Hernia

[jeano369]

My white male kitten, Knolley, has a hernia the Vet says, and I can feel it also. Found this out when having him there for shots and check-up. Vet says he will push it in and if it stays, fine. But, if it doesn't, when I have Knolley neutered, he can have it repaired at this time. My question is: does anyone have any experience with this? Is there any chance I can massage his tummy and keep it in?
Otherwise he is doing great. He's 3 1/2 months old and is white and has icy blue eyes. The Vet and his assistant asked right away if he was deaf, I said no, and they seemed suprised. Said over 90% of cats with his white color and light blue eyes are deaf. Did you know that?

Thanks guys for any information on this hernia thing.

Jeannie

 

[dodo]

Hi jeano369,

White coat color & blue eye color genes are somehow linked & some cats with blue eyes (odd eyed or both eyes blue) & white coat are congenetically deaf either in one or both ears..Same true for Dalmatians also..The lack of the pigments seem to be the reason for deafness...

But the percentage isn't 90%..Approximately 65% of white cats with both eyes blue are deaf in one or both ears. About 40% of cats with one blue eye are deaf. And finally about 20% of white cats without blue eyes are deaf.. ( So it's better to say that most deaf cats are white instead of most white cats are deaf )


You can check these pages for hernia:

http://www.peteducation.com/cats_dogs/diaphhernia.htm

http://www.vetsurgerycentral.com/hernia.htm

Good Luck

 

[catspride]

I had a beautiful white cat with the most luminous blue eyes I have ever seen. When China was younger, he didn't show any signs of deafness or eye problems, but around his 2nd birthday it was clear that he didn't always hear someone come up to him. China had always been quite shy of sudden movements or sounds but this seemed to increase with age. At 3 years old, he was killed by a car that he probably didn't hear or identify quickly enough. He was half on and half off the sidewalk. What the car was doing driving in the gutter, I do not know.

I have another mainly white Turkish Van mix who has problems with his pale greenish-blue eyes and who may also be a little deaf or sight impaired. It causes him to shy from sudden movements. He, like China, is a little less active in playing with the other cats or staying around the rest of the pride and pack. He also develops urinary tract infections and stones in his bladder. His favorite companions include myself and the biggest of the dogs (with whom he grew up). He sleeps on the foot of my bed at night -- which makes me think his eyes are not strong, and sleeps with the big dog during the day.

On the other hand, I have had 3 strays (now gone feral) and one other white Turkish Van type female (still with me) who were formidable hunters at night and who have no problem at all hearing my dinner call.

Thank you Dodo for the actually statistics for hearing problems. What are the odds on sight impairment? My vets also mention the 80-90 percent figures. But my own experience (with a VERY small cross-section) with deafness or sight impairment is 4 without problems to 2 with.

 

[cassandra_starr]

My Jake also has a hernia on his tummy. The Vet said it had something to do with the imbelical (sp) cord when he was born. I was worried about it when I first saw it and pointed it out to her. She said it looks fine and that she'd only have to fix it if things started coming out of it. So.. she left it be and its like he has a little belly button.

 

[elinor]

My Gabby has an umbilical hernia as well. The vet I am taking her to said it had to be fixed as it will cause her all kinds of trouble. She was going to fix it when she gets spayed. The thing is the spaying cost 155.00 plus tax then another 60.00 to fix the hernia. On top of that Rocky is getting nuetered and that is another 120.00 plus they want to do all this "extra" blood work for another 38.00 a piece. I cant afford all that.

My mom gos to country vet and I am taking them there instead now. The cost to spay is 110.00 and to nueter is 65.00 and thats it. The hernia is ok at present so it can be left.

Gabby seems perfectly happy and healthy so I am not going to worry about it for now. Cassandra its the same with her its like she has a little belly button. An outy

 

[catspride]

Wow, I thought our vets were expensive -- and even though they give me substantial discounts because I take in strays and care for them, I find it difficult to manage the bills. Only their kindness in carrying me -- one time as long as a year -- on particularly large bills saves my dogs and cats.

The regular going price here is 450 shekels to spay a large dog (divide by 4.2 and that is less than 110 dollars). Cats are 250 shekels (around 60 dollars). With my discount on these totals, I am really blessed!! And I have the best vets in the whole area -- a fully equiped clinic and operating room and teaching facility. When operations are especially difficult, specialists from the big teaching facility in the center ofg the country can be brought down, as they did for my kitten who had a crushed pelvic and one broken thigh bone and the other thigh bone ball joint completely demolished. I will not tell how very generous everyone was about the fee, but it took the animal orthopedist plus several of the vets (with everyone else watching the technique closely) to make repairs, and then a second operation (much simpler) done by the vets several months later to literally tie up loose ends.

Like I say repeatedly (or if I don't, I should) -- there are vets and there are vets just as there are doctors and there are doctors. Sometimes high prices do not mean more competent practitioners (or even competence at all). Also, just like your own family doctor, certain doctors simply don't know enough about some things but are excellent in others. Here in Israel, vets may have trained in any of 100 other countries, and there is little uniformity in quality and treatment protocols for some kinds of things. This makes it doubly hard to find vet who is good at all things -- added to the fact that most small-animal or pet vets are up in the center of the country. Here in the south we have a world expert in ostrich and other farm birds (he is also great with other kinds of birds) and a small number of large farm animal vets, but very few vets who specialize in pets -- but no exotic pet practitioners (for such things as reptiles, spider, small caged birds...) or animal psychologists... I recently needed to ask questions of someone who knew what to do with a chameleon I found in my garden. I finally discovered that there is a small desert zoo near Beer-Sheva where they are very experienced with reptiles of all sorts, so I took the chameleon there to the safety of their repitile house.

Have you tried to find out if there are local humane society facilities for spaying and neutering? When you have one near, they usually give very substantial discounts, and, at least in this particular kind of thing, they are very experienced.

 

[dodo]

Yes, why don't you try humane societies etc ?? Since they're non-profit organizations, their prices for spaying shouldn't be more than 50 $ (actually 35$ I guess!) ??

When we adopted Yumosh, her spaying was included in the 70 $ adoption fee ! I was very much scared to have her spayed in a non-profit clinic instead of her regular vet. But I was assured when people told me similar things as catspride wrote; about their experiences etc. They spay/neuter hundreds of cats each week ! And if something goes wrong, it will go wrong even with her regular vet !..

The things they don't do while spaying/neutering are: They don't do pre-bloodwork & they don't use the gas isoflorane for anesthesia (or they use it very little)..

So we had her bloodwork done in her regular vet for 40 $ & went to this clinic ! I guess they have never seen anyone before, coming to their clinic with the report of bloodwork (they asked us why we had the bloodwork). So they were really cautious about my cat ! Because of one value being in the normal-high border, (the regular vet said everything was normal), they postponed the operation. (Better safe than sorry !) They later called us & told us that they are going to use only isoflorane for Yumosh's operation (I didn't offer it !) So, we'll repeat the test & she will get spayed there

I am very much paranoid about health issues of my cats (but not myself

)

So, with the bloodwork, the total cost is 40 + 35= 75$; w/o the bloodwork it's just 35$..The only thing is, they are usually very much busy & you may need to get a reservation quite sometime before !