Great essay, Dave.

Would there were someone like you out here in this wilderness. But neither is there no Dave around, there’s no sliding scale spay-neuter clinic within a hundred miles. Since there’s nothing but forest, ocean and farmland down here, the farms (horse, dairy and cattle ranches) have multitudes of barn cats the ‘owners’ usually doctor themselves, as the vets are surprisingly willing to sell them vaccines, etc. Their cabinets look like miniature pharmacies with shelves of clippers, bandages, flea medicines, hypodermic syringes, multiple antiseptics and pain relievers, ear-mite and worming remedies, etc. These farmers have learned to doctor their cats and dogs themselves. They couldn’t afford vets with any great frequency, as the smallest menagerie I can think of, offhand, includes six dogs and @ fourteen cats. Are all these animals well fed? Of course not. They survive on kibbles, and what rodents and birds they can hunt in the warmer seasons of the year.

As for veterinarians in general, though, I have to agree with Marc’s dusky views on the industry. I’m thinking, in particular, of a four-pound Chihuahua my mother had. He’d been suffering from a weeks-long attack, origin unknown, of diarrhea, and the visits to the vet were costing my mother immense fees for an array of non-remedies.Poor little Abe’s bottom was so inflamed and eroded, he yelped in pain. Finally, the vet told my mother to give the dog eyedroppers of black coffee. Which hardly sounded promising. Well, she finally telephoned the breeder, an elderly woman who lived in this ‘remodeled’ chicken house and raised these gorgeous blue-ribbon dogs.And she said to give Abe a quarter tablet of — I forget – (this was years ago) but think it was a pill called (will spell this phonetically)’Teh-NAB-you-lin.’ So that’s what Mom did, and pill dried up the poor little dog in two hours! He was overjoyed! Was the vet overjoyed too? No. He was massively offended, and never forgave my mother.

From dogs back to cats, here is my opinion, for whatever it’s worth. Have you a cat who’s getting on in years? If you have, stroke him lightly on the back, and if you feel a faint spinal protrusion, it’s the beginning of the end. It’s the approach of what the English writer, Llewellyn Powys, called ‘Whoreson Death.’ When you feel that barely palpable protrusion, your fur-child is crossing the threshold that opens onto the downward path. Meaning, the time has come for you to withdraw a few thousand dollars out of your bank and ignite them with a match. From which you can tell I have no faith in vets in treating an older animal – though of course they try their best

The final ten months of my boy’s life cost slightly under $4,000, and there wasn’t a thing that would have saved him. My cousin, an oncologist who died young of cancer,said his professors drummed into him and his fellow students the folly of imagining they could save many lives when a patient was drifting into middle age. A veterinarian can mend broken bones, clean or pull teeth, do a few things for a young cat. But when a cat has lived for years, the steroids and antibiotic injections, the pills and drops are useless. Which won’t stop the vet from gutting your savings. They have no qualms in telling you they don’t know what’s wrong — that your cat’s full-panel lab tests showed he was in near-perfect health. They performed these tests on both of my cats, and the findings couldn’t have been more impressive. Only thing was, both dying. Which doesn’t matter to the parent, who’ll throw away his last dime in trying to save them. When things have reached that pass, of course, doctoring cats at home is out of the question. But neither will electrolyte fluid, pills, injections, more blood tests and urinalyses, x-rays, appetite stimulant pills, hundreds of cans of gourmet cat food, minced meats and livers and seafood and everything else you can conceive of will save their lives. You’ve torched your money. Nevertheless, instead of quitting, you’ll shop around. Which sounds crass, but price-comparing will help to some degree, and won’t hurt your cats. Whatever the fees are in other areas, the vets down here were equally competent, far as I could tell – the only difference being one charged $153.00 to PTS one beloved cat – and the other, half a mile down the road, $48.00. Those differences in price pertained to nearly everything else they could offer you in your losing battle to save your dying boy and girl. (Incidentally, I didn’t force them to keep going – they enjoyed a fair state of health until the near end.)

As for doctoring your kids at home, though, I admire you for your success in treating those cats over the years. As for home treatment, by the way — OMG — my kids were housecats except when they were out on their sun-porch. And yet, last summer, they were attacked by ear mites. Two visits to the least expensive clinic down here cost $50.00 the first time and $35.00 the second, and the medicine didn’t work. After their ‘treatments,’ the poor cats were still suffering. Since my boy was fragile I was afraid to squirt the miticide (sp) into his ears a week later — nor was it effective when the vet did it the first time around. So I used an eyedropper, every five days, of organic olive oil, which smothered the mites.

Be that as it may, you’re way ahead when you can provide some medical care to your companion animals.I wish I’d had one-tenth of your skills – and that goes for Dee – but I had next to none. Anyhow, thank you for an informative essay.

I read something very interesting the other day on an English expat forum in Switzerland. Firstly – Switzerland is expensive, has a currency which is too strong for it’s own good and minimum wage will bring around 20 or 25 dollars per hour.

So you would expect the vets, like a lot of other things here, to be expensive. They are expensive in terms of their time. Time is worth more here. However a person from the USA left a comment on the board saying she found for all the basic things like flea treatments, vaccinations, things with short times and finite costs – were MUCH cheaper that in the USA where minimum wage is what? like 12 dollars per hour?

So I conclude that not only do the vets in America declaw, but I would suggest alot of them are ripping people off while they are at it.

For example. Getting Red his operation and all his first vaccinations came to just under 200 dollars and that included worm ad flea treatments, some 2 or 3 vaccinations and a day at the vets. And this is in a rich area where you would expect the price to be at it’s most high.

When I was in Canada I couldn’t go to the vet without paying 100 bucks just to walk through the door. And then they call you for the next 5 years telling you to vaccinate again and again. It seems a little pushy and expensive. I get the feeling that in Canada (USA too?) that the vets kind of protect their knowledge more. They just do things without giving you too much detail unless you really push for it. You are supposed to trust them and not ask too many questions – was the feeling I got.

Here when I took Gigi and Molly – they said I would’t need to bother with certain vaccinations because the mother cat is known not to have leukaemia so the babies won’t have it unless they have been in contact with it. They just told me I didn’t need to bother if I was sure of where they had been.

Whereas in Canada I just know they would have said it was 100% compulsory and they would have made me feel a certain way if I decided against it. I realize there is alot to learn becoming a vet but I don’t call them magicians and don’t wish it to be pushed into things simply because vet said so.

As it happens I went to a total of about 6 vets in Toronto and the only one who I felt confident I wasn’t being ripped off with was a friend of my girlfriend at the time. I paid hundreds in tests – which on hindsight were a total waste of time. You can always say the test is ‘needed’ to be 100% sure but really it’s just them judging if you have enough money in your pockets to be taken for a ride. Also, and to be fair, it’s hard to have goodwill from the get go with these vets who promote declawing. It’s inhumane. They are inhumane. They should not be vets. Where do you take your cat if you are surrounded by inhumane vets and vet techs who also seems to have a penchant for charging obscene amounts for unnecessary things (declawing is unnecessary too). You are stuck. You have no confidence. That’s what happens because fundementally there is a lack of trust.

Having said that I have read about some very nice and helpful vets in North America. It just seems they are few and far between. The declaw thig really does change the whole game.