The vets in my area SUCK when it comes to cat care! Oh they excel if my horse gets sick, or the cow goes off her feed. They fly when the goats or the geese come down ill or even the dog. But the cat? Hardly worth their time, or so it seems!
Bartee was worse this morning. I called the vet and talked to the one in charge and she told me to "watch him for a few days and then bring him in!" I called another vet and rushed him in. They gave him a steriod shot right away and are going to anesthetize him and look down his throat later this morning, then they will take x-rays if they don't see anything. The blood was drawn at the other vets office. When bartee saw the food this morning, he again did that really low, long-drawn out meow growl. When I pushed him to accept just a little bit of food, he attacked me. He is feral yes, but he is not an aggressive feral by any means. Please pray for him, I do not know what is wrong and I am in tears now.
The smallest feline is a masterpiece.
Leonardo da Vinci
Ma~
I feel for you and I am praying for little Bartee. I hope it is not an injury. Please please let us know when you find out something. Obviously he is not eating and is growling for a reason.
MA, assuming you saw mine and Davet's last posts to you, you did the right thing by getting him seen by another vet. Pred and antibiotics should have been given yesterday, and knowing he couldn't eat was a red flag.
Parenteal nutrition can be met by a feeding tube if necessary, and IV fluids (if necessary), but hopefully, the pred will help reduce the pain and inflammation and may also encourage his appetite. Hang in there, let the new vet do whatever is necessary, he/she obviously knows what they are doing.....if a biopsy is warranted, try to comply, you need to know the source of these ulcers.
Keep us updated....so sorry about the board slowness today, it's the server, not the board....looking for a hopeful resolution soon.
I signed a bunch of release forms basically telling them to do whatever is necessary to find the cause of the pain. This morning when I picked him up to say good morning all he would do was tremble. His purr was so loud I know he is in pain. God I wish I knew more about health issues than I do. I could have pressed the vet yesterday to give him the steriod shot and put him on antibiotics, but I trusted her to tell ME what to do, and she didn't tell me much of anything except she could find no visible means of injury and he had no fever.
The smallest feline is a masterpiece.
Leonardo da Vinci
MA, it's not your fault, you entrusted your vet, you couldn't have known. The important thing is that you knew there was a problem, trusted your instincts and got Bartee to a new vet.
The problem with large animal vets, is most of them have forgotten small animal medicine, therefore some of them actually know they are not qualified, let alone keep up-to-date on new advances in small animal medicine. Also, rurual areas who utilize a large animal vet often don't view their farm cat as a valued member (as opposed to prized angus or stud!)
For what it's worth, I never recommend a large animal vet for cats or dogs, ever. Not to say they are not valuable in their field, but large animal medicine encompasses a totally different area of medicine.
Oh sweetheart, I am so VERY sorry to hear of the loss of your precious friend. Please know that you did the best and all that you could do for him. He is now at the Rainbow Bridge where he was greeted by my Racer and Scamper and all the other precious friends that have gone on. Honey, he isn't in any pain now and he is running and playing and thinking of you and waiting for the time when you and him can be together again.
Please know that you are in my heart and prayers. I know that you are hurting and suffering now and that words aren't much of a confort, but please know that we all love you and are here for you.
Love,
Becky, Sassy, Gizmo, Doofus, Goofus and Roofus
