Any vets or cat experts about please?!

[VictoriaaSponge97]

I am wanting to adopt a cat. She was a surrender to a local cat rescue (not a big name one) a fosterer is currently looking after her. She has recently been health checked. I went to view her today at the fosterers house and would like to go ahead. I asked if she had a vaccination card as she's apparently vaccinated but the rescue said she does not have one as she is a surrender but the previous owners said she is fully vaccinated. They don't have a card to say she is spayed either but apparently her chip has this information and the chip states that she is spayed. Would a microchip have this information?

The microchip may have registered whether she is entire or spayed. It won’t record vaccination status and without proof you’ll have to restart the full course as you have no idea whether the person who surrendered the cat was telling the truth or not or when they took place. Or what she was vaccinated against.
You’ll find out pretty quickly if she isn’t neutered as she’ll come in to season

Do they not have her medical records? I volunteer for a small rescue and we insist on medical records for a surrendered cat.

I took a stray cat to the vet and they were able to tell that she was chipped and spayed. However, I would recommend that you take your new cat to your own vet for a first check up as their new owner to get reassurance and to start the vacc's and other general routine health care from scratch.

They haven't mentioned any

Thank you. Yes, I will do this if I go ahead. Apparently she is vet checked prior to going to the fosterers and up to date with flea and worming treatments. I will take her for a full check up

Without a card I would expect a good rescue to have restarted her jabs and make you continuing a condition of adoption

I wouldn't believe a word of anything said to the rescue (being charitable, that is - from experience, I wouldn't believe a word of anything said by a rescue, either).

I'd budget for a spay and having a primary vaccination course (plus wormers, defleaing, the works).

If you go ahead, I would also get her insured from day one too. Most pet insurers won't allow claims for the first 28 days of the policy cover. When I took my stray to the vet to get her checked out the first time, her condition (being a stray) meant that the vet recorded on their system some minor issues with malnutrition and related skin symptoms, for which cat made a full recovery with some tlc. When I came to insuring her there was a long list of exemptions put on her policy that meant forking out a small fortune in vet bills a few months later. It's worth being insured before you take her for her first check up!

Most rehoming centres neuter their animals (if not already done) or make it a condition of rehoming if they're too young.

Re the vaccinations, if the rehoming charity doesn't have a vaccine record you might have to get the vaccines as if they haven't been done, but that's not the end of the world other than it'll cost you. You'll need a vaccine card if you need to put her in a cattery at any point anyway. (I am surprised the charity haven't already started this if they don't have vet notes or the vaccine card)

I also suggest getting insurance from day one and taking the cat for a check-up early on (though I probably wouldn't do it in the first week if I didn't have any concerns as the cat is likely to be stressed). Be aware though that the insurance won't cover any illness that happens in the first 14 days ish and insurance might not cover annual vaccines and spaying.

Thanks everyone for the information and advice, I will do all of this if I go ahead. Just to confirm, it was apparently a surrender due to a marriage break up, she was a well loved and cared for cat they have said, she is 3 years old, has been an outdoor cat but apparently quite content being indoors whilst shes been at the fosters house. Her current foster has fostered cats for a long time. She seemed quite content and affectionate when I met her.

Like previous posters said, unless you have proof of vaccination (card/medical history) she should be assumed unvaccinated and a restart course started. It's far less dangerous to vaccinate her one time extra than leave her unvaccinated as some of the diseases we vaccinate against are deadly and have no treatment. There's also a blood test you can do check for ovarian tissue, as previous posters said you'd find out soon enough if she wasn't spayed, but if you plan to let her roam outside then you might find out when waking up to a litter of kittens under your table one day, so I wouldn't take the risk (some really good ultrasonographers migth be able to check for ovaries/uterus in an entire cat, but most GP vets are unlikely to be able to tell with an ultrasound.) In some cases and depending on how your cat has healed you may be able to see a scar and again if the microchip says neutered it's likely because the microchip was done/recorded at time of spaying (we often would recommend microchipping a cat at that stage as it's less painful/stressful for the cat and most of the owners won't let their kittens outside until they've been done anyway, but with the law change in England now that might be a thing of the past) but there's no guarantees of this.