Kitten That Cost Me $800
I hope when you decide to adopt a new kitten into your home, you are aware of the costs involved in caring for him or her. I love cats. I don’t like going into a shelter and seeing all those kittens in there looking at me with their cute little faces. If I could save all cats I would. Of course, that is unrealistic.
Well I already own two male cats that are about a year and a half old. I bought them through an ad I found in the paper for $15 each. They had already got thier first feline distemper shot; thats why they cost that much at about 6 weeks. So I was ok with that. So as time went by I was missing a girl in the family. My friend and I went to the local shelter and was looking around at the many kittens they had for sale. Like I said before I don’t like going in to those places seeing all those lonely and sick cats. After about a half hour of looking at the adorable kittens, we kept being drawn to a particular little LH tabby kitten. She was very fiesty, jumpy and she bit most of the time. Which was fine with me!
I did notice that she had a skin problem and the first thing I thought of was the vet prices to get her healthy. I knew it was going to be costly going into getting another kitten. I really wanted her, we only live once, so I got her and took her to vet immediately. The vet fee for the visit and consultation was $30. Oh yes,I paid $40 for her to begin with and was told that when I got her spayed, I would be refuned the money plus get $40 back. So I would basically get her free. Well, she ended up having a skin virus caused by a bug that was making her skin peel and look flaky. It was very contagious so I had to quarantine her in the bathroom for about a month so my other two cats would not get it. Her total bill then, for that first visit was $121. The skin scrape and medication were expensive. Nothing new to me that I would be spending that much but some people don’t realize the cost.
A month passes and she seems to be fine until one night she starts that awful sound of the “throw up”. She began to do it for a couple nights until she finally threw up some long white coils. The worms! She had worms… I didn’t plan on getting her the normal shots until a little while later but I guess she was telling me something. I ended up getting a “kitty plan” for all her shots, which consisted of:
1 Comprehensive Exam
3 FVRCP Vaccinations
1 Feline Leukemia Test
1 Feline Leukemia Vaccination
1 Fecal, 2 Wormings
You can also get the AIDS tests and vaccinations but I didn’t really need to at that time.
The total costs for that visit was $153.
The three follow up visits were $100 each time.
Then I got her spayed a couple months later, costing me $100.88
They charged me for heat, to keep the kitten warm!
Inbetween that time she started to eat my adults cat food here and there.. I did seperate them when eating but sometimes she would sneak away and start to eat the adult food. Well, I made the HUGE mistake of changing her food to a different brand. Money was tight and I just could not afford the good stuff anymore. Some advice to you when feeding your cat. GET THE GOOD STUFF. She did not take well to it at all and developed Gastroenteritis and everytime she would eat, it would come right back out of her mouth! She started to lose weight and get very sick. So I took her in and and had all kinds of tests done…. The bill for the medication, treatment, visit and tests was $214. She was a handlful and I learned so much about cat health in general.
I shared this experience just give you an idea of what a kitten can cost in the long run. Now don’t forget that they they still need their yearly shots as well!