Frustrated w/humane society

Avatar for hummynbrd
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-28-2003
Frustrated w/humane society
4
Fri, 06-11-2004 - 1:30am
We adopted two kitties from the humane society - one on the 27th of May (Ginger), and one this past Sunday (Magic). On Tuesday, I noticed that Magic had a suture sticking out of his belly! I had assumed that his belly must have been shaven for mats... and we had only seen the perimeter of the shaved area before. Along with the suture was a fairly sizable soft lump. I called the shelter to ask why in the world my kitty has a suture sticking out of his abdomen (this is, after all, a MALE cat - it couldn't possibly be from his neuter surgery!!), and they said, "Oh, don't you have the post-surgery instruction sheet?" "THE WHAT?!" "The instruction sheet. For his umbilical hernia." "Um, NO! I was not informed of any hernia." Must have slipped their minds, eh? And apparently they hadn't done any follow-up checks on him, because it does NOT look like the hernia is repaired, and the "self-absorbing sutures" were poking out of his belly like antennae. This surgery happened nearly a month ago, and he shouldn't have even had sutures anymore (nor should I have to worry anymore about special post-surgery care). My vet clipped the sutures away, and we did an x-ray, which is unfortunately inconclusive as to whether the lump is a suture reaction or an unrepaired hernia. We are waiting to see whether the lump disappears before opening him up for a re-repair.

The other biggie is that the first kitty we adopted, Ginger, tested positive for roundworm. First of all, we find it interesting that she would have roundworm given she was supposedly dewormed at the shelter (hmmm... a dewormed cat with worms, and a hernia repair that is unrepaired... see a trend here?). We are also a little bit freaked out by it, given that roundworm is horrible in humans (can cause blindness, etc., particularly in children and those with weakened immune systems) and we have little kids. Given, roundworm transmission to humans is relatively rare, but STILL!!! So, we get to pill BOTH cats (always a joy), and we may have to take Magic BACK to the shelter to redo what should have been done right in the first place, with people I'm not really sure that I trust. However, since our pet insurance won't cover "pre-existing" conditions with our own, very trusted vet, we have no choice unless we want to pay for more major cat surgeries. (We recently lost our beloved cat Leo to cancer, after having three tumor excisions and running up quite a vet bill). When I talked to the shelter manager about it, she said that they would follow up at their facility, and the possible wait to observe the lump didn't matter because, after all, "He's 8 years old and has had it his whole life, so a few weeks aren't going to matter." Makes me want to give her a hernia for a few weeks. GRR!

Now, I understand that shelters are often overcrowded, overbusy, and full of infection and such. But both of these things were easily observable (or at least easily tested for), and easily curable. The lack of follow-up for Magic was in my opinion inexcusable. Makes me ill... let alone my poor kitties. And truthfully, I'm ready for some healthy cats around the house. Leo's deterioration and death was really hard on us. Fortunately these are really sweet cats we brought home, and hopefully these issues will get taken care of soon.

Thanks for listening to my rant.

Amy

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-23-2002
Fri, 06-11-2004 - 7:30am
I am so sorry Amy for all you & your new kitties are going through. FIrst I want to say how wonderful you are to have adopted Ginger & Magic. It is terrible how the shelter you went to handled both situations. You're right...they should have checked everything before, and they should have don't the surgery correctly and they definitely should have told you about it. I will pray everything turns out ok soon....I feel so bad about all the expense and worry you've endured with Leo, and now this. I just adopted Salty from our Humane Society, and I have yet to take her to our vet (this Monday). She is recovering from a spay operation but as far as I can tell she's ok otherwise. I am still keeping her isolated from the other parts of the house & the other cats as a precaution.

Please keep us posted on how your babies are.

((((Big Hugs))))

Suzy


Avatar for cl_lcni
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Fri, 06-11-2004 - 10:19am

I'm sorry you are having to go through all of this with the furkids.


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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-07-2003
Fri, 06-11-2004 - 11:41am
You have every right to be angry. I went through a similar situation with Tasha. When I first saw her in the shelter, I noticed that she had some bald patches of skin on her front legs (you can notice them in some of her pictures on my website). When my boyfriend went back the next day to adopt her, he asked about the patches, and the person working there was completely clueless. How could you not notice something that obvious??? We found out later that it was ringworm... which BTW is very contageous to other cats as well as to humans!!! I was livid.

I understand that the shelters are busy, and that they have limited funds, etc.... but to not notice something as blatent as bald skin on a cat is inexcusable. Sure, it could have been a simple stress reaction to being in the shelter, but it wasn't! My bf and I feel very lucky that we didn't catch it.

I hope everything goes well with your kitties.



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Registered: 12-01-2003
Fri, 06-11-2004 - 7:33pm
I do not understand how theydo things..sad..I am sure glad that you adopted them !!!