Poorly kitten sold.

[ZCH5714]

Quote

Hi, we bought a kitten in June, he was 9 weeks old and all we were told is that he was the runt of the litter and very small but as long as he gained enough weight vet said he was allowed to be rehomed. Within 3 days of bringing him home he was seen at the vets, he had chronic diarrhoea, mites and faeces in his ears and hadn't been wormed and was rapidly losing weight. We had a lot of vet consultations for antibiotics, probiotic pastes, other treatment, faecal tests etc. He was on a vet advised gastro intestinal diet as we had no idea what was causing the chronic diarrhoea. After another decline this week and still only weigh 800g at 4.5 months the vet told us his stomach felt like mush and a change in colour of his eyes indicated a liver problem. We therefore had to have him put to sleep on Monday. Breeder said there was nothing wrong before he left their home but our vet agreed that even with specialised diets and medication that he would of been very poorly when born. Even with specialist treatment costing thousands he would of had a very short life. We paid £200 for him and including his now cremation our bills have cost over £1000 in just a couple of months as nothing was covered under his insurance due to it being a 'pre existing condition.' 

I just want to ask where I stand looking at a small claims court. Of course most importantly I will report her in the hope she won't breed again but I also want to enquire whether it would be worth pushing for compensation for damages, vet bills and purchase price etc.

 

 

Hi,

we bought a kitten in June, he was 9 weeks old and all we were told is that he was the runt of the litter and very small but as long as he gained enough weight vet said he was allowed to be rehomed.

 

Within 3 days of bringing him home he was seen at the vets, he had chronic diarrhoea, mites and faeces in his ears and hadn't been wormed and was rapidly losing weight.

We had a lot of vet consultations for antibiotics, probiotic pastes, other treatment, faecal tests etc. He was on a vet advised gastro intestinal diet as we had no idea what was causing the chronic diarrhoea.

 

After another decline this week and still only weigh 800g at 4.5 months the vet told us his stomach felt like mush and a change in colour of his eyes indicated a liver problem. We therefore had to have him put to sleep on Monday.

 

Breeder said there was nothing wrong before he left their home but our vet agreed that even with specialised diets and medication that he would of been very poorly when born.

Even with specialist treatment costing thousands he would of had a very short life.

 

We paid £200 for him and including his now cremation our bills have cost over £1000 in just a couple of months as nothing was covered under his insurance due to it being a 'pre existing condition.' 

 

Any help would be appreciated as we have some devastated children! 

 

Many Thanks. 

[BankFodder]

Please could you not post in solid blocks of text. It makes it very difficult to follow. It will help enormously if you can post with proper spacing and punctuation.

If you can get an independent assessment which confirms that this is a pre-existing condition and the kitten should not have been sold to you in this condition then I would say that you can certainly recover the purchase price but also any reasonably foreseeable losses.

It seems to me that any breeder would realise that one somebody purchases an animal, they effectively make a commitment to it and to its well-being and so if the costs they incur are reasonable and have become necessary because of an undisclosed pre-existing condition then these would be recoverable.

Have you had any exchange with the breeder

[hightail]

I am sorry this has happened to you.  It is heartbreaking and especially difficult when there are children involved.

Was this kitten a particular breed?  No proper 'breeder' can sell a kitten until a week after it has had a full set of vaccinations which means they have to be 13 weeks old at a minimum.  Do you have anything in writing (email maybe) where the seller told you the kitten had been seen by a vet and cleared for sale?  I suspect this may not be true and if so there was clear misrepresentation.  Nine weeks is the normal age for the first of two vaccinations which make up the full course so maybe the kitten had been seen by a vet.  Were you given a vaccination certificate showing one dose given and a date around three weeks later for another?

[ZCH5714]

To the day he died, he still wasn't vaccinated because his tummy was too delicate and he was too poorly x

He was a Turkish Angora x

[BankFodder]

I don't know a lot about this kind of thing – but in terms of consumer rights, all the evidence seems to show that you bought an item which was defective to the extent that the entire purpose of the contract has been undermined.

Additionally, you are within the six months which is contemplated by the consumer rights act and therefore you are entitled to a repair or a refund. Clearly no repair as possible so you are entitled to a refund. I will also say that all of your associated losses which have been reasonably incurred would also be recoverable.
You should obtain a written statement from your vet which expresses an opinion that the item was was already suffering from this defect before you purchased it. If you can get a second opinion which corroborates the first then so much the better.

Please put together a list of all of the expenses which you have incurred and post them up here.

We will then help you with the next step against this breeder

[hightail]

5 hours ago, ZCH5714 said:

To the day he died, he still wasn't vaccinated because his tummy was too delicate and he was too poorly x

 

16 hours ago, ZCH5714 said:

we were told is that he was the runt of the litter and very small but as long as he gained enough weight vet said he was allowed to be rehomed.

No vet would say a kitten is fit to be rehomed if it isn't fit enough to be vaccinated.  I know I'm pushing this point and it's because this could be considered a 'private' sale and therefore deliberate misrepresentation could (on top of everything BF has said) be important if you have to take it further.  I'm afraid there's every chance that will be the case because this has all the hallmarks of a backyard breeder who doesn't care.

 

This cannot have been a registered pedigree kitten, what paperwork were you given?

[BankFodder]

I had assumed that this was a breeder who was trading rather than a private sale

[hightail]

2 hours ago, BankFodder said:

I had assumed that this was a breeder who was trading rather than a private sale

There’s precious little doubt in my mind this is someone producing kittens to make money.  The irony is that because they are doing so in such a callous and irresponsible manner there may be little evidence.