Blogcutter's Impractical Cats Part 4
Jul. 28th, 2015 07:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
blogcutterNote: As noted above, this is part four of our cat adoption story. If you haven't read any of parts 1 through 3, you may want to scroll down and read them first.
So our story continues the morning of July 2. We brought Albert to the veterinary hospital and got him all checked in. Then we left, after being told to expect a phone call from the vet later that morning.
Before putting an animal under anaesthetic, they typically do a preliminary workup: bloodwork, weighing and measuring, listening to his heart, and generally ensuring he's fit to be put under.
Mostly, Albert checked out OK; the one concern was that the vet noticed an irregular heartbeat that she hadn't detected during his physical just two weeks earlier.
She said it could be just that he was stressed out - though that didn't seem to fully explain it as he had been considerably calmer that day than during his checkup of two weeks ago. His slightly wonky heartbeat might make it riskier to put him under, but without knowing the cause, it was difficult to know if the risk was significant. Would we like her to arrange an appointment for some additional tests with a cardiologist at another local veterinary hospital?
We did have a few questions. Was there much risk associated with the tests themselves? And if those tests (including an echocardiogram and electrocardiogram) indicated that his heart was fine, were there other unrelated concerns about his health? He was, after all, a 13-year-old cat and if he already had cancer or some terminal disease and was not expected to live more than a few more months, there wouldn't be much point in proceeding!
Our vet's responses were reassuring and after discussing it briefly between ourselves, we asked her to go ahead and set something up with the heart specialist. Albert's ordeal was over for today and we could come and pick him up after lunch.
But when we arrived, there was yet another glitch in the plan. Apparently the cardiologist had left at the end of June and they weren't sure when there'd be a replacement. The closest veterinary cardiologist they knew of was it St-Hyacinthe, Quebec. Did we want to take Albert there?
Well, no. We weren't prepared to go that far - literally, metaphorically or financially. We figured the stress of the journey alone would probably be more than poor Albert's heart could bear!
The other options were: 1) Postpone the snip until there was a cardiologist at the nearby local hospital; 2) Go ahead with it and take whatever risks were associated with the anaesthesia; or 3) Get some heart tests done next week here at our usual veterinary hospital by one of the vets on staff who was very experienced but just not a cardiologist.
We chose option 3.
Unfortunately the week ahead already promised to be a rather frantic one for us. We had medical appointments of our own - doctor, dentist, ophthalmologist - and so did our car! There was also the matter of a protest outside the Saudi embassy to protest the plight of Raif Badawi. The Music and Beyond festival was about to start too, and we had hoped to get to a bunch of concerts. We settled on Friday for the heart tests, as we were only going to an evening concert that day.
We brought him in as scheduled Friday morning. When we went back home, we allowed Victoria and Reigning Cat to mingle with each other, without the added complication of a third cat in the mix.
Interestingly enough, while Albert tends to be a bit hostile towards humans, he took to Reigning Cat quite readily right from the beginning. With Victoria it's been just the opposite. Sweet and affectionate with humans, she would hiss at poor Reigning Cat, who would back nervously away or else puff herself up and arch her tail. It seems both of them want to be the lady of the house. Albert, on the other hand, was not so keen on gender reassignment (or more accurately, de-assignment).
Anyway, we picked him up at 3:30 PM, subdued but unharmed, brought him home, and settled him back into his bedroom with Victoria. That left us plenty of time for supper and our evening concert.
NEXT TIME ... I'll reveal the results of Albert's heart tests and what we decided to do.
So our story continues the morning of July 2. We brought Albert to the veterinary hospital and got him all checked in. Then we left, after being told to expect a phone call from the vet later that morning.
Before putting an animal under anaesthetic, they typically do a preliminary workup: bloodwork, weighing and measuring, listening to his heart, and generally ensuring he's fit to be put under.
Mostly, Albert checked out OK; the one concern was that the vet noticed an irregular heartbeat that she hadn't detected during his physical just two weeks earlier.
She said it could be just that he was stressed out - though that didn't seem to fully explain it as he had been considerably calmer that day than during his checkup of two weeks ago. His slightly wonky heartbeat might make it riskier to put him under, but without knowing the cause, it was difficult to know if the risk was significant. Would we like her to arrange an appointment for some additional tests with a cardiologist at another local veterinary hospital?
We did have a few questions. Was there much risk associated with the tests themselves? And if those tests (including an echocardiogram and electrocardiogram) indicated that his heart was fine, were there other unrelated concerns about his health? He was, after all, a 13-year-old cat and if he already had cancer or some terminal disease and was not expected to live more than a few more months, there wouldn't be much point in proceeding!
Our vet's responses were reassuring and after discussing it briefly between ourselves, we asked her to go ahead and set something up with the heart specialist. Albert's ordeal was over for today and we could come and pick him up after lunch.
But when we arrived, there was yet another glitch in the plan. Apparently the cardiologist had left at the end of June and they weren't sure when there'd be a replacement. The closest veterinary cardiologist they knew of was it St-Hyacinthe, Quebec. Did we want to take Albert there?
Well, no. We weren't prepared to go that far - literally, metaphorically or financially. We figured the stress of the journey alone would probably be more than poor Albert's heart could bear!
The other options were: 1) Postpone the snip until there was a cardiologist at the nearby local hospital; 2) Go ahead with it and take whatever risks were associated with the anaesthesia; or 3) Get some heart tests done next week here at our usual veterinary hospital by one of the vets on staff who was very experienced but just not a cardiologist.
We chose option 3.
Unfortunately the week ahead already promised to be a rather frantic one for us. We had medical appointments of our own - doctor, dentist, ophthalmologist - and so did our car! There was also the matter of a protest outside the Saudi embassy to protest the plight of Raif Badawi. The Music and Beyond festival was about to start too, and we had hoped to get to a bunch of concerts. We settled on Friday for the heart tests, as we were only going to an evening concert that day.
We brought him in as scheduled Friday morning. When we went back home, we allowed Victoria and Reigning Cat to mingle with each other, without the added complication of a third cat in the mix.
Interestingly enough, while Albert tends to be a bit hostile towards humans, he took to Reigning Cat quite readily right from the beginning. With Victoria it's been just the opposite. Sweet and affectionate with humans, she would hiss at poor Reigning Cat, who would back nervously away or else puff herself up and arch her tail. It seems both of them want to be the lady of the house. Albert, on the other hand, was not so keen on gender reassignment (or more accurately, de-assignment).
Anyway, we picked him up at 3:30 PM, subdued but unharmed, brought him home, and settled him back into his bedroom with Victoria. That left us plenty of time for supper and our evening concert.
NEXT TIME ... I'll reveal the results of Albert's heart tests and what we decided to do.
