Examined is one 1900-gram specimen of loss

[cjsmith]

Word to the wise: do not drink a glass of port before writing up a presentation on necropsy findings. With a little alcohol on board, it's much harder to forget that all those crisp descriptive words are wrapped around one family's heartache. "Examined is a 9 month old, 1.9kg female spayed Bengal cat..." ...someone's beloved pet, a kitten on the

Comments

[cjsmith]

Yeah, it's tough sometimes. I've learned enough about how things work inside bodies that I can think with my "medical brain" -- assessing whether this splotchy thing here is consistent with diagnosis A or diagnosis B -- but sometimes I take a step back and see the bigger picture, and it's sad.

I guess there are good things about that bigger picture too. These people loved that little girl. They're going to grieve and miss her, and then they're going to have another pet, and they'll love that one too, giving some animal a life with warmth and shelter and affection. It's a mini-view on life as a whole: if we love, sometimes there's loss, but if we are the kind of people who love, we will love again. Still, those moments of loss can be rough.

[ladycelia]

Is this a necropsy for the owners?

[cjsmith]

Yes, it was done for the owners. I am still not 100% clear on how this works at the Davis hospital, but I *think* necropsy might be provided at no charge for clients of the hospital in certain cases. This is the kind of disease for which a definitive diagnosis could not be made before death, and the presumptive diagnosis was made at least once already. Here, our clinicians agreed with the earlier opinions, and they were also able to explain that with these signs/symptoms the prognosis was grave no matter what the disease turned out to be. So this little sweetie wound up on the pathology tables, and we were able to say: brain looks like FIP, kidneys look like FIP, eye looks like FIP, liver looks like FIP, spleen looks like FIP... In a way it's comforting. Every single organ in this girl was SO SICK. She needed that graceful exit. Still, I bet there was crying. :-/

[firecat]

*reads about FIP*

Immune systems are certainly a double-edged sword.

[cjsmith]

They sure are. And this virus really sucks. Awful, awful disease -- tends to get 'em right when the family has had a year to fall in love. :-(