Cat Guilt
Our older cat (14 years old) has been having digestive problems for about a month now. It took us a while to take her to the vet because she would appear to be getting better, but then get worse. She was looking fine, not sluggish or having any problems with appetite or anything, so I waited until Macneil was done with his three trips. I'm not sure how I would have taken her without his help anyway, because she's extremely hard to get into the carrier without two people, not to mention that I have this baby and I'd never make it down the stairs with baby and cat. So, he got home finally, and we took her in on Friday. I called three vet offices and scheduled an appointment with the one who had an appointment that day, which I now totally regret because the vet turned out to be a jerk, and may have even caused May Kitty to become worse.
So, the vet was the lecturing type, who was giving me a hard time for not keeping my cat's vaccinations up to date, and for not taking her for checkups with blood draws twice a year because she's an old cat. Here's the thing, though: once a person lectures me, they've blown it with me. I don't respect them again. I'm not the world's most perfect cat companion, but I don't let my cats outside because I care about them and don't want them exposed to cars and all of the hundreds of other hazards out there. And I feed them high quality food and bottled water. I adopted May when she was already grown up and nobody wanted her because she wasn't a cute little kitten anymore. My other cat was born in the wild to a stray cat. So I'm not that bad.
So the vet took May back to get a urine and blood sample, but came back out later saying that she wasn't able to get the blood drawn. May kept jumping back and the vet didn't want to strap her down because she had already been through so much already. She asked us to bring May back on Monday morning to try again once she had some time to recuperate a bit. Ok. So they brought her out and put her in the carrier, and then I saw puddles of blood trailing from my cat! The vet came out to tell me about some medicine, and I asked what was going on with the blood. The vet registered shock and dismay ("THAT shouldn't be happening!"), and rushed her back to check it out. When they brought her back out they said she'd been nicked by the needle when they were trying to draw her blood. She's got black fur, so it's pretty hard to tell where she might have been bleeding from.
But now I'm not so sure. I'm concerned that they might have hurt her while taking her urine sample. Because there was blood in the litter box later that evening and when I observed her urinating this morning, her pee was dark as if she has blood in it. I feel so terrible for her and I am SO frustrated that my attempt to help her has possibly done her more harm. And we still have no answers about why she's been having digestive problems all this time.
So, the vet was the lecturing type, who was giving me a hard time for not keeping my cat's vaccinations up to date, and for not taking her for checkups with blood draws twice a year because she's an old cat. Here's the thing, though: once a person lectures me, they've blown it with me. I don't respect them again. I'm not the world's most perfect cat companion, but I don't let my cats outside because I care about them and don't want them exposed to cars and all of the hundreds of other hazards out there. And I feed them high quality food and bottled water. I adopted May when she was already grown up and nobody wanted her because she wasn't a cute little kitten anymore. My other cat was born in the wild to a stray cat. So I'm not that bad.
So the vet took May back to get a urine and blood sample, but came back out later saying that she wasn't able to get the blood drawn. May kept jumping back and the vet didn't want to strap her down because she had already been through so much already. She asked us to bring May back on Monday morning to try again once she had some time to recuperate a bit. Ok. So they brought her out and put her in the carrier, and then I saw puddles of blood trailing from my cat! The vet came out to tell me about some medicine, and I asked what was going on with the blood. The vet registered shock and dismay ("THAT shouldn't be happening!"), and rushed her back to check it out. When they brought her back out they said she'd been nicked by the needle when they were trying to draw her blood. She's got black fur, so it's pretty hard to tell where she might have been bleeding from.
But now I'm not so sure. I'm concerned that they might have hurt her while taking her urine sample. Because there was blood in the litter box later that evening and when I observed her urinating this morning, her pee was dark as if she has blood in it. I feel so terrible for her and I am SO frustrated that my attempt to help her has possibly done her more harm. And we still have no answers about why she's been having digestive problems all this time.