Adopting a cat with one eye or upper respitory issues

[crumblybiscuits]

Looking to adopt our first cat. We are torn between one very lovely four year old male who constantly sneezes/has a bit of snot knocking around and may need antibiotics every so often for upper respitory infections or a seven year old male with one eye missing and has a special shop bought feed to prevent cystitis.
Is it silly to take on a cat with possible health issues? I love the four year old with the URI's but I'm worried he'll cost an arm and a leg further on.

Ask for a lot more details. The sneezy cat is probably a flu carrier, which means if you get more than one cat at any point or you allow him out he will merrily shed flu virus around the neighbourhood, plus has potential to get recrudescence at any point or secondary bacterial infections due to upper airway damage from the initial infection. Missing eye would not bother me at all if it was removed due to a congenital problem or an injury, but you need to know it's not from something like retinal detachment or glaucoma that might in time affect the remaining eye. Urinary tract issues you need to know exactly what - particularly if he had bladder crystals/ stones and what type. Some can be controlled with diet, some need surgery if they recur. Bear in mind you can't insure for any pre-existing conditions so you need to be clear what the likelihood is of recurrence.
With an apparently completely healthy cat you could end up with a chronic health condition at some point but at least you can choose to insure against any resulting vet bills.

Flu - get them scoped. Seriously
If you scroll down a bit there's a thread called Ollie cat flu. I adopted him with flu, and vet scoped him as he was stinking when he sneezed
He doesn't have flu, he had a broken tooth embedded in his nostril, they've removed it and he's been perfect ever since

For every snotty shelter cat with a nasal foreign body there are 99 with cat flu.

Oh I know. Just saying it's worth asking further questions
I would take on a cat that had flu that was controlled with maybe monthly antibiotics or 8 weekly injections. But his antibiotic injections were lasting 8 days before he became stinky again
Also if it's cats protection and known flu or medical issues they will usually cover any bills relating to that

The cats are from Cat's Protection, would they be likely to withhold any info? I'm sure it is the urinary crystals that Alfie is on the special diet for, they did mention but it was a lot to take in while playing with them. They said he hasn't had it since but they would rather try and prevent with the special feed. No idea how he lost the eye. They said most likely trauma but he was eyeless before he came in.
I love Gino but the fact that we can't insure against any secondary illnesses and the like make me think it could be a bad decision. We won't be getting any more cats any time soon. They said they've tested him for everything under the sun but he's just apparently a snotty nosed, sneezy cat.

No, cats protection were v honest with me. Mine has had all bills covered (vet wise) as I adopted him knowing he had FIV and "flu"

They definitely did not mention flu, just that he may occasionally need antibiotics as he's a sneezy cat and occasionally gets upper respitory infections. They did assure us that he is completely healthy aside from the sneezing. Out of curiosity does anyone know how much a round of antibiotics for an upper respitory infection would cost roughly?

They will pay I'm 99% sure. I think his last round was less than a tenner (I donate and pay some off the vets bill when I can)

They didn't make any mention of paying when we were discussing him asides from the first 8 weeks they are covered by them. They do class him as a completely healthy cat aside from the snot so I think that's why. We don't mind paying for them, but it's just good to have an idea of how much it will be and that's not as bad as I thought to be honest.

I know I paid £4 for some tablets (unrelated) to his snot so wasn't expensive
If you get a vet and have a chat, they may well do telephone consults once they've seen him and then you could just do a repeat prescription so less costly than exam charges

Mines on cystease tablets which contain very similar active ingredients to urinary diets. He can't have the dry food because he's intolerant to cereals and wet urinary food is too expensive.

You can buy cystease very cheap online.

Thanks all for input, I think we will have to go with eyeless Alfie just because of the unknown with Gino I just hope he finds a forever home soon.

Apparently the food he is on now is just the same price as ordinary food and available from the supermarket so hopefully it won't be too much but will double check tomorrow.

My partner just corrected me and it is the prescription stuff instead. This is so hard. I want to give them all homes!

Cystease is not the same as urinary diet. It is a supplement that contains GAGs that help protect the bladder lining and L-tryptophan to help alleviate stress. If a cat has previous crystals or stones they need to be on a prescription diet to increase urine output, alter the urine pH to discourage stone formation and reduce the concentration of the components that form the crystals, and which diet depends on what type of crystals/stones. OP, you need to get a full history of this urine problem - a cat with a stress induced cystitis is a different kettle of fish to a cat that has had urethral blockage, crystalluria or bladder stones. Get the clinical history sent to your own vet and get their honest opinion before you commit yourself.

Does it have to be one of these two? There are plenty of completely healthy cats in rescue needing a home just as much, but starting with a clean slate and a insurance policy without exclusions.

Thanks Milo, won't be making any sharp decisions. It doesn't, no, they were just the two DP and I felt we clicked with and it feels rubbish saying no we can't have you because you are poorly but I don't want to bite off more than we can chew. We will go back and have a look around at some more. There's a lovely little 6yo girl with no health problems that was returned because of previous owner's allergies we are going to have a second look at.
Sorry for silly questions, just a bit overwhelming! Thanks very much for advice.

I'm going to go slightly against the grain here and say 'Give a home to the one who has clearly stolen your heart already'.

Mike Lappin at Colorado State has achieved some quite significant results with the use of probiotics to help URIs in cats who might have residual cat flu. (You can get them from Amazon.) I take human probiotics myself and I'm a great believer in happiness, low stress and probiotics helping the immune system enormously, human or cat.

When I acquired my own boy, who has some residual flu effect, he was a fairly skinny and unwell 13/14 year old. After bonding with me (he's a Siamese so that matters) he moved in, gained some (mainly muscle) weight, commandeered the bed and didn't give us any problems at all until he started to have nose issues at about 18/19 when he had to start fairly regular ABs. (His current vet actually thinks he has a polyp or fungal growth in his nose but he's really too old for her to do a GA scope now so he gets the AB injections as a palliative solution. They work.)

I reckon that a better lifestyle and some love will help his immune system and improve things - and acquiring a cat companion is such an unpredictable business that if you can afford it, I'd take the chance. It would be a pre-existing condition for any insurance policy of course.

(And Sainsbury's do a great value line in boxed tissues!)

Ah - the little girl sounds a good bet.

Sorry - x post.

PS - sorry, I should have said that Seniorboy had to have his teeth cleaned at about 16 and has had arthritis since he was 17. It's just that I regard teeth as a maintenance issue and arthritis as par for the course given his age - nothing out of the ordinary. If whatever cat you choose gets to his age, they'll be doing well in any case.

Just an update that we did go with the sneezy cat! We went back armed with more info and they put our minds at ease and we looked through all his medical notes. It looks like a low grade allergy more than flu or anything like that. We pick up Gino on Thursday

Yay 😼

Fab! Might be worth asking vet about use of Zyrtec antihistamine, it's cheap too