Gulf Coast Exotic Felines, Heather Goerdt review: Very sick cat 3

I am not a breeder but would like to be and Sable was going to be our foundation queen and we poured pretty much all the money we had into her. To me, there was something very special about Sable and her pictures. She was in my heart, a family member long before she ever left heather’s house. I signed the contract for Sable on 11/30/10 but it took me 5 months to pay her off and she stayed with Heather during that time. On Saturday, April 9th, she was flown into Dulles Airport and I went with my 13 year old son (who was VERY excited to get Sable) to pick her up. When we arrived at Cargo to get her and she was put on the counter, the first thing that hit us was the smell. She had NOT messed her carrier at that point but the smell coming off of the carrier and from Sable was almost overwhelming. I can’t quite describe the smell, almost sickly sweet old feces and urine smell. The carrier was old and dirty and the gate was rusted. The smell was bad enough that it made you turn away if you got a good smell of it. When I looked in the carrier, Sable was in the back of the carrier that had a bunched up polyester shirt with buttons which gave her absolutely no padding. She was having an EXTREMELY difficult time breathing and was doing heavy abdominal breathing and gasping for air. My son and I took her immediately from the airport to my vet. She never came home that day. When we arrived they rushed her in back and began working on her giving her oxygen to help her breath.

Sable was seriously infested with fleas and tapeworms. Sable was dehydrated. She had pneumonia and a secondary infection. She was running a fever and had low blood pressure. She was anemic with white gums, lethargic, and worst of all she weighed less than 5 pounds and she is an F3C. I could feel most all of her bones. I could feel the top and both sides of her spine, her hip and butt bones. Sable’s white blood cell count was 30000. Her legs had signs of wear on the hair/skin and she looked as though she had been caged and probably outside. She smelled awful. The vet told me as well that she had some tartar on her teeth which the vet thought was inconsistent with a susposedly 11 month old cat. Additionally, the vet has found that Sable has a heart murmur and narrow pulmonary arteries. Sable would not eat because she had so much congestion in her nose. They had to sedate her to clean out her nostrils and try to clear out the mucus enough so Sable could breathe, even if it was only poorly. They had to clean out her nostrils daily because they would fill right back up. The staff at the hospital syringe fed Sable.

The vet asked me if I wanted to send the cat back. I told her under no circumstances would I send Sable back to Heather. I knew that Sable would die if I did. I wasn’t sure she would live anyway because she was in such a serious condition. Sable spent a total of 5 days in the hospital with 24 hour care. There was no improvement for 4 ½ days. We visited her while she was in the hospital and tried to give her some comfort. I just wanted Sable to feel like someone at some point in her life actually cared about her because we did. That to someone, she was more than a dollar bill. She deserved to be healthy. Anyone who has ever had problems breathing, just imagine, suffering for multiple days on end unable to breath. All of this could have been avoided if Heather had simply taken Sable to the vet when the symptoms first appeared.

I would call the hospital about every 4 to 6 hours every day to make sure Sable was okay and every day I would hear, “no improvement” outside of their comments about the treatments they were trying. I can’t begin to describe to you what it feels like to be told 3 or 4 times a day that this little kitty who was so badly mistreated wasn’t getting any better despite the best of treatment and the best vets. Finally, she had to come home because the bill was up to $1900 and I could not afford anymore (I am completely wiped out) but there really was nothing further that could be done. So I decided that I would bring Sable home, syringe feed her, keep her on meds (which didn’t seem to be working), try in the midst of this to hold on to my job, and give Sable the best life I could in the time she had left whether it be 2 weeks, 2 months, or 12 years. The morning I was coming to pick her up, she did a complete turn around, like a light switch, and the congestion and pneumonia was finally getting under control and Sable was improving. That was the best word to hear, Improving. The vet believes the infection was very hard to get under control because it was most likely a long term infection that went untreated and ignored. Sable will need to be on antibiotics for an extended course. She will be on them 6 weeks.

Sable is now home and we are working to continue her improvement and get her to eat. She is not eating on her own yet and I am syringe feeding her but it is SO nice to hear a purr instead of a gasp! And she is the absolute sweetest cat. The vet was adamant that had I not gotten there directly from the airport Sable would not have lived without vet intervention and I agree. She is probably the sickest cat I have ever seen. I spent the first few days with Sable as much as I could and two days later I filed a paypal dispute outlining the condition Sable was in. This was for the last payment I made to heather. This was the only payment that was eligible for a dispute. Heather refused to allow the chargeback and stated in her response that I did not notify her within 3 days (when in fact paypal did on the second day) and that her vet cleared the cat so it isn’t her problem. Lovely woman.

She has never once EVER asked about Sable or her prognosis. Not once. Never an apology. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. She is a terrible person. And I have no doubt that she has done this to others and I have no doubt that the other cats she currently has are probably in comparable condition. That absolutely breaks my heart.

For me, my breeding program may be over before it ever started thanks to the likes of Heather Goerdt. I personally don’t understand how she can be so cold and callus and not care one bit about a cat she had for 11 months that she isn’t the least bit concerned about whether or not she is dead or alive from what SHE did to the cat. This is her fault and she is responsible for Sable’s condition and she should be ashamed.

To see more information, documentation, and listen to an audio of Sable struggling to breathe, go to sableanderson.blogspot.com

DO NOT BUY FROM THIS BREEDER, SHE IS BAD NEWS!

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