health checks prior to re-homing

[SamMewl]

Thanks very much for the info Gillian, and it would be useful to know the price of the kits. I think we are a little worried about the kit results for FeLV as I've heard there is a very high percentage of false positives for this disease. Do you do further blood tests if it's positive? We have a cat right now that has tested positive for FeLV after being 'spot tested' we have done a further blood test and it will be interesting what the result is, I have just spoke to the vet and the first part came back negative so hopefully he will be clear.

Glad to hear your FIV cats are still healthy, hopefully there is still plenty more years left in them

[Gillian Harvey]

Currently we don't do routine blood tests. Gillian  I was hoping you could let me know how much would you say in general this adds to your costs and roughly what percentage of cats showing no sign of illness do come back with a positive result?

Sorry, only just seen this  Not sure how much the blood testing costs us - I think the Trust buys the actual kits that the vets use, will try and find out how much they are.  I would say we've had around 4 FIV+ over the last year (including my FIV+ foster, Chico). None, as far as I'm aware, showed any signs of illness - we rehomed 3, and Chico is still with me (age 10 plus and healthy  ). Don't know about FeLV, will ask about that.

[SamMewl]

Thanks for your comments, its very intersting to hear what other people think about this.

Currently (without tests and without vaccs) we have a minimum donation price of £50 against our average cost of £80 per cat. A lot of this cost is from neutering and also offerring continuing vet support to old or ill cats we rehome.

One of the reasons (obviously cost being a major one) we don't vaccinate is that instead we advise the new owner to vaccinate before they let the cat out after the 2 weeks we reccomend they keep them in for. One possible benefit of this is they are more likely to do so with the novelty of a new cat and therefore makes them register with a vet who will then contact them directly about when the yearly booster is due. Whether or not this works is unknown!

As to testing I felt as you did tagalong when i brought my rescue cat home, fortunately he had been combi-tested as he was ill when he was brought in. otherwise i would have asked the rescue to test before he came to me at my expense from worry about my other cats and whether he should be an indoor cat etc.

[Tagalong]

I'm not a rescue but thought it might help to give my comments as someone who rehomes from rescues or privately .
before a cat comes into my home assuming I have other cats (ie very unlikely not to and that would alter things if i was adopting an only cat for example an FIV cat etc ) then any thing the rescue has not done or owner has not had done I will ask them to have done at the vet they use and I will pay for this -for example FELV /FIV testing and now I also do FIP at same time ( I know about the complicated diagnosis of FIP but it is a good foundation stone to know a titre level in case of any problems later ) i do these things for peace of mind for myself and my own cats -some bigger rescues routinely do most things but i appreciate smaller and private owners may not be able to .

[Angiew]

we don't health check for the sake of it.

However most of our cats have been to the vet for neutering and/or vacs before they go.

Perhaps you should at least get first vacs done and up any homing donations?

we moved from £40 nothing done to £75 including neuter, vacs and chip (So in effect we are now giving them away as the treatment costs us £85 in total but we can't really ask for more and at least its keeping up good animal care standards!).
we now issue vet forms with kittens to cover the cost of jab and neutering if not done before they go.

Sadly, I don't think we can ask for more than £75 and even then sometimes discount!

[SamMewl]

At Haworth Cat rescue we worm them and treat for fleas and also check dental and ears. The dental is looking at their gums and checking there is nothing wrong (like bleeding, abscesses or really bad teeth that may require extraction) and the ear check is to check for ear mites. Ear mites leave crusty black bits and is distinguished from dirt by the hard texture. That said we neuter everything, including kittens which we neuter after 10 weeks providing they're healthy and adequate weight and rely on the vets doing a health check before they neuter.

We have had a couple of cases of ringworm though this year so I we are now more vigilant for noticing that too, which shows up as circular patches of hair loss particularly in the ears.

Currently we don't do routine blood tests. Gillian  I was hoping you could let me know how much would you say in general this adds to your costs and roughly what percentage of cats showing no sign of illness do come back with a positive result?

[Gillian Harvey]

Ours are all in foster homes (cattery pens in the garden + inevitable ones indoors too  ) They come to the fosterer, who then takes them to vets to be blood tested for FIV/FeLV and a general checkover. Fosterer will then worm them and treat for fleas if necessary. If they are with us for a long time we usually flea treat again just before they go to new home. Despite all this, we too, have had a few occasions where cats have gone to new homes and susbsequently been discovered to have ear mites  . So whenever I take a new foster to the vets now, I make a point of getting vet to do a proper ear check with the thing they stick in the ear, just to make sure. 

[snarf]

as far as im aware all of ours have a vet check before they go out- its just a quick once over though not bloods or anything in depth. if they werent showing signs of ear mites would a vet even have looked for them on a check up? im assuming their ears looked clean

[midgecat]

Wondering what people normally do about health checks before cats leave rescue and are rehomed.  When I've fostered adult cats they've normally been to the vets to be neutered prior to going to new homes and have a routine health check as part of that.  With kittens they're not old enough to be neutered before rehoming so they've tended to not to go the vet - unless of course there's something wrong.  So they're rehomed without a health check. 

However, some of the kittens I've recently rehomed have been found to have eat mites when their new humans have taken them to the vets.  They showed no signs of being troubled by them when they were with me in foster care - though the fact that several of them have them suggests they must have had them whilst with me.

Wondering whether we should have taken them whilst in foster care.  We're a small rescue though, and what we charge for cats / kittens isn't much more than we'd have to pay for a vet consultation.

What does anyone else do, or suggest?  Please?