- Joined
- Jul 12, 2016
- Messages
- 17
- Purraise
- 5
hi all, so as a scant few may remember, i came here about a month ago asking for advice on our situation with our kitten. we live in china and she was diagnosed with panleukopenia, and lamentably ended up succumbing to secondary infection after a week-long battle with the illness. i am kicking myself for buying a cat at an open market, and especially for getting a kitten. i got sucked in, and eventually paid for it. i know much better now.
my question is about bringing a new cat into the home. very shortly after our kitten passed, a friend of my fiance's informed us that a friend of hers discovered an abandoned cat in need of an owner, and because of what happened to us she wanted to ask us first if we'd like to take him in. strays and abandoned animals abound here, even in the big cities - we live in beijing and i see two or three every week in our neighborhood alone - as such, illness is much more common among unvaccinated pets here than it is back in the US, which i assume means that adoptable older cats have a greater likelihood of either already having been properly vaccinated before abandonment, or having been exposed to some viruses outdoors in the past and recovering.
the cat we want to take in has been vaccinated twice and cared for over the past month on our behalf by an extraordinarily kind old chinese woman (as i flat-out refused to bring him into our home until we knew for sure that he'd received the immunization(s) he'd need for panleuk). by this auntie's estimates, the cat is about a year old, but he almost looks older to me as he is ENORMOUS. not fat, just a very large breed of cat with a decent amount of meat on his bones. the auntie sends me photos and videos of him daily, and he's obviously extremely healthy and very playful. i believe he would be an excellent candidate for our home based on these factors, but of course after going through what we did with our last cat, i would dearly appreciate a second opinion from anyone who has more experience than we.
our previous cat did not throw up or have diarrhea anywhere but the floor, and i've disinfected all of our (exclusively wood and tile, no carpet) flooring with one part bleach to 20 parts water (and let it sit in each room for a minimum of 30 minutes). all of our last cat's belongings have soaked in bleach overnight, and we will be purchasing a new pet carrier and litterbox altogether for the new cat as the ones for our last kitty are too small anyway. our clothes and bedding and couch are all surely contaminated. i let kitten have free run of the house and as we don't have a dryer i'm sure everything we've washed since we first got her has the virus on it, though in what amount, i can't be sure.
if our new cat is strong and healthy, one year old, a good portion of the house has been disinfected, and he's been recently vaccinated against panleukopenia, is still he considered to be at higher-than-average risk of contracting the disease once introduced to our home? and again, it's entirely likely that he has either survived the virus or been vaccinated against it already given where we live. we did go to meet him once at the auntie's home, and i was almost too terrified to touch him because i worried i would pass the virus onto him from my clothes but the auntie (who btw currently owns three 20-year-old cats herself) insisted and assured me that he would be fine. i did hold him at one point, so he absolutely could have picked the virus up off of me. could i take that as a sign he was probably already immune, and should therefore be okay either way? if there is a significant chance he could come down with the virus after being exposed to it at our house, i will not adopt him. i cannot go through that again, and i refuse to inadvertently cause the death of another animal who could otherwise have had a happy life with another family. i would love to ask a vet about this and intend to ask a family member back home to call on my behalf for their suggestions - i do not quite trust the doctors here after the experience with my last cat, and will be asking around for vet recommendations from friends with any pets we adopt in the future for sure.
thanks in advance.
my question is about bringing a new cat into the home. very shortly after our kitten passed, a friend of my fiance's informed us that a friend of hers discovered an abandoned cat in need of an owner, and because of what happened to us she wanted to ask us first if we'd like to take him in. strays and abandoned animals abound here, even in the big cities - we live in beijing and i see two or three every week in our neighborhood alone - as such, illness is much more common among unvaccinated pets here than it is back in the US, which i assume means that adoptable older cats have a greater likelihood of either already having been properly vaccinated before abandonment, or having been exposed to some viruses outdoors in the past and recovering.
the cat we want to take in has been vaccinated twice and cared for over the past month on our behalf by an extraordinarily kind old chinese woman (as i flat-out refused to bring him into our home until we knew for sure that he'd received the immunization(s) he'd need for panleuk). by this auntie's estimates, the cat is about a year old, but he almost looks older to me as he is ENORMOUS. not fat, just a very large breed of cat with a decent amount of meat on his bones. the auntie sends me photos and videos of him daily, and he's obviously extremely healthy and very playful. i believe he would be an excellent candidate for our home based on these factors, but of course after going through what we did with our last cat, i would dearly appreciate a second opinion from anyone who has more experience than we.
our previous cat did not throw up or have diarrhea anywhere but the floor, and i've disinfected all of our (exclusively wood and tile, no carpet) flooring with one part bleach to 20 parts water (and let it sit in each room for a minimum of 30 minutes). all of our last cat's belongings have soaked in bleach overnight, and we will be purchasing a new pet carrier and litterbox altogether for the new cat as the ones for our last kitty are too small anyway. our clothes and bedding and couch are all surely contaminated. i let kitten have free run of the house and as we don't have a dryer i'm sure everything we've washed since we first got her has the virus on it, though in what amount, i can't be sure.
if our new cat is strong and healthy, one year old, a good portion of the house has been disinfected, and he's been recently vaccinated against panleukopenia, is still he considered to be at higher-than-average risk of contracting the disease once introduced to our home? and again, it's entirely likely that he has either survived the virus or been vaccinated against it already given where we live. we did go to meet him once at the auntie's home, and i was almost too terrified to touch him because i worried i would pass the virus onto him from my clothes but the auntie (who btw currently owns three 20-year-old cats herself) insisted and assured me that he would be fine. i did hold him at one point, so he absolutely could have picked the virus up off of me. could i take that as a sign he was probably already immune, and should therefore be okay either way? if there is a significant chance he could come down with the virus after being exposed to it at our house, i will not adopt him. i cannot go through that again, and i refuse to inadvertently cause the death of another animal who could otherwise have had a happy life with another family. i would love to ask a vet about this and intend to ask a family member back home to call on my behalf for their suggestions - i do not quite trust the doctors here after the experience with my last cat, and will be asking around for vet recommendations from friends with any pets we adopt in the future for sure.
thanks in advance.