, I may actually offer to keep her but at a reduced rate due to my troubles... I just don't know what to do... I have already become attached to the pathetic thing!

But I definitely will be reporting him... no doubt. That's the first thing I will do as soon as this resolves itself one way or another.

 

[catman]

some of these pet stores are horrible when it comes to the care they give cats they are selling. my first cat snuggles was in bad shape after we got him. he had worms, ears mites, and an eye infection. i ended up going to the pet store and giving them **** :twisted:

if you are already attached to the new kitty get it back and have your vet treat her.

i know this is even tougher to deal with since your cat recently passed away. and inconsiderate greedy pet store owners don’t help. I hope things work out.

 

[Bean]

Maybe you could contact the humane society or something.

Not only that but the whole return process for a living animals is kinda freaky. I think all people who sell pets should examine them thoroughly for that reason, and not put them on sale until they have a safe bill of health. That's why I would only buy from the SPCA.

However, thinking about your predicament, I think it would be best for you to keep the kitten. Because then you would know what exactly happened, and if (I hope to god it won't) it dies you'll know it's last days were in a loving environment. Cause if you take it back you won't have to deal with it, but at the same time it will bother you that you in fact did that, AND what is happening to the poor kitty after that happens. It may be painful do have to deal with the sickness, but I think you'll have better peace of mind by doing that. And you'll be helping a little life at the same time.

*EDIT* - and maybe try to do something after the fact to prevent something happening from that store again to someone else. Letter to the editor in the local newspaper or something.

 

[manitu22]

Sorry to hear about your predicament. I was there myself not too long ago with a hampster. It was my first hampster and I bought it from a pet store. I was so excited. I had noticed by the end of the day that he wasn't eating or drinking much nor had he had gone to the bathroom. I figured maybe he was just getting used to his environment. I went to bed hoping the next morning that he would have eaten and gone potty. The next day he hadn't done either. I called the local pet hospital because it was a weekend hoping they could shed some light. All they could tell me was to bring it in and to be expecting a charge of around 100 dollars just to see the little guy.
I ended up then bringing him to the store I got him from and they said "oh he has wettail". They told me that they could keep him and treat him but he may fair better with me since he had already gotten used to me. The woman working there had asked if the person who sold it to me had told me about wet tail and i said no and she gave me some medicine that i had to buy myself and then proceeded to say that "everyone getting a hampster should go home with a bottle of this medicine". Wishing I had known that before i brought the sick hampster back home and tried desperately to ween it back to health. It finally ended up dying in my hands the next day. I cried for the next three days. I was so upset. I brought the hampster back to the store and in a really nonsympathetic way the sales person said "we will gladly give you another one". That made me so upset. It's almost like the hampster wasn't a living thing to these people. I said no thanks i will never get another one. I tried calling back a few days later to ask if I could return the cage. I had misplaced the receipt already and had explained i was the one who had come in earlier in the week with the dead hampster. The woman said she would give me store credit because i don't have the receipt. What scum bags.

Moral of this story. Don't buy pets from pet stores.

Sorry about your loss. Sounds like you care as much as i did and it does hurt a whole lot. Let us know what happens. I hope the cat turns out to be ok.