When an Animal Is Adopted

When an animal leaves Dumbrava, we try to tell their future family everything we know about them. If they have been ill, received treatment, had tests done, if we have noticed anything unusual or if there is something that needs to be monitored in the future.

But we can only tell them what we know.

An animal can be perfectly fine while they are with us. They can eat, play, run, gain weight and give us absolutely no reason to think that something might be wrong. That means that, from everything we can see at that moment, the animal is well. It does not mean that we can guarantee they will still be healthy in a month, six months or five years.

Lately, we have been confronted with this especially with cats. We have had several kittens who left us without any symptoms and, after spending months with their adoptive families, became ill with FIP or were suspected of having FIP. So far, we have never had a cat develop FIP while at Dumbrava, and for approximately four years we did not encounter cases like these after adoption either. Over the past year, however, there have been several, and obviously that made us stop and think.

FCoV, feline coronavirus, is very common among cats, particularly in environments where many cats live together. Most cats infected with FCoV will never develop FIP. In a much smaller number of cases, changes in the virus inside the cat, together with the cat's response to the infection, can lead to FIP.

With our cats, we cannot even say when they came into contact with FCoV. Some were found on the street, others arrived together with their mothers or siblings. They could have encountered the virus before coming to Dumbrava, while they were here or after they left. The fact that a cat develops FIP several months after adoption does not automatically tell us when or where the original FCoV infection happened.

There is another thing we don't want to ignore: stress. Stress is considered one of the factors that may contribute to the development of FIP in cats infected with FCoV, and adoption, a change of environment and other major events can all be sources of stress.

And an international adoption is a big change. Our cats can spend around 24 hours travelling, followed by a completely new home, new people and sometimes other animals. We don't know whether the journey or change of environment played any role in the cases we have seen. We have no way of saying that, and we don't want to turn a possibility into an explanation simply because we would like to have one. But we do know that travel and a change of environment can be stressful for a cat, and stress is something we have to take into consideration.

For this reason, at least for now, we have stopped international adoptions for cats from Dumbrava. Not because we know that transport caused these cases of FIP. We don't. We made this decision because there have been enough cases that continuing exactly as before does not feel responsible until we understand whether there is something we can do differently.

But FIP is only the example that made us write about this now.

The same principle applies to every animal and every disease.

We don't run every possible medical investigation on a healthy animal before adoption, and there is no set of tests that could tell us every illness an animal might develop in the future. We do the examinations and tests that are appropriate for each animal and investigate when there are symptoms or a reason to suspect a problem.

And when we know that something is wrong, the situation is completely different.

Mădă is a very good example. We know that she has neurological symptoms. We have already done investigations, we are continuing to look for the cause, and we still don't know what this will mean for her in the long term. If the perfect family for Mădă appeared tomorrow, we would not present her as a healthy puppy or hide the fact that we still don't have a diagnosis. She could only leave with a family who knows about her symptoms, understands that the investigations need to continue and is willing to take responsibility for that.

That is what we can do, and what we consider our responsibility: not to hide what we know.

What we cannot do is know about a problem when an animal gives us no reason to know it exists.

Adopting an animal from Dumbrava does not, and cannot, come with a guarantee that the animal will never become ill. Just as nobody can give that guarantee for an animal bought, adopted elsewhere or raised in the same family from a young age.

We can tell you what we know on the day they leave. We can tell you what happened while they were with us. We can share their test results, treatments and the history we have. And we can be very clear when there are unanswered questions.

And if problems appear after adoption, we want to know about them. Not only because the animals who have left us remain important to us, but also because several cases can reveal a pattern that one isolated case never would. That is exactly what has happened with the cats and FIP, and exactly why we have chosen to stop and ask questions.

We can be transparent about what we know, investigate what we see and change what we do when we have reasons to believe something needs to change.

But we cannot predict the future.

Sources and further reading on FIP

European Advisory Board on Cat Diseases (ABCD), Feline Infectious Peritonitis: information about FCoV, the development of FIP, risk factors and stress:
https://www.abcdcatsvets.org/guideline-for-feline-infectious-peritonitis/

Cornell Feline Health Center, Feline Infectious Peritonitis: information about feline coronavirus infection, FIP and factors associated with the development of the disease:
https://www.vet.cornell.edu/departments-centers-and-institutes/cornell-feline-health-center/health-information/feline-health-topics/feline-infectious-peritonitis

European Advisory Board on Cat Diseases (ABCD), Guideline for Control of Infectious Diseases in Shelters: information about infectious disease, stress and managing cats in multi-cat environments:
https://www.abcdcatsvets.org/guideline-for-control-of-infectious-diseases-in-shelters/