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.
Thank you and likewise to you as well.
My response was more due to Ruth’s sweetness than to my own.
You are such a sweet person Liz 😉 Sorry if that embarrasses you.
Hi Ruth (Kattaddorra),
I feel for both you and your cat.
I’m like you: I am emotionally vulnerable to each and every cat issue. I stress quite a bit over even on the smallest of cat issues. When my cats have died, I’ve never been able to process it and it seems to get worse every time.
Sorry Jozef is having trouble but glad you got him to the vet and he is doing better.
I would likely have done what you did. It sounds like you did the right thing for vet tests because you were concerned about a partial air obstruction. You didn’t want to ignore that bit in case that was going on. You were in the heat of the moment at the time and wanted to make sure you did everything reasonable rather than taking a chance and regretting it.
You might keep an eye on that red patch on his throat. Not to stress you out but if the antibiotics don’t get rid of it, you might bring him in for a follow-up exam that focuses on that red patch.
I won’t play doctor here, but from the sound of it, that red patch was a little raw and was making him cough. To him, it probably felt like there was something caught on the side of his throat.
At least I hope that’s all that is going on. If that’s the only thing going on then the red patch should disappear by the time he finishes the antibiotics.
If you were able to actually see the patch and know where it is, you might check it once a day.
Hey, super cool scratching sofas. I like ’em.
I just got a new horizontal one recently as well. You can never have enough of them.
Best wishes to you and Jozef and Hi to Babz and Walter,
=^..^= Hairless Cat Girl =^..^=
Oh Marc I do sympathise, that’s exactly it! We have to do it for their own good but it makes us feel terrible.
I also empathize too much I am told. I can’t stand to see my cats scared and confused by where I am taking them. I feel like a terrible person for betraying their trust. I hate to see them frightened and I literally can’t sleep the night before a vet appointment.
I feel for anything a cat has to go through and it wrings me out, our own much loved cats especially of course!
Losing cats is unbearable even to think about.
I don’t know how many tears I shed over pictures and stories of declawed cats, I think if I saw one in real life I’d just go insane.