I would like to take our younger, much shyer, skittish, and nervous cat in for a checkup. We adopted her a month ago and she's settling into our home well. How do those with cats like this keep them calm at the vet's? She's okay in the car, but she gets cornered and hisses in new places and with new people.
For the first visit, is bloodwork necessary? I've emailed the rescue we got her from to see if they have any documentation on her, which I totally forgot to ask about when we picked her up. If they've done bloodwork already (let's say, at/before the spay), I see no need to do it again only several months later. Both of our cats are indoor, no chance of going outdoor, so I will not be vaccinating. I see lots of people on the forums who do the initial kitten vaccinations. Kismet's a year old now, having been born and raised in her foster home and I believe the rescue we got her from said they don't vaccinate, but I'm waiting on their reply for more information... This article was also in the adopter's package that we received when we were approved to adopt. Input? I might inquire about microchipping though.
Story about experience with new vet might be kind of long. skip if it's too much!
We had Mo at the vet today and he was a huge ham. He was pretty relaxed in the car (they sleep in that carrier all the time), and was getting head rubs in the waiting room. Once we got into the exam room, he jumped out and explored, rubbed against all the techs', receptionist's, and vet's legs and was just happy to be alive as he usually is. He purred his way through the physical while my boyfriend held him, and had to be carried near a running faucet just to get his purring down so the vet could hear his pulse. Because he hasn't had bloodwork done before and is 9 years old with what felt like small kidneys, they suggested bloodwork, to which my boyfriend agreed. He was very eager to explore, so once the door opened and the tech scooped him up, he was pretty happy. When they got to the back, we didn't hear him for a while... then he meowed a few times, some pretty unhappy meows. Then VERY unhappy meows that we'd never heard before. After a while, the vet came back and said he's getting too stressed and they wanted to know if we still wanted to do bloodwork, in which case they would lightly sedate him with a half dose of intramuscular injection just to keep him from fighting so much. It would be dangerous to have a cat flailing around when trying to stick him.
This is my first time being at the vet with a mammal, so I don't know how this normally works. Internets says it's uncommon for cats to need sedation for bloodwork, but the way we saw it was that my boyfriend has been the only 100% constant in this cat's life - between moves (MANY of them, as he was a student), housemates, visitors, and the past couple of years he's been working from home so he's around 99.9% of the time. Being taken away and made uncomfortable by total strangers, even the ones he was just rubbing up against, was a bit much for him. He's home and fine now, his pupils aren't nearly as dilated, and he's eaten a couple saucers of food. We get a call tomorrow about the results of the blood test, and that'll determine whether a stool softener would be good for him and what else we can do if he is having kidney problems. I think we were lulled into this false sense of comfort that oh, our totally sociable, calm, and sweet attention hog of a cat is great with strangers - he'll do well at the vet meeting people, but this guy actually required light sedation.
Does this vet's office sound competent? She was good doing the physical and seemed pretty knowledgeable, but we can't see what happens behind closed doors. It seemed a bit chaotic because she had trouble wrangling a tech to hold Mo near the sink (boyfriend had to do it), so I'm wondering if the vets are competent but the hands they have around them are either short staffed or.. they're the ones who are incompetent. I'm kind of on the fence if I want to go back but I think my boyfriend is giving them the benefit of the doubt.
Mo is a pretty tolerable cat, so this experience has me pretty nervous about bringing Kismet in, who is nowhere near as adaptable.
For the first visit, is bloodwork necessary? I've emailed the rescue we got her from to see if they have any documentation on her, which I totally forgot to ask about when we picked her up. If they've done bloodwork already (let's say, at/before the spay), I see no need to do it again only several months later. Both of our cats are indoor, no chance of going outdoor, so I will not be vaccinating. I see lots of people on the forums who do the initial kitten vaccinations. Kismet's a year old now, having been born and raised in her foster home and I believe the rescue we got her from said they don't vaccinate, but I'm waiting on their reply for more information... This article was also in the adopter's package that we received when we were approved to adopt. Input? I might inquire about microchipping though.
Story about experience with new vet might be kind of long. skip if it's too much!
We had Mo at the vet today and he was a huge ham. He was pretty relaxed in the car (they sleep in that carrier all the time), and was getting head rubs in the waiting room. Once we got into the exam room, he jumped out and explored, rubbed against all the techs', receptionist's, and vet's legs and was just happy to be alive as he usually is. He purred his way through the physical while my boyfriend held him, and had to be carried near a running faucet just to get his purring down so the vet could hear his pulse. Because he hasn't had bloodwork done before and is 9 years old with what felt like small kidneys, they suggested bloodwork, to which my boyfriend agreed. He was very eager to explore, so once the door opened and the tech scooped him up, he was pretty happy. When they got to the back, we didn't hear him for a while... then he meowed a few times, some pretty unhappy meows. Then VERY unhappy meows that we'd never heard before. After a while, the vet came back and said he's getting too stressed and they wanted to know if we still wanted to do bloodwork, in which case they would lightly sedate him with a half dose of intramuscular injection just to keep him from fighting so much. It would be dangerous to have a cat flailing around when trying to stick him.
This is my first time being at the vet with a mammal, so I don't know how this normally works. Internets says it's uncommon for cats to need sedation for bloodwork, but the way we saw it was that my boyfriend has been the only 100% constant in this cat's life - between moves (MANY of them, as he was a student), housemates, visitors, and the past couple of years he's been working from home so he's around 99.9% of the time. Being taken away and made uncomfortable by total strangers, even the ones he was just rubbing up against, was a bit much for him. He's home and fine now, his pupils aren't nearly as dilated, and he's eaten a couple saucers of food. We get a call tomorrow about the results of the blood test, and that'll determine whether a stool softener would be good for him and what else we can do if he is having kidney problems. I think we were lulled into this false sense of comfort that oh, our totally sociable, calm, and sweet attention hog of a cat is great with strangers - he'll do well at the vet meeting people, but this guy actually required light sedation.
Does this vet's office sound competent? She was good doing the physical and seemed pretty knowledgeable, but we can't see what happens behind closed doors. It seemed a bit chaotic because she had trouble wrangling a tech to hold Mo near the sink (boyfriend had to do it), so I'm wondering if the vets are competent but the hands they have around them are either short staffed or.. they're the ones who are incompetent. I'm kind of on the fence if I want to go back but I think my boyfriend is giving them the benefit of the doubt.
Mo is a pretty tolerable cat, so this experience has me pretty nervous about bringing Kismet in, who is nowhere near as adaptable.
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