Hello fellow Bengal lovers,

I am a recently new member to the forum and a you may have seen pictures already, I'm now Mummy to a 14 week old Brown Rosetted boy named Dylan.

He's been getting on at home perfectly and is all set into his daily routines.

The breeder I got Dylan from bred their Bengals as indoor cats (due to the likelihood of them being stolen). This meant although he's had his jabs, he hadn't been vaccinated against Cat Leukaemia. I have quite a large garden with high fences so I'm trying to train him to stick around in the garden.

Long story short - when I took Dylan to the vets (he's been twice now) both vets have a negative reaction to him being a Bengal. The first vet kept explaining to me on how badly behaved they can be.
I did express that I had done plenty of research into the breed and that I have owned cats throughout my life. Needless to say Dylan was on impeccable form at the vets.

The second vet I saw was even more negative than the first. He kept telling me how nasty they are as adult cats and how 'all vets hate seeing Bengals'. Not only is this very unprofessional to say to me, but my Dylan was so well behaved it angered me a lot.

These are new vets as I moved house before getting Dylan, and the old vets I used is over 40 minutes away.

I'm just curious to see if anyone else here has had a negative reaction from a vet before?

Thanks, Jess.

If you liked your previous vet, why don't you return to him? Forty minutes is pretty short after all, how often do you take him to the vet?

_________________
~ Kyenta

I probably will do going forward.

Too be honest he is very good travelling in the car but I though a closure vet would be much less stressful for him.

I chose the close vet as my Grandma used to take her Jack Russell there and said they were good.

He needs to go back for the second part of his leukaemia jab in a week, and then in a month he's going to be losing his two little man friends (this isn't booked so I will probably get this done at my old vets). Other than those two trips, just his twice a year check ups.

I was more curious to see if this reaction was common or do I just have a trance pair of vets?

If a vet can be so ignorant towards a breed it begs the question how well versed they are on knowledge of cats in general...maybe you could educate them?

Try to remember that the Bengal breed originated from a wildcat so chances are a lot of vets may have treated early generation 'Bengals' which can of course be fine there are those that aren't and were never socialised correctly. Next time they see your cat and he behaves again .....tell them they might like to change their outdated opinion

Just curious here, why would you take your cat to the vet twice a year? The only times I take my pets to the vet are when they are sick or need vaccines.

Our vet service has a dad and son vet team. Quasar saw the dad for his 72 hour check up and the son for his third round of vaccines. Both liked him. Both said I was in for a "handful". Both were correct.

_________________
~ Kyenta

*odd pair of vets.

Apologies, my phone has the most incredibly annoying spellcheck!

This is true Lacemoat. The first vet even said he'd never had such a well behaved Kitten, ha!

I explained to both Vets that its really the rearing that makes the cat and he is one well socialised kitty.

It was more the second vet who was very edgy with Dylan.

I do agree in going back and showing them that he isn't some vicious leopard, but at the same time I don't want them to treat him differently from other cats they see.

Perhaps no one in my area has Bengals so they've had little experience :(

It's the handful that makes them so fun :)

It's just a general health check really, and for boosters for jabs and to collect my flea and worming bits.

I always took my two moggies twice a year, it was what my vet recommended at the time so I went with it (and they're free check ups).

Obviously if he's sick he'll go straight their regardless but I guess extra trips every 6 months can't hurt?

I just had to check how far you are from me but its too far really. I am in ibstock and my usual vets is in Coalville. They like all my cats but one vet especially loves bengals. They treated Max when he was very poorly and she loved him. She said that if she was in a position to have another cat it wold be a Bengal.

I also use the vets in Pets at Home at Fosse Park. They were great with my kittens last year. I had them neutered there at 12 weeks and all vaccinations. Mostly because they were happy to early neuter plus the vaccination price was so reasonable.

I drive 6 mins to my usual vets and 15 mins to the other one. I do much prefer having a much closer vets especially when Max was very poorly. The shorter journey was very welcome. You could always use your old vet for routine stuff and keep his name on file at the new vets in case of emergency....

_________________
Lollo

I've only been to two vets, but the reaction has been indifferent to favourable depending on the staff member. And mine are not well behaved at the vet! They are terrified the entire time; they aren't aggressive, they just yowl and try to worm away. I did get the impression from one of the vets that this behaviour was what he expected of bengals on a vet visit.

It's so strange, through the forums and social media I keep hearing people talk about the Bengal breed's "bad reputation", but I've actually never experienced this first-hand. Most people I talk to either don't really know what a Bengal is, or they only have a vague idea so I just explain it to them. Every vet that's seen my SBT and F1 Bengal has said how beautiful they are, or how much they loved them or wish they could have one... Only one vet has asked about their "wildness" which I explained was really just high-energy/playfulness/intelligence, which she accepted and moved on... I've yet to come across anyone who acts like Bengals are the Pit Bull of the cat world, but from reading things on the internet it seems the subject pops up quite frequently. Maybe it's just my area?

I'd bet that a lot of the misconceptions about the breed stem from people just not knowing all the facts. For example, you can tell someone that "the Bengal is a breed that originated from crossing an Asian Leopard Cat with a domestic cat", but they might take that to mean "a Bengal is a half-wild cat". Then that gets passed on and on... Until you've got a whole bunch of misguided people thinking that all Bengals are half-wild leopard hybrids and not to be trusted. When really, the term "Bengal" only refers to the fully domesticated breed of cat that's at least 4 generations out from the ALC. This is why it's so important to educate people on exactly what constitutes a "Bengal"!

And for the record - any vet who reacts so negatively to a cat based on nothing but it's breed, especially when the cat is so obviously well-behaved, is not a vet worth giving any money to, imo. How inappropriate and unprofessional that is.

My old moggie was like that. Would never bite or scratch but once at a vets his bones would turn to jelly and he'd wriggle out of every grip!

Thanks for the tips Lollo, unfortunately Coalville is quite far although I'll recommend to my friends in Ashby who have just got a kitten. What was the name?

I'm not too far from P@H but its probably the same distance as my old vets. It's a shame as I used to be in Oadby so that would of been quite close.

I'll see how the experience goes when he gets his second leukaemia vac and decide from there :).

I think your idea at having him registered at both is great, and more than likely this is what I'll do.

It's good to know this isn't common practice.

I will focus my efforts on educating these vets on the true Bengals!

I'm quite reluctant to give them my business but just looking online, they're the only vets with 24/7 emergency call out within about 30 minutes.

Lets hope they learn from Dylan how lovely Bengals are!

Cockburns on London Road in Coalville.

They are not the cheapest but i couldn't fault them when mine were ill. Diane is the vet that likes Bengals.

_________________
Lollo

Thanks, I'll pass on the message!

_________________
Lollo