Thursday, October 11, 2007 , late at night

The guilty mother

If I was to look at today from a “glass half full” perspective, I could tell you that Carlo was neutered, Dobby got the last of her vaccines plus a microchip, and TJ got treatment for a sinus infection.  All those things were done at the new, less expensive vet clinic we’ve begun to visit, and the total bill was a little bit under $265.

Now, if I was to give you my “glass half empty” report, I’d have to tell you that the new vet we saw spoke mumbled, slangy English and pronounced words like ‘escape’ as ‘ekscape’.  That’s such a pet peeve of mine.  The vet didn’t seem to really like cats, or was afraid of them, because instead of just pulling TJ out of his crate, the vet flipped the crate on its end so TJ just came unceremoniously tumbling out onto the table.  The vet seemed annoyed that TJ scratched her (he didn’t scratch in a rough way, he just happened to have long nails).  What kind of vet gets upset about a scratch?

As for Dobby, well, the vet didn’t seem to want to touch Dobby.  To carry Dobby to the back room, the vet scruffed her by the neck and held her up with one hand, using no body support.  I understand a one-handed-scruff in an emergency, but Dobby is getting pretty big and should have been held more securely.  When the vet put Dobby down in the back room, Dobby immediately ran away, despite the fact we’d said over and over again that Dobby was feral and difficult to catch.  Dobby apparently tore up the chief veterinarian’s office, climbed his curtains, stomped all over his computer, hung up on some phone calls, and had to be caught by someone tossing a sheet over her.  Then she was give her vax, and then she was returned to the exam room, even though she hadn’t been microchipped yet.  They were so unorganized.  I tried to help hold Dobby for the microchipping but a tech came in and covered Dobby with a blanket instead, and my overall feeling was that they were just far too rough.  Dobby was scared, not aggressive, and she made no attempts to bite anyone.  The fear the staff exhibited over Dobby showed a real lack of experience with cats.

Finally, the day ended with bringing Carlo home.  I’d taken a quick look at his former-testicles when we first picked him up, and I was surprised his scrotum area looked so inflamed and red.  It was shaved and looked really sore, especially compared to what I saw when TJ was neutered earlier this year.  When TJ was fixed, he wasn’t shaved, and on his scrotum you could barely see two tiny incisions, maybe an eighth of an inch in length, at most.  In comparison, Carlo looked liked he’d been neutered by someone who wasn’t sure where to find the testicles.  After being assured he was fine and ready to go home, we brought Carlo into the house, put his crate down, and he stepped out and immediately started to lick his rear end.  Not good—our other neutered males never bothered their incisions.  I went to get his pain meds to give him a dose, but in a matter of seconds he was dripping bright red streams of blood onto the kitchen floor.  I tried to staunch the bleeding with some towels and he growled at me—in fact, the sweetest cat in the world tried to bite me, so I popped him back into a crate, and off he went back to the vet, where he has to stay overnight.  When we came home, I used a lot of paper towels to wipe up all the blood off the floor, and I wanted to bang my head against the same floor for thinking that I could get excellent service at a bargain price.  TJ, Dobby, and Carlo all suffered because I needed to save money.

Flippy and I calculated that if we’d had today’s vet visit at our usual vet, the bill would have been around $450 or more.  We know our regular vet would have been sweet and gentle with every cat, and we know that Carlo would not have had a problem with his neuter, because it would have been done with more care and finesse.  Sadly, we don’t always have that extra $200 on hand, and that’s why we wanted to find another vet with charges which were “more reasonable”.  I don’t understand why “more reasonable fees” has to also mean “inferior care”, because I can’t imagine a vet not wanting to do the best job possible.  I’ve got the chance to do some work for this new vet’s office and to get some free services in exchange, but now I don’t know if I even want them.  Carlo’s neuter was easy, and it was messed up… I don’t want them cutting Bunny open for a spay, because who knows what could go wrong?  If I take Bunny to our original vet for her spay it will cost about $150 more than at this new place… it’s very difficult to juggle money when you want to give your loved ones the best, but can’t always afford the best.

I’m sure Carlo will be fine, and I’ll post an update tomorrow when we bring him home.  However, seeing the dark reality of the vet’s office means a dark reality for us, too—we’re going to have to cut down on the number of cats we care for because I’m not happy with the cut-rate vet services. 

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 10/11 at 11:13 PM
The Litterbox • (8) Comments • Permalink
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