Neighbour fed my cat and took him to the vet

[Tigeresslearns]

I know I'm talking to the sensible here.
I've recently had to have my lovely boy pts. He was a roaming rascal that had to have his tail removed previously. He was also a lazy groomer so needed me to bath him on occasion too - not fun for him or me! But he was ours and was loved.

Anyway, I got a text a couple of weeks ago from a neighbour, who even after repeated telling by me to NOT feed him, had done so for a couple of years. He spent some time sat in her garden enjoying the sun. She knew I was his owner. She had my contact number and knows where I live.

She'd decided to take him to a vet as he had been unwell in her garden for 24 hours. She hadn't contacted me before this at all to tell me as I would of gone straight there to get him.

I called the vets, they'd done bloods and he was in kidney failure so I made the sad decision to pts. I couldn't get there before they would close for the day so I wasn't even there to give him strokes and love.

Adding to this, at the weekend I came across a fb post from the vets that they'd posted at the time, stating they had him and to call them as he was unwell. Comments underneath included some very strange or hurtful comments, including someone sharing my address and that I had 'abandoned' him. Thankfully the vets removed the post straight away when I called them.

Who the hell does this?

Things I've learnt:

Check your cat's chip is registered - my boy had been chipped years ago but for some reason the vet I'd used hadn't completed the registration or told me I had to complete the registration. It's been a pain but I've now got my other cats registered to me so it doesn't happen again.

Do not feed cats that don't belong to you. There are so many other means to care for a cat who you think it lost/abandoned/unwell. Posting on local fb groups get cats reunited really quickly usually. Or if you know the owner, tell them their cat is at yours. Any responsible cat owner would appreciate that.

Firstly I’m so sorry for your loss. I think you’re getting a lot of heat here (maybe some justified). The neighbour knows he’s your cat. I don’t know why she didn’t knock on or call and tell you he was poorly before taking to the vets or at least informing you he seems unwell and that was her plan unless you could get there asap. She managed to call you after so no excuse. Doing that in my opinion is completely unacceptable unless she couldn’t get hold of you then yes it’s valid. Clearly told the vet they don’t know the owner as there was a post put out. I can only imagine the heartbreak of imagining him there without his people giving him safety in his last moments. Mine burys his head into me when we go to the vets so it breaks my heart thinking of him being in a situation where he doesn’t have me there to do that.

microchip again maybe too much heat on you for that. I only realised mine wasn’t registered when he went to a cattery and had to get his chip number and then it said it wasn’t registered when I logged in even though my details were on it I hadn’t completed the final steps.

where you likely deserve heat on you is not realising he was so poorly. Please google the symptoms and see if you missed something or actually like the vet said there is potential to be poisoned. Lots of people are likely putting rat poison down my neighbour was talking about doing it the other week, and I said I just can’t do that as you don’t know what else is going to eat it.

I don’t really understand what you wanted the sequence of events to be, OP.

I could easily have a cat lying in my garden for a day before I realised it was ill. The fact it was still there in the morning would be the indicator for me. Yes I’d probably ring the owner if I knew them before going to the vets, but given the neighbour called you by 11:30 ish, then I assume she made the decision to take the cat to the vet no earlier than 10:30, by which time it already sounds like you were on your day out and so likely wouldn’t have made it back in time anyway.

I can’t imagine having my pet put down from an illness without having seen them first. If it had been an accident, fair enough - but I’d definitely want to speak to my usual vet to be sure there was no treatment if the cat that I had thought was perfectly well 24 hours ago was no having organ failure so sever they needed to be put down.

Had you gone to look for your cat if it had been AWOL for 24 hours?

I don’t understand why you’re annoyed with the neighbours, you should be taking them round some flowers and a bottle of wine!!!

If my neighbour took my unwell cat to the vet for me I’d be grateful.

Sorry about your cat, OP - I've not properly read the thread but I would be devastated in your shoes.

We adopted our cat from Cats Protection and the lady who's in charge of the local branch told me that they see lots of cats who are chipped, but the chip isn't registered - the two things don't necessarily happen at the vet's, and people don't always realise they need to get in touch with the chip company to sort it. (I think there are different chip providers, but I am always getting marketing email from ours, Identibase.) So always worth checking. Also our last cat had two chips because the first one couldn't be found with the scanner after it was done, so I guess it doesn't always work properly - our vet called her bionic.

The neighbour definitely should’ve contacted you, taking it to the vet and then calling you after sounds like she wants to be a busybody/hero unless she genuinely thinks you’ve neglected the cat.

If your cat was very elderly then I think it’s possible you could’ve missed the signs as some old cats just seem very old. But some things like lily pollen can cause very quick kidney failure.

At the end of the day, your neighbour was only trying to help and your boy didn’t suffer on in the end. She didn’t go about it in the best way but I think you are directing your feelings at her because you are (understandably) sad and angry that you didn’t get to say goodby to him

He was a roaming cat that the neighbour had also been feeding for years and the chip wasn't registered to you. I'm not sure she really thought it was your cat just a cat you fed as she did, a neighbourhood moggy. She may not have thought you would take him to the vet so she did. You can only assume she did what she thought best, she is obviously a cat lover too.

It’s very unusual that a vet would carry out tests at their own cost and then start scrabbling about trying to find the owner on social media.

And managing to do it all including getting results, informing the owner of the prognosis and PTS all before closing time at 12pm, huge amount of turn around in 2 hours. There’s clearly another side to this story

I've known vets do this when a cat is brought in injured or obviously very unwell, same with Facebook pleas. But the timeline here doesn't add up. You'd expect it if the cat hadn't been claimed, but it's not usually done immediately. I guess they might if it was an emergency,but I'm surprised with kidneys why they didn't stabilise first and bring in the OP to discuss a plan/say goodbye the following day.

Have, have, have, not OF.

The OP says the neighbour knew where she lived. They could have told her.

It does sound like this happened on a Saturday morning, as they closed at midday. A quick decision with PTS sounds a lot kinder than keeping them in over the weekend, especially with Out of Hours care costs on top.

I wonder if the cat was taken in on Friday. I'm not sure if OP has confirmed what the Facebook post said in regard to how long the cat had been at the vet with owner unknown.

She said the neighbour took the cat in to the vet late morning on the day the cat was PTS

Did your neighbour pay the vet bill?

Wait, so you hadn’t seen your senior cat for over 24 hours and you took yourself on a day out, without knowing where he was?
P.S vets don’t ‘register’ your chip. The owner does. The vet will insert the chip and give you the details/chip ID. You are responsible for then registering your pet as yours, with the correct details!

I can see why you're upset but I can also see her perspective that she was trying to look after an obviously sick cat.

And why would the vet post such a message on Facebook when they know it's your cat and the neighbour could have given them your number?

I'm so sorry about your kitty 💔. Your neighbour was out of line to wait so long before telling you your cat was ill and for not telling the vet she knew who the owner was too! Sounds vindictive to me. When I go for my cats' annual booster jabs I now get their chips scanned too just to check they are still there and still working properly. They can migrate round the body - even going down the legs!- and sometimes just stop working too - I never used to do this but I've heard stories of chips not being found etc.

I’m guessing, the neighbour looked at the overall condition of the cat (poorly groomed for long periods, unwell, senior) and didn’t trust you to take it to the vet. They took it into their own hands and told you afterwards.

Yes, but the timing doesn't match up as a PP pointed out. The cat was taken in late morning, examined, tested, diagnosed, posts made on Facebook, vet contacted by OP and then PTS all before midday. It's just a lot to have happened within an hour or so. I'm surprised the vet had so much time available for a non-client walk-in. (Obviously they wouldn't want to leave a cat suffering, so some of the sequence of events would be expedited as necessary.)

Also the neighbour might not have told OP the truth. Apparently they didn't even give the vet the owner's details despite knowing them.

I don't understand people who do this. Why on earth don't they just get their own cats..multiple ones if they're so obsessed!

Feeding others animals is out of order and as for taking him to the vet without telling you, that's really awful. The vets sending messages on Facebook to be commented on by strangers and your address is also appalling and a potential breach of some kind of privacy or data regulation isn't it?

I'm so sorry you lost your beautiful cat. X

My first though was if people doing things like this without telling you could cause issues with insurance, being you need to notify them?

Ive had a couple of cats in kidney failure, one went downhill extremely quickly, we had no idea he was even ill then within 2 days he had to be PTS.

The fact she had your cat in her garden for an entire day looking ill and she didnt message you is unforgivable and she is a truly awful person.

I am so sorry for your loss op ❤️

Sorry for your loss.

Just a note for everyone about the microchips. I am a registered microchipper, my online account shows me all the chips I’ve done and if they have been registered into the new owners name. I would say only 20% have been registered by the new owners. It’s a simple process, I give them all the information and it usually costs them £20 for the lifetime of their animal.

I remind people to transfer ownership, hardly anyone does it though. It’s so important to do it. I’ve bred puppies and even then, telling people how to transfer it, no one does. I’ve had so many phone calls from vets & wardens saying they have my pet (puppy I’ve bred), luckily I insist on getting the new owners contact details when I sell a puppy. So at least I can help reunite them.

But honestly it is so important, anyone who reads this, please register your pets microchip into your name. If you’re getting a new pet, factor the microchip transfer fee in. It’s not too expensive and it’s very rare a breeder or vet will register it for you. If they do, great. But chances are they don’t. It’s up to you as the pets owner. I would be so worried if mine went missing, but at least with the chip in my name, the chances of being reunited are higher.

Sorry for derailing your thread, I just wanted to raise this about the microchips.

Maybe your neighbour didn’t believe you cared enough about the cat to take it to the vet, so decided to take matters into her own hands 🤷‍♀️ The fact you chose to have it PTS in your absence rather than have the vet keep its condition stable until you could be there (the following day, if necessary) suggests she may well have been right.