Opinions Please

On another board, I mentioned that there was an adorable, sweet black polydactyl kitten at my local PetsMart, up for adoption. I love poly's, and I want to adopt her, but there are a few things in the way...

One, right now I am in the process of dealing with ear mites. Three of the five cats in this house (4 cats are mine, I live with folks) are being treated for the mites, and coming along beautifully! The other two cats are on an ear drop designed to help prevent ear mites from coming about. The three infected are locked in their own room, the other two are locked in a different room, no contact.

If I adopted this kitten, where would I keep her, to ensure that she is healthy and mite free, and that she has no contact with the others for a few weeks?

Secondly, should I be worried about fleas, diseases, etc? Or should the rescue have taken care of an intial exam before putting her up for adoption?

Thanks in advance. I just don't want to bring her home if it will cause too much trouble. I'd like some others input.

If she has been recently vet-checked and given the all clear then some of your concerns will already be met. Usually on a new cat or kitten you should isolate them from the other feline residents of the home until the vet check is completed. Once that has been done, it is a good idea to isolate the new kitty anyway until they all can get to know each other, so it would be important that you have another room she could use for awhile.

As to earmites, I live in an area that seems to multiply them like the loaves and fishes. I have used the drops, and spent hours cleaning ears (between 14 to 20 pairs of ears at a sitting. My vet admits that his cats have earmites and that they are the devil to combat. A new product is on the market -- new for us here anyway -- in which there are medicines for earmites, ticks, fleas, and worms. It comes in a vial, like the Frontline, and you apply it to the skin on the lower neck in the same way. I have just brought home some and I hope it will help. The solution as presently sold does not kill tape worms. Its only drawback.

If one cat has earmites, other cats are bound to get them. Squeaky-clean is not a real option in rearing animals, unless you become obsessive about it, and then the animal suffers your picking at them all the time. As your vet about the new earmite/tick/flea/worm thing. Nothing could be easier to apply.

But I can almost guarantee that you won't completely eradicate the mites.

They don't like people, apparently. One blessing.

Hi there~

What our vet has said is typically older cats don't get ear mites *as easily* because they're more cleanly. He said this because my 2 yr old cat was riddled w/ them and my 5 yr old cat was not.

I suggest taking the kitty to the vet and having him thoroughly checked, if he's declared "mite" free than all should be well accept for maybe climatizing him to the reigning kitties of the home and therefore as the others mentioned you may want to pull him aside and keep him seperate, even if it's in your own room a couple days--get a kitty litter box and give him some snuggles and before long he'll be with the pack!

Congratulations, I hope all goes well!

Elyse

If you're sure you can handle a 6th cat and take care of it with equal love and attention as the others, sure, why not? If you bought this kitty, you could let have the full run of the house as long as the others are still contained. Just be sure to keep all your cats indoors. If not, they may pick up other diseases. If you don't want your cat to have the full run of the house, just make sure your other two cats don't have any problems, and make sure the new kitty doesn't have any problems either, and introduce the kitty to the ear-mite free cats. I honestly don't know if this will work or not, because I've never dealt with more than one cat or, luckily, ear-mites. My cat's name is Shadow, but that's unimportant right now. Anyway, if you feel you were destined for this companion, why not adopt it and do the world a favor?