Cat Adoption in Dubai: Five Health Checks Before You Say Yes

Most cats rehomed in Dubai were found rather than bred. Car parks, compound walls, the gap behind a villa’s air conditioning unit — that is where a large share of the cats in this city start. It makes adoption here genuinely worthwhile, and it also means the animal arriving in your flat has a history nobody can fully account for.

Cat adoption in Dubai is usually a good decision, and none of what follows is a reason not to adopt. It is a list of things worth asking about before you commit, and a realistic picture of what the first veterinary visit tends to find.

1. How old is she, really?

Ages given for rescue kittens are frequently wrong, usually in the direction of older than the truth — a kitten who looks like she is eight weeks might be five. It matters more than it sounds. Vaccination timing is calculated from real age, kittens under a certain size cannot be safely neutered, and a kitten separated from her mother too early tends to carry behaviour problems around biting and litter training.

Teeth give a far better estimate than appearance. It is the first thing we check, and it is worth asking the rescue how the stated age was arrived at.

2. What is she being fed, and is she eating it?

Ask what she has actually been eating and take a small amount of it with you. A cat who changes home and food on the same day very often stops eating, and in a young or underweight cat that becomes a medical problem within about 24 hours rather than a few days.

Also ask, plainly, whether she has been eating normally in foster. A foster who says “she is a bit picky” is often describing an early problem — dental pain, an upper respiratory infection, or stress — rather than a personality trait.

3. Ears, eyes and skin

These three are where the everyday problems of street-rescued cats show up, and all three are visible before you commit if you know to look.

Dark, crumbly debris in the ears usually means ear mites, which are close to universal in kittens picked up here and easily treated. Discharge from one or both eyes, or a nose that has been running, suggests an upper respiratory infection — extremely common in group housing, usually manageable, but worth knowing about because some cats carry it for life and flare when stressed.

Skin is the one people miss. Round patches of hair loss are worth taking seriously because ringworm is a fungus, it spreads to people, and children in the household are the ones who usually catch it. It is very treatable, but it is a weeks-long course and a household cleaning job, not a cream. Our page on ringworm treatment covers what that actually involves.

4. Has she been tested, and for what?

Ask whether she has been tested for feline leukaemia and FIV, particularly if you already have cats at home. Many rescues here do test; some do not have the budget. Neither answer should end the conversation — but it changes what you do in the first fortnight.

If she has not been tested and you have other cats, the sensible course is to keep her separate until she has been. Testing is straightforward, and our PCR testing covers the panels used for the respiratory and viral infections we see most in this region.

5. What does the vaccination card actually say?

Not whether one exists — what is written on it. Dates, intervals and which vaccine. A card listing three doses given a week apart is not a completed course, and a dose given at five weeks does not count toward anything.

This is the single most common thing we correct in the first appointment, and owners are often surprised by it. The card is not usually dishonest; it is filled in by people doing their best in busy circumstances. But it is the document that boarding, registration and any future travel will rest on, so it needs to hold together. The schedule is on our kitten’s first vet visit page.

Two things specific to a Dubai flat

Screen the balcony and the windows before she arrives. High-rise falls are one of the more common serious injuries we see in cats here, and cats frequently survive them with jaw and chest injuries that are not obvious from the outside. This is a more useful investment than almost anything else you will buy in the first week.

And check that your tenancy actually permits cats. It is a dull thing to raise in an article about adoption, but animals get returned to rescues over it, and that is worse for everyone than a fifteen-minute conversation with building management beforehand.

What about an adult cat instead of a kitten?

Kittens are rehomed quickly; adult cats sit in shelters for months. That is a shame, because in a Dubai apartment an adult is the easier option in several respects. Her temperament is already known rather than a gamble, she is usually litter-trained, and she does not need a full vaccination course from scratch or constant supervision through the first few months.

The genuine trade-off is that her medical history is longer and less visible. An adult rescue may carry untreated dental disease, kidney values that have started to shift, or a chronic respiratory infection that flares under stress. All of that shows up in one examination and a blood test — which is an argument for not delaying the first visit, rather than an argument against adopting her.

The first fortnight at home

One quiet room, one litter tray, and low expectations. A cat who hides under the bed for three days and eats at night is behaving normally. A cat who eats nothing at all for more than 24 hours is not, and that is a same-day appointment rather than a settling-in phase — cats develop liver problems from not eating far faster than dogs do, and faster still in a climate where dehydration is easy.

Book the health check in the first week regardless of how well she seems. It is AED 120, and it is where the plan for her first six months gets written. The wider picture, including registration and what the first month costs, is on our adoption guide.