We had a disappointment today

[Dancergirl]

We were due to get our kitten today - adopting from a rescue centre. I had everything set up and ready when I had a call from the lady who was going to bring her.

She took her to her own vet for a final check up and it was found she has ear mites (?) plus problems with her teeth. She's got to stay in and have a couple of teeth removed then antibiotics for any infection. We'll know more after she's had the teeth out on Thurs or Fri.

Met the dds from school and they were sooo disappointed. I was too! It will probably be another week or two till we get her.

As a complete novice cat owner, I have couple of questions: does this teeth problem mean there could be more problems in the future? How serious is it? And I don't really understand about the mite problem - are they like fleas? Do you think we should wait till she has the all clear or is it better to look for another cat?

[Fluffycloudland77]

Ear mites arent that serious ime, they will give her drops to clear them.

With the teeth I really dont know, some of ours wouldnt touch biscuits, got gingivitis and had most teeth out at the back but managed perfectly well anyway.

I suppose if she lived rough as a kitten and wasnt nourished properly she could have some damage. Can you ring the vets concerned and ask them?

[Dancergirl]

Update - we had a call from the lady at the rescue centre yesterday and it's not good news. Unfortunately poor little Daisy had to have most of her teeth removed. And they think she might have problems in the future and might have to have steroids from time to time. So all in all they think she's not a good match for us being first time cat owners.

The dds are v disappointed and so am I but it's for the best. She needs to be with a more experienced carer and it's better we found out before we got her.

So now it's back to the drawing board to find the right cat for us. We won't get one now till after Xmas now which is fine but I want to start looking now. I have found chatchat.org which is fab and has all the rescue centres.

[StrictlySazz]

We got our 3 yr old cat in under 2 weeks from Cats Protection. Once you are homechecked it should be very straightforward IME.

Sorry to hear about Daisy

[Dancergirl]

Strictly - Daisy was from our local Cats Protection. Although we never had a home visit - we were told by the co-ordinator that the home visit would be done when she brings the cat I spoke to other branches of Cats Protection and they said that wasn't right, it should be done first.

We're going to visit the Mayhew this week, in NW London. My friend got her cat from there. Hopefully we'll have some luck - so many of the cats available seem to say not suitable for young children...

[StrictlySazz]

Good luck with it . Cats protection were happy to rehome to us with a 4 and 2 yr old whereas RSPCA weren't. We were lucky in that we knew the history of our cat (who is now curled up on my toes) and she had lived with children and dogs.

Could you go for a slightly older cat rather than a kitten as i think they can be less skittish? My DD1 wanted a kitten we saw, but it looked like Trouble with a capital T, and with 2 preschoolers already i decided to go with a cat between their ages.

[suzi2]

The way I 'sold' it to my children was that it might take a little while to find a cat/kitten for us. Because it had to be just perfect - it had to be a 'forever' home and there was no need to rush that. They both seemed to accept that

TBH, with Christmas coming up some places might be reluctant to rehome their cats. Though a sociable, outgoing cat or kitten will cope well with all the xmas changes anyway. Good luck finding your forever kitten :-)

[suzi2]

Oh, and ear mites aren't a big problem - drops clear them and sometimes you need to do a wee wipe over. Teeth problems in a young cat are unusual and that would have been a bit of a red flag for me.