By Ruth aka Kattaddorra
Further to a few articles on Vets recently we found ourselves rushing off to ours on Monday with Jozef.
He suddenly started coughing so we made an appointment for the afternoon with the vet of our choice but ended up having to dash in as an emergency instead when he got a lot worse and so saw a vet we didn’t know.
She checked his heart and chest and lungs and said all was clear, of course he wouldn’t cough for her! Well we all know how cats hide any illness!
There was nothing in his mouth or throat as far as she could see but it was possible he had a blade of grass stuck further down in which case he would have to have an anaesthetic so she could have a proper look.
She decided to give him an antibiotic/steroid injection as he wasn’t in distress then and if he was still coughing the next morning we’d have to take him in and he would have to have blood tests before any anaesthetic, although she suggested if he had them there and then she’d have the results that day and less trauma for him, so we agreed….
…Later she phoned and said all clear, everything normal and that was really good news at 11 years old.
Next morning he was still coughing, so off we went and left him for anaesthetic, throat exam and X Rays. Babz had to go to work, I was at home awaiting the vets phone call then I could phone her, the morning was endless for us both.
Eventually the receptionist phoned to say we could collect Jo at 2.30, he was awake and fine and had been a very good patient and the vet would explain what was wrong.
We went to collect him, poor little chap with his shaved leg and neck, we heard him shouting I WANT TO GO HOME even before we went in the consulting room. He nuzzled into my coat and purred and gave us both head butts, he was so happy to see us.
The vet had found nothing wrong but a bit of a red patch on his throat, a little infection.
But she was a bit of a prophet of doom saying if he wasn’t better with the antibiotics he’d need more tests, a endoscopy, maybe a bronchoscopy, which is quite dangerous for cats, she put the fear of God into us! So he’s on a course of antibiotics and thankfully he hasn’t coughed at all today.
The question is, the antibiotics are working, so did he go through all that yesterday needlessly? Could the tests have waited until we saw if he was better with more antibiotics? When I worked for vets, before all the tests they seem to immediately offer now, they would have tried a full course of antibiotics first.
Did we do right to agree to the tests so quickly? I think so as there may have been something stuck in Jo’s throat and also we now know he has nothing nasty lurking as all his tests were clear.
What would everyone else have done?
Anyway he was quite hyper yesterday but he’s calmed down today and just a bit quieter than his normal self.
The new scratch sofas arrived just right to cheer him up and Walt too, who was a bit down that his companion was away and had come back smelling strange.
Almost £300 vets fees, worth every penny to us of course as our cats health and welfare are very important to us but the cost of vets treatment now is frightening and may put people off going when they push expensive tests so quickly, which is a shame.
It’s hard loving cats as much as we do isn’t it and feeling for them, I’d rather be ill myself than one of our cats.
It depends how much you feel. I can cry when it comes to losing cats. I don’t cry at any other time.
Yes Michael it IS agony for us, I showed myself up good and proper crying when we had to leave Jo.
I said to Babz ‘And I used to take peoples pets in for ops as part of my job’ she said ‘Yes Ruth but you were always kind’
Maybe it doesn’t bother everyone as much as it does us here at PoC? We feel for cats so much!
No she didn’t seem to know what caused it, that’s why we think maybe he did have a blade of grass or something there a while before it started bothering him.
Yes we are hoping and praying when the antibiotics end he stays well, the trauma is too much to take for all of us.
Was the doctor able to explain what could have caused the red patch and infection in Jozef’s throat? Seems unusual.
You have the good fortune of having worked with vets, yet when it is your own you become as vulnerable as the rest of us. We so depend on a knowledgable vet to have the answers yet it is often a mystery to them too. I hope along with you and your fans that the round of antibiotics is all it will take.
I found a long skinny pill popper to give Bigfoot pills. Made specifically for cats. I became quite skilled at it after a while, though he still acted like I was a she-devil every time.
That’s a shame Marc 🙁 I’m sure a lot of cat lovers in your country would like to buy their scratchers from Amazon
It is exhausting going to the vet 😉 For me it is agony almost. You made a good decision. There is no right or wrong. The important thing is that Josef is feeling better. Let’s home he continues to feel good and gets back to normal.