I too, am sorry to hear your poor puddy is in this awful discomfort Hilarity N. Suze. It’s a distressing time for him and you.
The symptoms you note above seem rather similar to those experienced by a friend of mine’s small breed dog. It took three visits to his regular vet with no result, and answers and attitude very much like it sounds you are getting. A second vet finally diagnosed multiple tooth abcesses. After treatment, he was fine.
I wish you all the very best in finding the right answers.
Ok I’m not a vet but just have good instincts and better than layman understanding of vet things* and my thought was what 6impossible said. It hurts him to eat because his teeth are that bad or he has abscesses in his mouth. Take him to a different vet for a second opinion. I get a vibe that your vet may be prioritizing his fees over the best interest of your cat because he’s going straight for costly diagnostics before ruling out simpler things.
during high school and college I had a bizarre hobby of reading medical and vet textbooks and the basics like the Merck Manual and Grays Anatomy. I wanted to be a vet.
After I posted that, I had another thought: It’s possible that the vet just doesn’t want to tell you that there’s no treatment. If the cat does have a mouth full of abscesses, at age 13.5, there might not be much that the vet can do. Surgery is extra risky at those higher ages, so palliative care might be the wisest choice.
I just wanted to modify my originally harsh assessment that the vet was only concerned with money.
JcWoman - If you don’t feel you can communicate with this vet, I’d find another. My experience with small animal vets is sometimes you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find your minor royalty.
And as an aside to my comment above, I have had to make the decision to put suffering animals down. It’s not for monetary reasons, fortunately, but because I didn’t feel their quality of life could improve. I also have had upfront discussion with my vet long before I’ve had to make the decision to euthanize. He treats me like an intelligent, logical person and tells me the options as he sees them. He’s told me in the past when he thought a dog couldn’t be saved and that he didn’t want me to incur more bills. But the flip side was, for the same dog, when I showed him why I thought he was wrong, he was willing to give the dog more time. And she walked out of there two days later.
I’ve disappeared a dog because it just wasn’t a good dog. Life’s to short to waste time on a bad dog. I’ll spend a little bit of money on a good dog but that’s like $500 max.
StG, I was the one having trouble communicating with the vet. I finally got some answers but I really had to be kind of harsh, and if I hadn’t gotten them I was going to get the lab results and take them elsewhere. Kitty has been going to this practice ever since we got him, 13 years, but never to this particular doc before (and probably never again). So I’m not giving up on my cat yet but I am giving up on this one doctor.
**Hilarity, ** have you tried liquefying his food? Like, blending some canned food with some tuna juice or something (this is going to smell awesome.) I’m just thinking if he’s able to lick gravy off, but not chew, this would at least get him some nutrition, although obviously you’re still going to want to figure out what’s going on. But if he can drink the food, it would seem to indicate that it’s more of a tooth issue.
I would ask for his records and take him to another vet. This one doesn’t seem like a good fit for you. Good luck.
IME it’s true at either extreme. Super pet lovers can tend to be misanthropic, but often so are those really bugged by pet lovers, somewhat ironically.
On the original question obviously it’s case by case as to behavior. There’s a big difference ‘not giving up’ on a dog which bites people as opposed to one which has an ‘accident’ on the rug now and then, and depending on the dog. Our last dog would try to bite people in particular situations (the sound of roller blade/skate board wheels would make him go after the rider if he could) but he was pretty small and in an appearance category with a benign reputation. And we were careful with him. Our current dog is in the ‘pit bull’ appearance category and extremely strong (though not all that big, around 60lbs). If she showed any hint of aggression toward humans it would be unmanageable to have her, IMO. But she never has.
This. Plus, euthanizing your beloved pet is NOT “giving up on it,” it is your duty as a responsible pet owner and the final kindness you can give this creature that tried so damn hard to adapt its behavior to fit our standards.
You want a definition of “giving up”? Driving the pet to the other end of town (or “out to the country”) and tossing it out of the car onto the side of the road. Reprehensible. Double so if it’s pregnant.
Even having to return a pet to the shelter can’t be called “giving up.” Being responsible enough to admit the arrangement was not successful and, hopefully, giving someone else a chance at it can hardly be called “giving up.”
ETA: The people who DO give up would never see it as so and you can’t shame that type of owner. Save your breath.
