Hello, i have a 11 month old siamese lilac point little girl called maya, she has always been plagued with the dreaded cat flu, but she is fully vaccinated and at the moment is not showing signs of it.

The problem im facing is that i want to bob her into a cattery for a week for when i go on my holidays, i rang mypetstop in leeds and they would not accept her, the thing is i was being open and honest about maya and the cat flu saying that there may be a chance that if she is stressed it may resurface so was there any chance of just bobbing some eye drops in for her. But they said no way would they house her.

I understand that the flu is very contagious but can be easily controlled and managed with good hygeine, surely mypetsop has people putting their cats in with them and they just dont say anything about cat flu to them.

Will any cattery take maya, i dont want to feel like im lying to a cattery about the flu but at the same time, im needing somewhere safe for her so i dont want to be putting her in a cattery that is not up to scratch.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

How about asking your vet if they know of a cattery who is likely to accept her, or even contact Cats Protection, they may be able to help or know of someone who caters for 'special' cats!

just rung the vets, they havent got a clue who would accept her, apparantly even when they are vaccinated they can still pass it on to other cats, looks like im just going to have to ring round the different ones and see what they say!

Call Cats Protection, one call to them, might save you a lot of time!

just rang danewalk pet hotel have thanked me for being honest as they get alot that arent but they wont accept her!

So now going to get the number for cats protection and ask for some advice!

ive left a message lets see if they call back.

One of my cats had cat flu and went into kennels. Why mention it? All they have to see is a vaccination certificate and smaller places don't even ask to see it.

For it spreading is rather rare as my cat went outside and no other cats got ill, nor did the ones in kennels.

Just had a thought, try a pet sitting service.

ive just been looking at that, dont know if id feel that comfortable with someone who i dont know in my home. Food for thought though, looks like i wont be going on holiday for the next 20 years LOL.

mmmm dunno dont know if i could lie. ive sent a really nice email almost begging! to a cattery in doncaster see what they say, ill have a talk to my partner about it cause we cant not have a holiday we are desperate! ive also just asked if i could pay double to make sure there is not cat in a nearby pen, lets see what they say!

Good Luck. Well you don't have to lie. I wasn't suggesting you do.

Small kennels don't tend to ask questions. The kennel I used didn't.

Health is important but there are ways of keeping things clean and risk free. Bring your cats bowls and bedding. That way all they need to do is use strong germ killing disinfectant but from experience, once in remission cat flu does not return and my cat lived to be 17.

If no where takes her, why not take her with you on holiday? Plenty of UK places take pets.

we where just thinking about that, going to have a look on the internet see what we can find, she is a house cat after all and she is not a scratcher which is unusual so we wouldnt be worried about her causing damage to the property.

Back to the drawing board!

You would think though with over a million cats in the uk being diagnosed with cat flu every year, that a cattery would be setup to be able to accept cats with or without cat flu, its a joke really!

I would presume people just show a vaccine certificate and that is it. My IP's cattery did not even bother to ask about vaccinations and seemed under the impression that vaccines don't work and are not needed when I questioned her as I was rather worried that the cattery owner was rather more interested in making money than cats health.

I would presume there must be places for cats that are carriers as how else do people go on holiday?

howley20, I have just found this place, not sure how far it is from you? The style of pens in their cattery are of the type which do not spread any infection, therefore, they may help

http://www.mossendkennels.co.uk/id10.html

I help out in my local cattery and every cattery has what they call isolation pens, which are set away from the main cattery in case of illness and the spreading of illness. I know that my one has, under extreme circumstances used the isolation pen during the quieter months. Perhaps you could ask the local catteries if you could maybe have your cat put in there? Just a suggestion.

I would never put a cat with a contagious disease into a cattery without informing the owners. In theory all the other cats there should be vaccinated against cat flu, but deliberately misleading the owners is IMO very unwise (I realise you have decided not to do this OP). It is possible that there could be another cat there who is exempted from vaccination for their own medical reasons so it is important that a cattery owner is informed of potential risks.

Good catteries take an interest in the cat's history and if a cattery did not ask to see vaccination certificates I would not leave my cats there - if they are that casual about vaccinations, I'd also be concerned about what else they are casual about.

Like Zigesa I have experienced catteries which have isolation pens - the first one I went to had these. The best idea surely is to ask your vet for advice? He may be able to write an explanatory letter for you which would allay concerns for a cattery. A lot of vet nurses do 'cat feeding' - they go in twice a day while you're away to feed and fuss the cat. Might be a good alternative - or how about asking a friend/neighbour to do this for you.

Right i have just spoken to the women from the Cats Protection League, she was extremely helpful and informative.

She told me that even though maya had cat flu the fact that she has been vaccinated gives her immunity and the fact that she has been symptom free since her vaccination is an indication that the virus will be nearly non existent.

If she was shedding, ie. sneezy, sore eyes then yes there is the chance that she could spread the virus, but again this is low unless she is living directly with other cats, which i would not want. Basic hygiene principals should protect other cats from cross contamination.

She also said that in 23 years of working in catterys and for the cats protection league she has never heard of a cattery refusing to board a cat that has been fully vaccinated against the flu even if they had it before.

She is technically in perfect health, fully up to date with her vaccinations so is perfectly entitled to be boarded.

She has given me the number for my local cats protection league who will hopefully recommend to me a good cattery that would not have a problem accepting maya. So fingers crossed i might hopefully get sorted!

Thankyou for all the advise that you have all given me and thankyou wildpumpkin for advising me to ring the cats protection league it was very helpful!

My pleasure howley. I have always found the CPL to be the best for advice for cats, as they should be. I am sure you will be successful.

Glad to hear you have sorted it out.
Howley you may not want to go into this, but I am wondering how your Siamese came to have cat flu? I would have thought the environment they are reared in means it's really unlikely to happen, and when you take a pedigree home they should already have a full set of vaccinations. Hope you don't mind me asking, just wondering, that's all.

do u have and family, neighbours or friends that could house/cat sit? or even just pop in every day?

Or a Cat Nurse who will come round each day mine charges £7 per day for 2 visits.

hello lippincote, i was extremely suprised that maya developed cat flu as the breeder showed me mayas mum and dad, plus all her kittens (non vaccinated) and also her other prize winning siamese, not a single one was ill, they all had current vaccination certificates and all looked in amazing condition.

Maya was the smallest and the cutest she had a little waddle on when she walked, at that point none of the kittens had been vaccinated as they where too young, they had been vet checked and wormed, the breeder at that time told me that she wasnt giving papers with any of her kittens as she was sick of kitten farms calling and didnt want someone breeding for money.

Now on face value, i took that as being true, but looking back maybe she couldnt give me papers because of the cat flu although both the mum and dads papers where in perfect order, showing all previous and current vaccinations plus all the prize certificates and obviously pedigree status etc.

The thing is i wasnt wanting to breed from maya i was wanting her as a pet so the papers thing really didnt bother me that much.

The only thing i can think of is that maya had managed to get the flu from the one siamese that had brain damage, it was about 4 years old (boy) and it had a massive allergic reaction to the vaccination when it was a kitten, very rare but i spoke to my vet just to confirm it and it does happen, especially in more sensitive breeds such as siamese, and since its first vaccination it had never been vaccinated again, she obviously didnt want to harm the cat anymore.

So whether or not that was a carrier im not sure, could the breeder have been frightened at the idea that if she had the new kittens vaccinated that another might get brain damage and therefore she wouldnt be able to sell it? i just dont know.

Would i buy from the same breeder again, nope! A lesson learnt! It was extremely stressful when maya became ill, it was constant care from the word go, but at the same time i have got an amazing bond with her which i think was through caring for her when she was ill, shes extremely laid back for a girl especially since i had her spayed, she loves having her eyes washed, she gets a bit of a sulk on if i dont even though her eyes dont need washing. I was terrified at vaccination time as i was worried that the brain damage thing may happen to her, so the vet got me a different type of vaccination, it was split into more seperate injections over a three week period, rather than a combined injection then another 2 weeks later, a tad expensive but worth it as she was absolutely fine with it.

So maybe the closeness i have with her is a good pay off, ive never known a cat to be as affectionate as she is, so really she is worth the hard work!

Also Ive managed to find a cattery that is more than willing to put her in the isolation ward in there cattery, going to pop through unannounced to see what its like.

Sorry for rambling on when i get cracking their is no stopping me!

Thanks for answering howley - hmm very suspicious not getting papers isn't it. But if it's your first time you don't know what to expect. What a tale, but it seems to have turned out okay for you and Maya.

I wonder how the other kittens have got on - did you tell the breeder what happened? Irresponsible of her keeping kittens around an unvaccinated cat for whatever reason. But it could alternatively be that she did not observe proper hygiene with visitors (making them wash hands, remove shoes etc). She should be informed or it could happen again.

(I've had cats myself which reacted badly to vaccinations, but only to the leukaemia vacc - so I don't give that any more - not cat flu one.)

Thanks for sharing!

It may very well be that the nursing has given you a particular closeness with Maya, that can certainly happen however have you ever have Siamese before for comparision?
They are a typically a particularly human-orientated, affectionate, (and thus often vocal and demanding) breed

There are individual differences within all breeds but Siamese (and their rather glamourous semi-long-haired Balinese version) are renouned for being very "dog-like" cats: playing fetch, running and calling to their owners in greeting, following them about, demanding lots of attention and contact.

Strangely enough my partner who is a legal executive had the breeder in the other day at work, i hadnt contacted her since i got maya, as i felt a little annoyed at the fact she kept that nugget of info about cat flu quiet, i wouldve just gone off on one!
But my partner said she asked about maya told her she was fine didnt go into the flu thing, and she said that two of the other kittens that where bought had both been knocked down by a car within 2 weeks of the women getting them, bit irresponsible of the women, what a bloody shame i felt sick when i heard that.

Apparantly the breeder smelt of booze and couldnt string a sentence together so id say the women has issues!