29/11/2008 by Arielle.

Everyday that we work as a vet in a small animal practice, we statistically will have at least one euthanasia. My day yesterday was statistically worse and I had 3 very emotional euthanasias of 3 very ill and old and loved pets - 2 cats and a dog.

One cat did something that I have never experienced before and maybe because of the strain of the day, tears welled up into my eyes when I saw it. I had to quickly wipe them away before the grieving owner (a man) noticed so that I did not appear too unprofessional.

Holly was a beautiful 15 year old silver tabby in the end stages of kidney failure. Her kidneys had shut down and all she could do was sit in front of a water bowl and drink but still she remained very dehydrated. I offered the owner the option of putting her onto a drip, but thankfully he declined as it is such a short term option with cats at the end of a very unpleasant and very common condition.

As Holly was so dehydrated and comfortable on the table (she lay down purring as her owner fussed and cried at her head); I chose to give the lethal injection into her kidney rather than her vein. It is not as quick an option as giving it into the vein, but it means no noisy clippers and holding Holly still to find a vein.

She did not even react to the injection but continued to purr as her owner told her over and over again how much he loved her. I noticed her slipping away, still purring and then she rubbed her cheek onto his hand and her head dropped and she went. It was as if she could sense she was going and she gave him a final affectionate farewell. Cats never cease to amaze me.

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20/11/2008 by Arielle.

I has a busy morning consulting yesterday and had one emergency rushed ahead of all my other clients waiting in the waiting room. It was a kitten called Freddie who was salivating profusely. Freddie is a female and cross between a tabby and Maine Coone - a gorgeous fluffy ginger big kitten!I rushed to the the hospital round the back to find that my conscientious nurses had already given Freddie the once over and taken her temperature for me. They has looked her in mouth which is the first thing I did, and noticed a red ring around the tip of her tongue - it looked very sore and Freddie felt very sorry for herself as the saliva formed a little moustache around her mouth and upper lip.

The nurses were taking bets on what Freddie could have licked. Sophie was sure that she had licked some boiling tea. I thought maybe also a toilet block that some people use.

When I called her owners through and treated Freddie with strong painkillers, antibiotics and soft food; they knew immediately what she had done - she had licked the kettle.

She is apparently the most inquisitive of their 2 kittens and they jsut couldn’t keep her off the kitchen counters. I explained that this may be the solution and she may now stay well clear of the kitchen counters altogether!

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08/11/2008 by Arielle.

Jem is a gorgeous Blue Merle Border Collie. She was a rescue dog and being a typical intelligent Border Collie, she has a slightly nervous disposition.

Her owner knows of her fear of fireworks and managed to get very organised for this season (with bonfire night on a Wednesday this year, we seem to have more fireworks then ever) and she purchased a ‘Sounds Scary’ cd months ago. Jem was made to listen to fireworks on the cd to completely desensitise her. Her owner  said it worked so well and eventually Jem was just sleeping peacefully through the cd.

Jem came in today as she had signs of a bladder infection or cystitis. She was too scared to go out and wee in the garden last thing at night as she usually did and was not going at all. This led to the urine sitting in her bladder for far longer than normal and the bacteria then multiplying happily.

I tried very hard to collect a urine sample from Jem. I took her for a walk round the back where so many dogs wee but being a typical Collie, she just wanted to look for her owner  and did not sniff the ground at all. We knew she had not emptied her bladder since 3 that morning. We did have some success just as they were leaving - she weed by the reception desk and I was finally able to test her urine.

Jem did have to be treated for a cystitis, but the cause was fireworks!

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27/10/2008 by Arielle.

My heading is a bit deceiving - I do not mean be frightened of old cats with long claws, but be aware that old cats can end up in a lot of pain if their claws are not checked regularly!

I had a client in today with her 18 year old cat which was limping. On close examination, I saw that one of her claws had grown right round and into the pad. It was so sore to touch and bled once the claw was safely clipped. I had to put her onto antibiotics as well as the claw in the pad had resulted in bacteria causing a nasty infection.

I obviously clipped all her claws and the relieved owner said that she would probably now not end up always caught in the carpet.

Clipping cats’ claws is an easy procedure but just take care to clip only the tip where it hooks as there is a nerve and blood vessel that you can cut if you cut too high.

See an accompanying article in my site for further advice

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20/10/2008 by Arielle.

I just had the word ‘parrot’ marked on the computer as my next client to call through. I expected to see a large covered cage with an African Grey parrot in it and was startled to call through a couple with a huge pet carrier on wheels and a beautiful Macaw hanging onto the door of the cage.

They had called her Tess and she needed her nails clipped. I had a lovely young human physiotherpaist watching my consultations with me as she wants to become a pet physiotherapist. We both marvelled at the beauty of Tess (I had never dealt with a Macaw before) but then I had to work out a way of safely clipping her very sharp claws without stressing her to much or getting bitten.

The owner held her on his arm and she let out an almighty squawk and shed all the morning’s breakfast down his leg. I went to fetch my satsuma that I had for my lunch to bribe her to stay still.

When I started the procedure (trying to avoid her extra long hooked beak), she took fright and flew to the furthest spot of my room; her huge wings flapping in the small space and all I could see was Anya the physiotherapist hiding her head in her hands as the huge Macaw tried to land on her head but then realised it would have no hold and landed on my computer instead.

After all the excitement, I realised that Tess was actually quite tame and I just got on with the job and quickly popped her back into her large pet carrier. Anya was relieved. My satsuma remained uneaten!

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15/10/2008 by Arielle.

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13/10/2008 by Arielle.

My last consultation of the morning was a very emotional one. A young couple brought in their two 5 month old kittens Belle and Jasmine with suspected smoke inhalation.

They had been woken at 2am by smoke pouring through their ceiling and a fire burning their house. The neighbours semi-detached home had caught alight and it has spread into their home. They were able to get all 6 cats out of the house (luckily the neighbour had no pets), but Belle and Jasmine took fright with the fire engines arriving and darted indoors through the catflaps.

The owner was ready to rush in after them but the house was full of smoke so 1 fireman went in to find them. The owners were both very shaken and emotional and both exhausted. I was thrilled to put their minds at rest that both kittens were fine. The smell of smoke in my room was very strong but both kittens were bright and Belle was purring so much that I struggled to hear her chest sounds.

I asked the owners where the fireman had found the cats and he said he had not asked but was sure that they would been to hide under the stairs - their favourite hiding place when strangers enter their home. They were born in that very spot. I reassured him  that this would been an ideal spot as the smoke from upstairs would not have travelled there. All I advised was bathing both kittens as they would have licked the smoke off their fur. What an ordeal for all of them!

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04/10/2008 by Arielle.

Every evening when I return from work, my children ask me what I have seen in my day. Today’s memorable consultations have to be a gorgeous black Pug puppy called Bubu for his second vaccinations. The owners made me laugh when they said that when he was 6 weeks old, you could not make out any facial features in his tiny squashed black face!

My second memorable case was a Pekin duck that came in. The owner had rescued 3 of them quite literally from the pot (they are the breed used to fatten up for Pekin duck - a delicacy in certain restaurants - not the ones I go to!!)

She had 3 ducks that lived in her garden but had the freedom to leave her property and go onto the canal to swim. She had found one dead and one with a large open wound on his neck on the canal. There were no feathers anywhere so she did not imagine it was a fox or dog but was concerned that a very territorial swan had attacked them.

We x-rayed the dead duck and found a pellet in his chest. How cruel some people can be with such beautiful creatures. She now had the evidence needed to report the incident with the x-ray. The duck that came into my consulting room appeared bright, made a huge mess with his water and droppings all over my consulting room floor; but hopefully will respond well to the antibiotic treatment and will live with his pellet buried in the muscle in his neck.

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01/10/2008 by Arielle.

If you followed the previous entry about Harvey belonging to the old man (Where identichipping a cat was possibly the wrong thing) - it has a happy ending! The original owners were contacted and as Harvey had been missing for so long, they had acquired 2 new cats. They felt that he would be very put out to return home to 2 extra cats and were just happy to hear that he was alive and being well looked after.

The old man was thrilled and will probably have many more happy years ahead of him (even at the age of 94) with his pampered companion.

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26/09/2008 by Arielle.

This did not happen to me today. One of the other vets I work with came into my consulting room looking very stressed. A 94 year old man had brought in a cat for vaccinating. He explained how much he loved the cat. He had called him Harvey and Harvey had ‘chosen him’  he said and had appeared in his garden 5 months ago.

As we always have to scan any stray cat to see if it has been chipped or not, my colleague did the right thing and scanned Harvey, only to find a microchip (to her horror).  After a quick phone call to the national idchip company, she found out that Harvey is actually Elvis and has been missing from a house not that far away from the elderly man, for the last year!

She felt awful telling the 94 year old man. He was there with his daughter and she gently explained to him that there were plenty of cats around in the rehoming centres and they would look for another cat that afternoon.

He reacted like the man in Little Britain by saying ‘ No, I want that one. Now I have nothing to live for!’ What a dilemma. I will find out tomorrow what happened to the cat and poor old man.

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