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I bought a kitten from Dee Johnson thinking I was purchasing a healthy kitten of quality... "Show Quality." I asked numerous times about the health of the kitten and was told he was completely healthy. We paid over $900 for a kitten who keeps having reoccurring eye infections. Our vet said this is a disease that is spread from cat to cat and our kitten will be getting this infection a few times per year for the rest of his life. NO CURE. He told us that we basically got screwed. Our kitten sneezes, coughs, and can't open one of his eyes during this infection with puss coming out of it, then it switches to the other eye and happens all over again. He needs to be on antibiotics for weeks at a time for this infection to clear up. Dee told us her cats are healthy and that maybe he caught this from somewhere else, I believed her and trusted her. I gave it some more time to see if the infection happened again, and it did less than a month later and again after that. We've only had this kitten for 4 months. Dee said maybe there is something in our house he is allergic to. We are NOT first time pet owners, we have had dogs AND cats and never had a single health issue with them. Currently in our house, we have no other pets, our home is extremely clean, our kitten gets fed the best quality food, and his litter is all natural as well. What could our very expensive, high quality kitten be allergic to? If we wanted a sick kitten, we could have adopted one from a shelter and saved a life. We wanted to return the kitten back to Dee in January when she said she would be in our area again but she was unreachable. She stopped answering our calls and texts. We didn't have any other option and this poor kitten is used to us now.. We decided to keep him... She wouldn't answer our calls so we didn't have much of a choice. It seems she doesn't care what happens to him. We are just very disappointed that we have to have this experience after doing all this research and trusting Santoi. We chose to purchase a kitten from her and trust her because she has been breeding for over 50 years. She should have called and answered our calls regarding our kitten to make sure he was ok! A reputable breeder cares about her pets and customers. A good breeder answers calls and asks how everything is going and how the kitten is especially after he's been having infections. We have not heard from her in a couple of months! Just been ignored. $900 gone. Now we have to stock up on antibiotics for the next 10+ years. We are heartbroken.. seeing him suffer during his infections and being ignored by the breeder.. What a terrible experience. This is unethical and customers should not be treated this way.
And here's a picture of his eye infection that happened for the second time. Once in November 2017 and this is a picture from mid December 2017 when it happened for the second time. He still coughs, sneezes and has had infections again since then and has been on antibiotics.
Kballz11, thank you for your comment. We love him too much to give him to a shelter and he’s very used to us now. Regardless of his health, we will keep him and love him. However, the breeder seems to not care at all about him. She hasn’t contacted us in over 5 months. She also stated that none of her cats have the feline herpes. I find that hard to believe since she has disappeared on us and hasn’t checked in at all. Our vet didn’t say feline herpes, he said it’s something that will reoccur every year.. and that I paid hundreds for a “lemon.” Dee told us this kitten was a show quality kitten, beautiful, healthy, exceptional, etc.. she made me feel that I’m the lucky one to have him... She also knew everything about his eye infection and told us which medications to get and to use for how long... Apparently she’s dealt with this before. Doubt her cats are healthy. There’s another review on here I saw about her sick cats. We asked her to pick him up back in January and she just ignored our calls.
Did you vet by any chance say that your kitten has feline herpes, also known as feline viral rhinopneumonitis (FVR), rhinotracheitis virus and feline herpesvirus type 1 (FHV-1), and one of the most common causes of upper respiratory infections in cats. Many cats are exposed to this virus at some point in their lives. It's very common in shelters and catteries. Your kitten will have the virus for the rest of his life, but there are ways to prevent flareups, one of which is daily regimen of lysine. Both our Persians contracted it from the breeder and the lysine really cut down on the frequency and severity of the flareups. Good luck and thank you for keeping the kitten in a good home and not letting him go to a shelter or back to the irresponsible breeder.