I took both the boys in to the vet first thing this morning for neutering. Poor babies, they were so damn excited to be going bye bye too. They walked over to where the food and water bowl should be and looked at me accusingly and then we were off.
Jake also needs to have a dewclaw removed that was botched the first time. The vet told me it looked like all of them had been removed but this one grew back. I was kind of surprised to learn that he has not gained a pound since he was 6 months old. I honestly think the near death experience stunted his growth. He has not grown one single bit since then. But he’s still my big ole hunk of puppy love.
Buck is also going to have his teeth cleaned while he is out. He doesn’t have any major problems that I can see–just a little plaque but who doesn’t appreciate a dog with sweet breath? It’ll make the reunion a little better when I go rescue him from that bad women tonight. He absolutely adores Dr Stephanie even when she gives him shots and draws blood. I wonder if he will still love her after this.
It is also time for shots so they will get those too. All in all this will cost a couple hundred dollars so the auto body work analogy is not too far off base.
Well I picked my two puppy boys up from the vet and they have both had the wind sucked out of their sails. The vet had put bandannas in a stars and stripes pattern around their necks. They looked cute but humiliated. The bill was $296.50. Those bandanas must be expensive.
Buck seems to feel OK but he doesn’t want to eat yet. His smile is dazzling white though. But I didn’t have them clean his teeth for mere looks, it was more important to have it done to prevent gum disease. He took a few sips of water and then wanted to go to bed. He usually is not allowed in the bedroom unless we are in bed. He went in and hid between the bed and the wall thoroughly disgusted.
Jake is a bit more pitiful because his front paw is bandaged from having the dewclaw removed. He is also walking with his ass kinda tucked under too, like he is trying to hide his wounded balls or something. His normally straight sticking up tail is just hanging limply. He did eat a bite or two of food and did well with it. Poor baby.
They are now both staying real close to me and just seem awfully subdued. I’m gonna either give them a lot of extra attention or their space to be alone whatever they act like they need. Maybe a can of alpo later for a treat.
I can sympathize totally with this, hon, except that my Kobii (ScottiKitty) doesn’t get subdued, usually…she gets MADMADMADMADMAD!!! Of course, she is a chocolate point Siamese, which might explain THAT.
Of course, I am only speaking of routine sort of things like teeth cleanings, declawing (she was a kitten then and hadn’t quite grown into her full strength yet) and shots/well patient visits.
She recently had another bout with pancreatitis, however, and just like after the FIRST one, she appeared to realize that she had almost died more than once. This appeared to make her realize she almost left me…and she has been loath to let me out of her sight since she got home. Of course, I feel the same way, so…
Anyway…do I feel guilty? Depends on how healthy she is when I am trying to take her. Usually by the time I get her there I just feel…exhausted.
Nope, I don’t feel bad at all. If they have to stay for a procedure, I worry, but I don’t feel guilty. After all, the worse that ever happened to them is that someone took their balls.
My cats are complete scaredy-cats and are extremely easy to handle at the vet’s because they get very very submissive when they’re scared.
My dog is also a bit of a wuss - he loooooooves the vet, but hates being up on the table. It’s the same with the groomer. I don’t coddle him - I make him behave, and he gets a cookie when he’s done.
I feel bad when I have to take any of my gang to the vet. They hate going, and I don’t like it when they’re not happy. One cat is mellow (Bo), he’s no problem, but the other cat (Abby) hates everything about it - the car ride, the people poking her, all of it. The dogs are happy to get in the van, but when they see the vet’s office, the happiness changes to Oh NO! We try to take them to a cool walk spot after a vet trip so it doesn’t seem to be all bad.
I feel a little bad sometimes but I’ll wager the vet feels worse. The last time I brought in my 14 pound orange tabby she recommended sedating him before I came next visit.
I’ve spent the last week dealing with my cat’s operation (she was spayed), and post-surgery complications. After the initial operation, she wouldn’t speak to me for four days, and kept hiding from me. I guess she thought I’d let someone wound her, which I guess, from a cat’s perspective, I did. I felt really bad about it.
She’s back to being social today – she got her stitches out early, so she’s happy.
Last time I took my scaredy-kitty to the the vet (to have a small wound checked), and made the mistake of trying to help hold her, I ended up with two lacerated forearms and a 72-hour visit to a hospital for intravenous antibiotics courtesy of Molly attempting to push a claw clear through my hand and getting the tendon-space infected.
I do feel bad about it, but the condition I received her in, I’d feel worse NOT taking her in. I got my cat by kicking out her previous owner. He had some ideas about home veterinary techniques which, given a little research, looked a lot more like abuse. When I first took charge, she had fleas, ear mites, tapeworm, and a weird eye. Okay, the eye is still weird, but the vet is no longer worried. Everything else has been cleared up, and she knows it.
When I first kicked out the, um, previous cat-owner, Climber the cat would have nothing to do with me. Now, she waits for me to come in the door, follows me everywhere, and curls up next to me as soon as I seem to have settled into the couch.
The only pet I own is the Wonder Pony and the vet comes to him. But we have 3 barn kitties that a few other boarders and I feel responsible for. Had to take one (Newtie) last night to the eye specialist because his eye is cloudy. This cat has NEVER been off the property and we had to stick him in a carrier. He was actually very well behaved, just yowled some while in the carrier but I was shaking. He was soooo good at the vet–he let me hold him and he just looked around like “gee this is interesting.” The bad news is that he has uveitis, the lens has detached and he might lose sight in that eye. The other bad news is that the bill was $230.
Well I had planned to sleep in a bit but Buck woke me up about an hour ago whiining and frantically trying to get out the bedroom door.
I got up and let him out and he went to the kitchen and drank about half a bowl of water–actually on old roaster pan. He still doesn’t want to eat but he did allow me to feed him a piece of cheese stuffed crust pizza last night.
I took the bandage off Jake’s front paw and he actually seems better with it off. He licked it a few times and is leaving it alone now. He worried about it all last night.
Both the fellas scrotums are kinda red and swollen but they are not bothering them much. Not real keen on letting me peek at them tho. I don’t know if an aspirin would help them feel better but I don’t think it could hurt, esp if it will help get them up and moving a bit.
I feel sorry for my cats: they obviously hate it when I put them in their carriers and put them in the car. They usually howl all the way. I think it’s not just the physical confinement; since the only place I’ve ever taken them to is the vet, they know that nothing good is going to come of the trip.
Once in awhile, I’ve had to take both of them in at the same time, and we get a lovely kitty duet going on in the back seat–Lucia’s high-pitched, strident meows, and Austen’s more low and mournful cries.
I just took Lucia to a specialist yesterday, and the experience was pretty hard on her. She’s been breaking out in sores on her back and neck and, after we ruled out parasites, my regular vet thought it must be an allegy. The specialist gave her a skin test: they sedated her, shaved a big patch of fur off under one arm, and gave her a series of little needle-pricks of various substances to test her reactions to them. It turns out that she has a high histamine reaction, and also reacts to sheep wool, black ants and flies (dead bugs, the vet explained), and some common plants. So now she has drops to take until the sores go away, and I’m going to have to give her injections every other day for the next month. Poor kitty.
A little off topic but I had the full allergy testing earlier this year.
I got about 35-40 pricks on my back and a dozen or so injections on my arms. Each on numbered or lettered. It was a little tedious but not really that painful, so don’t let your cat tell how it was the most excrusiating thing she ever had to endure.
Cats and dogs tend to lie about stuff like that. But even though they lie, their feelings are still hurt. Now give her a can of tuna or something and tell her what a brave girl she is.
Feh. You’ve all had it easy, except Apollyon, that is.
Ben is a big boy. He is a 26 pound, sweet, loving, intelligent cat. He is also extremely petrified of walking outside of the house. (He fell from a first story window as a kitten and has been scared ever since.) Plus, I can’t get him in a carrier, because he fights tooth and nail. (Literally.) The only times he has ever been out of the house was to go to the vet, or when we evacuated for a hurricane and got stuck in traffic for 18 hours. So, he’s pretty much justified in not wanting to leave.
The last time I took him to the vet, he had crystals in his urine. He was walking around the house squatting with nothing coming out. Poor guy! So, I pack him off in my roommate’s VW Bug (fun!) and drive him to the vet. They said they would have to sedate him just to look at him. (No kidding. He’s got all of his claws.) They knock him out, check him out, and give me prescriptions for antibiotics. (Liquid, mind you, because there was NO way I was going to shove a pill down his throat.)
When they went to get Ben out of the wall unit and put him in the carrier, he friggin’ lost it. They eventually had to use the rabies stick (long pole with a loop at the end) to get him out of the unit and into the carrier. Well, of course Ben fought, and ended up biting the rabies stick. In then end, he bit a hole right through his lip and ripped a claw out fighting with the techs. The whole time, he screamed and growled like a wildcat.
So, yes, I feel terrible taking him to the vet. But lucky for me, my vet makes house calls free of charge, so that’s the plan for next time.
Mermaid, thank you for being a responsible pet owner. Too many pets out there are neglected out of love, sometimes you have to do the difficult thingthat you know will cause some pain.
I hate taking my Molly-girl to the vet, so much so that I make Mr. C4C switch off with me, so she gets mad at us equally. Although I’m pleased to report that she has achieved a milestone: when I took her in last month for a check-up and an allergy shot, she didn’t tinkle in the office or the examining room! Yay!
BTW, Molly is a 52-pound border collie mix. And she’s such a sweetie! She knows the route to the vet, so as soon as I get on that specific road she starts whimpering.
I took Susie my Himalayan-Persian in for a grooming and she came back with a URI (upper respiratory infection). I called them back, they saw her, gave her some antibiotics (didn’t charge me for the visit) and to their credit, said she might have picked it up there.
It’s now been 3 weeks, the antibiotics are about gone, and my baby’s still sneezing.
So yeah, I feel bad, and if I ever get her over this, we’re gonna skip the grooming from now on, thank you very much!
