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I adopted a Siberian cat from Olga, owner of Usta Siberians in NJ. I read through all the info online about this breeder and ensured she was accredited.
Unfortunately I learned several months ago that the kitten she sold me has FIP, an incurable and fatal disease. I contacted Olga who told me it was the vet's fault and suggested I gave her a rabies shot too young.
I'm not here to talk about FIP -- it's highly prevalent in catteries. Nor am I here to get into the vaccinate / anti-vaccinate battles.
Bottom line I bought my little baby for $1000. Then spent over $5000 finding out why she was sick and now I face watching my baby die before she reaches her 2 year birthday.
I am not here to slam Olga and am glad others had good experiences but if I had known there was a history of FIP in her cattery, I wouldn't have taken the chance. She's offered me another cat but I can't emotionally even consider that.
Dear all: I have received many emails from people who have either lost kittens from Usta Siberians (specifically from FIP) or who have healthy cats that they worry will become ill. I have set up a FB support group for information sharing.
Web: https://www.facebook.com/groups/UstaSiberianCatDeathSupport/
Email: UstaSiberianCatDeathSupport@groups.facebook.com (Emails sent to this address will appear as posts in the group)
Two days ago (12/22/16), yet ANOTHER Usta kitten died from FIP. Please reach out to me at boobear.us@gmail.com and join the FB group "Owners of Usta Siberians". This situation is NOT getting any better and Olga is not making any efforts to change her behavior and stop breeding and selling sick kittens.
Just stumbled across this thread. I am so sorry to hear that Usta has been driven out of business. We got a kitten from them 7 years ago and aside from being spayed and first year checkup, we never took her to the vet again. She is never exposed to other animals, or the outside, and is super healthy.
The ones who lost cats, there was definitely no exposure to the outside or other animals (E.g. dogs going for walks bringing back stray cat feces particles on feet)?
I am so sorry hear of these tragedies. I purchased an adorable happy healthy Siberian girl in 2015 from this cattery. My older Siberian boy from a differrent cattery was diagnosed with a stomach tumor and will not last the year. So, I was looking to find another one like the one from Usta. I will keep looking, and be certain to investigate the cattery thoroughly.
Wow, I'm so sorry to read all of this. My sweet boy kitten died from FIP in September 2010, he was just a few months old. Olga and Julian were very nice to us and helped us through this extremely difficult time. They gave us a replacement kitten for free when we were ready and he has been such a joy.. We've had him for more than 10 years now and he is one of the sweetest cats ever. I'm truly sorry for everyone who had to go through this horrible experience. Much love to all of you.
I just sent an email to the address Julian listed above - it bounced back. Does anyone have a new one?
We just lost our 22 month old male Siberian on August 6th. Sam was a lovely boy. We are heart broken. And feel extremely stupid for not doing due diligence before getting Sam from USTA on November 19, 2016. Olga had so many questions for me, but I did not do the research I did for our Bernese Mountain Dog breeder. Had I, I would have seen that there was already a list of cats that had died of FIP and other serious diseases before their 2nd birthday. Both Olga and Julian are post graduate educated biologists, they must have known as biologists that the disease was carried by the parents. Yet continued to breed.
Sam went through an exploratory surgery as the final step. As you know, FIP is a diagnosis of elimination. Especially dry FIP. He was so ill with many lesions that were impacting his entire gut, most seriously, and inoperable, his bile duct. It was FIP or lymphoma. Either way, there was no future. He was terminal…and just under 2 months before his 2nd birthday, One important point was made clear to us at every step of this horrible experience. A cat that gets this sick so young has a very compromised immune system. This comes from poor breeding. Choices they made created this situation.
I’m sorry for your loss, and I know this is going to come off as cold, but I was reading the Cornell vet school page in FIP and it said that actually most cases of FIP befall cats under age 2, so it’s not the exception but the common case.
I bought my kitten from her 2 years ago (April 2016) and we also paid 1, 200, and spent another $500 dollars finding out what was wrong with our kitten. 2 months after we got him, he was diagnosed with FIP and died in my 10year olds arms. Ogla claimed it wasn't her fault, but obviously having this many FIP kittens from the same breeder, it is clear that it is coming with the kittens, because we hadn't even taken our kitten to the vet yet. The only thing they offered me was a discount on another kitten from them, which I declined. Who wants another sick kitten from a breeder that you know has FIP? No refund was offered. I wish I had seen all of this prior, so I could have demanded my money back. It is disgusting is see that they were just breeding sick dying kittens.
We lost our beautiful white kitten from Usta last night. He was 18 months old. Began getting sick about 3 months ago. When he was fatally diagnosed with FIP or Lymphoma, I emailed Usta and asked for advice. I didn't hear back from th until I emailed again a week later after discovering so many cats were dying. They offered me nothing and told me it was my fault because a cat can get FIP at a vets office. Horrible people. If anyone wants to start a class action, I'm willing. $1250 for a cat, over $4000 in vet bills and a marble urn with my buddy inside to show for it. Paul.sperco@gmail.com
Hello Paul. Why you wouldn't post here you received full refund from us? Now closed, Ustasiberians.
We got our beautiful cat from Ogla in 2015 and we are very happy. Olga was extremely kind and informative and helpful with all aspects of the adoption. I'm sorry many of you seem to have suffered due to a contagious disease that unfortunately seems to have resulted in many kitty deaths but our experience was VERY positive.
We lost our cat yesterday to this decease. I hope that Olga is not selling anymore cats. Maybe a class action suit against her will protect anymore cats from harm. That is a very messed up thing go do. It's obvious she is only in it for the money. We lost our sweet boy who was only 3. The loss if very devastating not to mention the thousands of dollars invested in him. Shame on you Olga.
We adopted the most beautiful and healthy baby boy cat from Usta Siberians 5 years ago. I am very sorry to hear of the tragic losses for those of you who lost their cats. I am concerned when some people use blogs and boards such as this to make widespread hurtful statements. I found Olga very helpful to my self and my husband and loving to all her cats and kittens. Its a shame that this blog caused the closing of her business.
@creeker1 Today, the 19th Usta kitten will die from FIP. Hopefully you can save some of your compassion for those 19 babies and their devastated families.
We closed our cattery. ALL cats been spayed/neutered and put for adoption. Everyone who lost they kitten received or at least been offered, like yourself Boo, full kitten price refund. What else you want from us?!
P.S. We wish good luck for all with healthy FIP free kittens from other breeders...
Julian.
By the way it's not fair from your side do not let me in to FB support group you created. All I wanted is to offer refund to people who did ask for it yet and answer questions if they have any for us... Just so you know Olga didn't have normal sleep for months now because of this and on medications for her nerves...
Sincerely,
Julian.
I'm am the owner of that 19th kitten. It was so sad to loses a 9 month kitten who was considered a family member to FIP. Creeker1 you say its a shame that a blog caused USTA Siberian to close down. I couldn't disagree more. I think Boobiboo is actually a hero. For being the first to write something about this Then to start a FB book for others. I am so grateful that she did this, for two reasons. First thanks to her I realize it was nothing I did. Second if Olga and Jillian are truelly shutting down than they can't cause this pain to anyone else. They write there are 5 stages of grief and I've gone through them all and reached acceptance. But trust me my anger will never leave towards Olga and Jullian. Its now obvious that they had a statically much higher number of cats passing from FIP that they knew about a long time ago. If they truly cared about the cats and people they should have shut down a long time ago. I can only assume greed was there motive of continuing knowing that a large number of cats they were breeding were dying from FIP. The only shame is that Olga and Jullian did what they did for so long. Thank You Boobiboo for all you have done.
Hello.
We have been blamed in not helping people. Many also accuse us been greedy and care only about money. Anyone who reached to us directly, provide documental proof of cat death from FIP received compensation of full price of the kitten. So if you didn’t do so yet, provide me with documental proof of death from FIP and I will send you full refund of kitten price. If you provide documental proof of your cat getting sick because of us, you will receive refund of vet bills related to FIP as well. This document should not contain words “probably” “most likely” “in my opinion” etc. Please send all of the above to my e-mail address j_ostrovsky@yahoo.com. I check it every day as opposed to e-mail we used for our cattery which I only check weekly since we completely and permanently closed our cattery.
Sincerely, Julian.
Ok Boo, so you writhe in your posts you not trying to hurt Olga, hmmm this is exactly opposite. You take your time and post on many different websites how bad she is and how she is not responsible breeder. OK let's see we have only few cats in our home roaming freely. Queens get separated room before she get kittens and kittens stay in this room until adoption. all litter boxes are cleaned twice a day. Our queens have one-two litters per year. You saying our Kesha over breed? How male cat can be over breed exactly? You say we lie to people we have FIP in cattery? It's true, none of our cats had it except one queen kitten we purchased for breeding 7 years ago and she died couple months after we brought her home. We never had kitten sick with FIP IN OUR HOME, our clients had kittens get sick from it months and even years later. I can't give any proof it was not originated from our home except to say we never give sick kitten to our clients. Do you have proof, I mean real proof all this problems are caused by us? We do ask and even demand in our contract to check they kitten with they vet first two week after adoption. Our contract do not mention FIP, but it is infectious disease, not genetic, so how we supposed to cover it? We did suggest you to get free kitten, you didn't want too. We did suggest you a full refund, you didn't even answer! You suggest to go to breeders openly talking about having FIP in they cattery. How many catteries you know do such thing with full proof they cats/ kittens never will have FIP in they life? You saying your kitten was sick to begin with? Why you didn't tell us or return her to us for full refund? If she was sick how she was living for 14 months in your house, if FIP kills cat maximum in two? 95% of cats gets exposed to Corona virus. 5% of cats exposed to Corona virus develop FIP from many reasons. According to my statistics about 1% of cats coming out of our home get sick with FIP sometime in they life. So how more careful we should be? I understand you get hurt by loosing your pet family member and believe me we are sorry too, but despite your claims you don't want to hurt Olga, this is exactly what you do. We did retired Kesha and all the queens involved and we inform you about this. I am also "happy" to inform you after all your efforts we decide to close our cattery completely. We do have highest education you know in Biology and can make a good living without the cattery. It was just a big Joy for us to have such a hobby and to make many people happy with our kittens. We dealt with our clients in good and bad the best way we could, but I guess this time "The rotten apple spoils the barrel" I am always ready to answer any question if any one in this forum have or will have. Sincerely, Julian.
Sorry that this happened to you. FIP is a horrible disease. Although I must say I disagree with your assessment of the owner of Usta Siberians, Olga, as "nice". Unless of course your definition of nice is someone who lies and puts their greed above human and animal suffering. Then, yes, she's downright awesome!
Did you saw our cats or kittens suffering?! Julian, Olga's husband.
I also lost my baby whom I got from Olga, to FIP. She said there wasn't any in her litter, rather the kitten probably contracted it from the airplane traveling. I would not recommend Olga's cattery, even though she was a very nice lady.
Same thing happened to us. Our cat died of FIP and she was only 2 years old. We were devastated. I contacted Olga and she was VERY defensive. I only contacted her to warn her about what happened. Instead she made me feel as if it were somehow my fault and I should be happy that I had 2 whole years with my cat! Really? Two whole years, huh? Does this sound like an animal lover to you? This is not someone I would recommend, as a matter of fact, I would stay far away from any breeders. This kind of thing seems far to common.
I am sorry for your loss, but was you cat been sick for 2 years? You know FIP is infectious disease, so how you can blame Olga, if you don't even know it was her fault at all? Do you know if cat get sick with FIP, it has maximum 2 months of living? Do you know FIP is mutation of Corona virus which happens in cat body from numerous reasons and %95 of all cats get exposed to Corona virus. Do you know even in the human children hospitals every year over 120, 000 kids were given second infections. You can read about this here:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/9282313/One-in-12-children-in-hospital-catch-infections.html
Not like vets ever admit or advertise this fact, or can do something about it with so many cats come and go, but unfortunately, it is one of reasons why this flu is so highly spread. I am not trying to blame vets, I just saying it's possible, but from some reason vets always point all problems on breeders. So maybe before getting upset, calling names and blaming somebody, it would be good to check ALL the information. Besides if you don't get cat from breeder, as you suggest, there you going to get one? Shelter? we all know how healthy kittens are from shelter... I do appreciate all the great work is done in shelters by the way, but how you will get hypoallergenic cat from them I wonder? I am "happy " to inform everybody we are closing our cattery for good. Julian, Olga's husband
You made the right choice.
Hi...I just lost my baby boy that I got from her...she told me the same when i told her about the fip. We arr devistated and brokenhearted. please email me shyla430@yahoo.com