my husband said my cat is a lemon

after adopting a 12 week old kitten from the local humane society its been endless problems. Minor but vexing. first the pink eye which of course spread to the other eye through grooming, then earmites and gunky brown wax, then fleas and the subsequent tapeworms. her eyes are still swollen, i clean and medicate her eyes three times a day, and now she is shaking her right paw as if there is something wrong with it. Monday I am taking her back to the vet. My husband alternates between assuring me that these are all logistical problems that we will resolve and being grumpy because this kitty is "inconveniencing him". now he thinks he is allergic to her too.

And the worst part is that her eyes are probably herpes and stress induced and the treatment stresses her out no end. Today I am going to get some feliway infusers and some bach's flower remedy. I wish someone else could medicate her and I could just comfort and console her... which I do , no end, she is asleep in my lap as I type. She can't sleep with us at night and I am sure that addds to her problems even though I do all i can do to make her "den" stress free.

Please reassure me that we will get these things under control before she/I go through the trauma of spaying in two months.

Unfortuanatley most shelter cats come with more health issues than ferals and strays taken off the street. That is just the reality of living in a small room with other cats in crowded conditions, confined in cages. The stress has to be off the map. Once she realizes that part of her life is over, and she relaxes the health issues should finally go away.

Bless you for rescuing her-

Yes, it really will pass -- I volunteer at a GREAT shelter where we have an excellent facility and we really do our very best to keep the kitties healthy, but it's just nearly impossible under shelter conditions. Most of our kitties leave the shelter with a URI, but it usually subsides after a few weeks in a peaceful home environment.

It didn't happen that way for my Clyde, though, and I should mention it just in case. Clyde didn't really seem sick, neither at the shelter nor after I got him home -- but he did tire easily, and he never did quite shake the URI, or what the shelter vet thought was a URI. Finally, I went back to the records of his eleven weeks at the shelter, and I noticed that the shelter vet had noted that he'd had trouble hearing Clyde's heart. That was the only abnormal thing I saw, but it worried me, so I took Clyde back to the vet who had given him his followup vaccinations.

They couldn't hear Clyde's heart at ALL by now, so we spent a small fortune for an X-ray, and that's how we discovered that Clyde had pneumonia and pleural effusion so severe that one lung was compressed almost to nothing, and his heart was being pushed 'way out of position. The vet showed us the X-ray and told us grimly that Clyde would probably not be able to recover from this.

But we gave him some heavy antibiotics, including just a couple of doses of a very, very strong one that is not supposed to be used in kittens because it can cause blindness -- I felt I'd rather he be blind than lose him altogether, y'know? He was on the two basic antibiotics for a month, and he finally pulled through. His vision is just fine, thank heaven, and he hasn't been seriously sick since!

My point is, be reassured and have faith that your kitty will settle in and be well -- but keep a very close watch, and don't hesitate to get help if you don't feel things are going right. The vet told me Clydie would have been dead in a week if I hadn't brought him in when I did. And oh my gosh, I don't know what I would do without him... he's the furry little light of my life.

Good luck with your new baby!

The sad thing is that even animals from breeders can be sick also.
Case in point, we had a female Cocker pup that we bought from a breeder.She came to us very sick......first with hookworms, then puppy strangles, than food allergies to eventually having to be put down for a severe case of Cushings.
When you take animals into your care, you have to be ready for anything that comes your way health wise.You take the good with the bad.
Just think, if you hadn't rescued this little one............it would most likely be PTS for being at the shelter and being ill.I'm glad the kitty has a home that obviously loves her and all her little "quirks".