I am the owner of a sick cat that was sent to us by Lilnudists cattery / April Arguin / Kristin Herstine. When the cat was sent to me, she was small, however she was a baby and was told she came with a clean bill of health from their vet. When she arrived, she would not eat the Raw food that April told me she was being fed the whole time, this cat would not touch it and would only eat canned food. She would eat 2 large cans of food a day. As time progressed, the cat started becoming lethergic and losing weight very quickly (we had her just over a month). I notified April as soon as I noticed something was wrong and took her to the veterinary hospital here in Virginia Beach, VA. The Vet at the ER who also used to own a Sphynx, came in and evaluated her. After looking at her, she removed a vial of yellow fluid from Mira's abdomen. The Vet said that this was THE telling sign that the cat had what is known as WET FIP, which is almost always fatal in cats and comes from households/catteries with more than 5 cats and is a mutation of the corona virus that many cats carry (I do not have any other pets). The vet wanted to send out the test. I immediately called April and informed her of the situation. April demanded that I do not send out the test, because the vet didn't know anything and wanted to speak to the vet directly. April told the vet that her cattery had an outbreak of Garadia not long ago and wanted the vet to giver her medicine for worms, and antibiotics. The vet did not think this was the case, however after April argued with the vet, the vet gave her what she wanted. The vet was only going to give the cat prednisone to make her more comfortable. April then demanded that I return the cat to them to be nursed back to health. I took time off work the next day to drive the cat to their breeder in Northern Virginia. After driving 5 hours to meet up with theother breeder Jayme DesDunes, the cat was rudely SNATCHED out of my hands as we were saying goodbye to her and Jayme sped off quickly.
I returned home later that night, and received a text message at 4:00 am saying the cat had died, only hours after she was given the medicine by them that the vet didn't want her to take. I was told that she would then be sent out for Necropsy by their vet (which Kristin works for). A few days later the necropsy came back, saying that nothing was found. I only received a cut off screen shot (page 3 of 3) as proof, I also wanted a second opinion but they said that the corpse was no longer available. April then started texting me accusing me of neglecting her and that the reason she died was my fault. My cat was spoiled rotten and treated like a queen. When I received this text, I immediately when back to the Vet Hospital to speak with the doctor again. The doctor read the text and said that she sticks by her diagnosis of FIP and was appalled that these accusations were being made. The doctor told me that if they believed the cat was neglected that she would not have been returned to me. April then went on to say that the contract was void and that I would not be getting a replacement cat, or my money back and that lilnudists would no longer do business with me.
I did not receive any paperwork on the cat until 2 weeks after we got her. None of the health guarantee information was included, when I did contact April about the health insurance, she sent me a code that was expired with no explanation as to why.
A few weeks later, I received a facebook message from another member who also had the same issue happen with her cat that she received from April. It turns out that one of her cats was my kitten's sister. She ended up ok, but the other cat that she received from them started getting the same symptoms that my cat did and the cat ended up dying the exact same way. April then saying that the cat was neglected. This is a horrible scam this breeder is running, the customer service is poor and they are stealing peoples money by selling sick cats and refusing to honor their contracts. Do not believe anything that was written in April's posts.
What I have written is factual, and I stand by it. STAY AWAY if you value the life of your pets. I hope that nobody else has to experience the heartache that we have gone through.
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