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The litter tray

Join our community of cat lovers on the Mumsnet Cat forum for kitten advice and help with cat behaviour.

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Original poster

Moral question

20 replies

buckingfrolicks · 27/04/2016 21:05

Last March I rescued two sisters aged 13 now.

One has been diagnosed with diabetes and needs twice daily injections etc. This is going to cost a small fortune as we don't have insurance for her.

I will not give her back, or just let her die, but I keep thinking of what rescue centers could do with that money. Is it morally right to spend hundreds of pounds on one middle aged cat?

OP posts:

PinkSparklyPussyCat · 27/04/2016 21:17

I would. We've just spent over £600 on our 11 year old cat and we've been lucky as we had insurance as the bills are over £2000. Luckily DH is as soft as me!

cozietoesie · 27/04/2016 21:30

She's a member of your family now. Medical treatment for her is different to weighing up whether you should spend money on some luxury, I think.

Fluffycloudland77 · 27/04/2016 22:02

Yes. It's your pet so you have to look after her.

lottielou7 · 28/04/2016 10:33

You should always get insurance but as you haven't, you need to suck it up. I don't get how you could be thinking donating money to a charity is better than looking after your pet who relies on you?

Sparrowlegs248 · 28/04/2016 10:39

I have a diabetic cat who is injected twice daily. That in itself doesn't cost a fortune. I recently collected two bottle of insulin and some syringes for about £40, these will last us a while.

What cost the money was the bloody endless attempts to stabilise him. Saying that, he is insured, so there was no worry about him.having overnight stays at the vets once a week for about ten weeks.

Had he not been insured, it would have been more effort for me but I could have done more running about with him to and from the vets rather than him staying in, and also it you can do your own glucose curve at home, if you can manage to get spots of blood from the cat. The vets might even lend you the little machine or you could buy one.

Once it's stable, it's easy. And fairly cheap. My cat took ages to stabilise though.

Happy to answer questions if you have any.

springhasprung · 28/04/2016 19:52

Why are you thinking about what a rescue centre could do with that money? That's their responsibility - your cat is ill and she is your responsibility.

PinkSparklyPussyCat · 28/04/2016 20:32

The more I think about this the more I'm amazed that anyone would even ask the question. While I like to donate to a rescue occasionally and I have sponsor cat, my responsibility is to my own cat.

Vinorosso74 · 28/04/2016 21:35

My cat is also 13 and recently diagnosed as diabetic. She cost us a fortune last year (different issue) as we exceeded insurance limit but I believe when you bring an animal into your family you pay for their wellbeing which we would do for our human relatives.
Had our cat been a few years older I don't think we would have put her through the surgery she had last year.
I know there will be a time when I will be a blubbering mess we have to decide on quality of life but for something easily treatable at not that old an age carry on while they're happy.

lottielou7 · 28/04/2016 21:47

Also you got these cats from a rescue centre in the first place so supporting the cats you have taken on from there is paramount and more important than donating money

Original poster

buckingfrolicks · 28/04/2016 21:52

That's a pretty consistent message! She's currently tucked up in the vets for a few days getting insulin levels sorted. I did say is never let her go untreated! I know she's my responsibility and we all love her. Her sister who hated her is having Her Best Day Ever now she's a solo cat.

OP posts:

Wolfiefan · 28/04/2016 21:52

What on earth have rescue centres got to do with this?
It is morally right to provide life saving medical treatment for a pet you decided to offer a home. Anything else is wrong and wicked. It's not the fault of the cat that you didn't take out insurance.

Fluffycloudland77 · 28/04/2016 22:03

I can imagine her sister thinks Christmas is early this year. It'll be one hell of a comedown for her.

I'm sure our small female thought "one down, one to go" when the big male died.

lottielou7 · 28/04/2016 22:29

Agreed wolfie

IthinkIamsinking · 29/04/2016 05:06

My boy was a rescue and over the last 18 months I have spent about 3000.

FullMoonTonight · 29/04/2016 05:39

I understand why you asked the question, OP. The consistency of response is interesting.

Sparrowlegs248 · 29/04/2016 09:13

I think this is a good demonstration of why you should have pet insurance. I never had with any pets til I got my rescue cat. I am so pleased I did. Takes away a lot of worry.

PinkSparklyPussyCat · 29/04/2016 09:17

In the OP's defence it might not have been possible to get insurance due to the cats' ages. Some insurers won't cover older cats and Petplan will only offer essential cover, not covered for life.

cozietoesie · 29/04/2016 09:28

I haven't any insurance cover for Seniorboy - we didn't actually expect him to make 15 so didn't even investigate it at the time. There's been no issue about his care, though: he's a family member so we just pay for things and look after him as we would for anyone else.

lottielou7 · 29/04/2016 09:40

Well, that is true. But when you take on a cat you need to consider things like age and the liklihood of illness and the need for vet care increasing with advanced age. My kittens were insured from the moment we got them because I wouldn't want to be in the position of not being able to afford medical treatment. Male cats are also considerably more to insure than female cats.

I know it seems judgmental but I just can't understand why someone would be thinking that money would be better donated to an animal shelter than to take care of your own ill animal. It just seems rather sad to me.

PinkSparklyPussyCat · 29/04/2016 10:00

I agree lottielou, I was just saying it's not easy with an older cat, hence you should only take one on if you can/are prepared to spend the money.

It was touch and go whether our insurance would pay out but it didn't cross my mind not to go ahead with the treatment, I just told the vet to do whatever she had to. He's the most important a member of the family and there's no way I would have not had him treated.

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