We purchased a Bengal Kitten from this business, a local cattery that has been in business about one year. We agreed to make the purchase when kitten was two weeks old, with an agreement to complete the purchase when the kitten was 8 weeks old. When it came time to pick up the kitten, we were surprised at how small it was. We learned from veterinary records provided by Stillwater Premier Bengals and from our visits to our veterinarian, that the kitten had not gained any weight in the two weeks between 6 weeks of age and 8 weeks of age when we took possession. Also, the kitten appeared to be malnourished to the point that its whiskers had not started growing.
Two days later, the kitten developed diarrhea, and the diarrhea became much worse over the next few days to the point that we took a very runny stool sample to our veterinarian. Analysis of the stool sample confirmed that the kitten had coccidiosis which is an intestinal parasite that needs treatment. The kitten was also severely dehydrated from the diarrhea. Our veterinarian said that the coccidiosis came from the cattery. We informed Stillwater Premier Bengal Cats of this, and their response was that this was not a problem, and they refused to compensate us for our veterinary bills. We have since spent several hundred dollars dealing with this issue. We have successfully treated the coccidiosis, yet, even two months later, we are still treating the diarrhea with a special prescription diet because of damage to the kitten's intestinal tract.
We learned by asking for additional veterinary records, that the cattery had treated the kitten with Albon which is an antibiotic used to treat Coccidia for 9 days, ending just before we took possession. The cattery did not run any stool samples to verify if the parasite had been eliminated, and they did not inform us of this. In other words, the cattery knew that they were delivering a sick kitten to us. read more
