Zena now possibly toxo pneumonia again!

[Meowmee]

1 1/2 days ago, I am sitting on the couch. Zena is in his bed next to me with his paw on me, he is usual self, happy, talkative, eating etc. All of a sudden he jumps up, his back legs are weak and dragging them, and he starts around spinning around in circles too. I try to pick him up and he runs in the kitchen, does the same thing again and is crying a bit.

I immediately think he could have a blood clot, saddle, thrombus, etc. of course this happens on the day that my car was being inspected and repaired and they didn’t finish it in time and I have no car. After numerous phone calls and 3 Uber drivers. I finally got him to a hospital, I was so confused and stressed out. I didn’t even know which one because I got confused and I would not have gone back to this hospital to be honest because that is where they killed Byron many years ago. We called 3 hospitals at least, one kept calling back saying first the doctor was roo busy and then they could not treat blood clots, and had told me to go to a closer one which told me they had NO DOCTOR!

So at the er we arrive, talked to the usual people, after telling the front desk woman the information, she asks me again so what did Merlin die from? Because I mentioned all of this obviously as a possibility since toxo can cause ataxia, and I said again he he died from disseminated suspected toxo infection with pneumonia. I wonder if these people are even listening to a word you say. I shouldn’t have to keep repeating myself again.

I wait for a while because he seemed more stable now and the next person comes and takes us into a room. I answer some questions I think at that point they had taken Zena to look at him. I can’t remember now. I give her the whole history again and she goes away.

Dr comes back and tells me Zena tried to bite one of their techs, and that he already had gloves on. I’m not sure why he already had gloves on? and he had fear aggression. Apparently, when they opened the carrier, he was full of adrenaline and jumped out and got away from them and was running around for three minutes before they caught him! And apparently they threw a towel over him at some point. I noticed now that I was trying to rub him with a towel to exchange scents because Quinn was very aggressive with him when he got home and now he’s terrified of towels .

The doctor says he’s going to use Telazol to sedate him and there’s no other alternative drug, and I say why not? so after a long explanation and I say can’t you use gas? Oh no we can’t do that because we have to hold it over his face and he’s so stressed out and fear aggressive. So we got on the phone with my brother. Dr said I could take him home now because he seems stable. They won’t charge me and then I can bring him back if he starts getting symptomatic again. But my brother says well you’re gonna bring him home and he’s just gonna do the same thing and then you’ll just have to bring him back.

so in the end, I decide there’s no option except to sedate him and just hope it goes well this time and I told him just use a tiny dose. Another tech comes back in with the paper work and estimate. I had asked the dvm to test him for toxoplasmosis and they forgot to add that on. So she comes back with another one. It’s going to be $498 to do a PCR for Toxoplasma which I thought it was outrageous since he told me it wouldn’t be done right away I asked her if they are going to give him clindamycin?

She says oh no we can’t do that if we don’t know if he has it or not- I say so you’re gonna let him possibly die knowing that I just had a cat that died from this and that he could very well have it too. no reply… so eventually, I sign all the paperwork, and I go back to waiting and there was a lovely woman in the waiting room, we talked for hours. Her dog was there with severe pancreatitis.
Eventually, they tell me the doctor came and told me I guess a couple of times what was going on. Zena was OK and they had done an x-ray bloodwork and whatever else they did he thought the x-ray looked like asthma and his legs were warm so he didn’t think it was a clot, but he agreed with me that he could’ve had a small clot and it just passed, his heart looked and sounded good.

When the radiologist report came back though, it said that there was suspected pneumonia and it could be an area where there was a parasitic development and he thought it was likely parasitic infection… no sign of heart disease but you would need an echo for that to really confirm it.. at this point, Zena has not been having any trouble breathing, but I think he said he heard a little bit of wheezing.

So he says he recommends Zena be treated at home and he’s giving me a weeks worth of clindamycin pills if I can’t give him the pills he says he’ll compound it for me. So now they’re suspecting that it is toxoplasmosis again with pneumonia and I’m terrified Xena is going to die too.

We get home and he’s still a bit out of it from the sedation, but he goes under my bed. Eventually he came out and he ate some thing. I had him in the bathroom, and I had already given him the first pill with a little bit of butter on it it was very small and I didn’t have too much trouble over the first time I couldn’t even even get his mouth open I think because he was still stressed out. He had some food right after.

He has been doing pretty good but he had I think the second or third pill, I’ve lost track now, I noticed after I got up after sleeping for a while after one of the second to last pill that there was food vomit upstairs by the litter box and some foam vomit. I thought it was cinnamon because he had vomited in front of me a couple of weeks ago.

But I was worried it could be Xena and maybe he was starting to get sick from the antibiotic. So I just gave him his next pill at about 730. He’s taking them twice a day. He went upstairs and then came back down and I could tell he was nauseous, he was licking his lips and then he vomits up some foam, first he ate a little bit of a licky treat, and then he kept vomiting a few times. I went back up upstairs, and there was vomit that he vomited with part of the capsule and the medication. So now I’m worried that he didn’t get the last two doses.

I had asked the doctor if they could just keep him there and give him IV clindamycin, but he said that they didn’t have the iv form unfortunately. And then he also thought that it would be better written to be treated at home because he was so scared. I don’t know if that’s because he thought it would be better for Xena, or because they didn’t wanna deal with him worrying about getting bitten or something.

Zena is very tame now he’s never tried to bite anybody. He was fear aggressive when I first took him inside and then he turned into a big mush. I guess it was just being scared of all those people and adrenaline etc. but I have a feeling that there must be something that these people are doing wrong in the way they approach cats now, most of them are geared towards dogs, not cats.

I called the hospital she says just call back later and observe him. I said I can’t do that you know because I’m afraid he’s not getting the medication and he can die from this- I just had a cat who died from this.

So she asked the doctor there, and the doctor said stop taking the medication. I said I can’t stop the medication because he could die. I think this is one of the only things they can use to treat this, although they do use some other drugs that are also used in people who have this too, she gets very snippy with me and says wadr I can’t tell the doctor what to do, and I said to her with all due respect I just paid $1300 at your clinic and I can’t bring my cat back there right now. He was just sedated and he had to be sedated to even examine him or do anything. She says “I understand your frustration” I would like to know who is training them to do this because they all say this Dvm and people doctors – every last one of them, and the effect is terrible, and pits them a terrible light.

Dr gets on the phone and says he can’t give him cerenia because he could have an obstruction. And we don’t know why he’s vomiting and I said I know that he vomited right after I gave him the pill so obviously it had something to do with that either he’s getting nauseous from the medication or it was giving him the pill or it could be something from Toxoplasmosis if he does have that.
I am wondering why he thinks there is an obstruction? I told him I know when he vomited he says oh you’re wonderful or something! can you even believe these people? They are so rude and disrespectful and most of them have no clue what the hell they’re talking about alot of the time. Close to $5000 for Merlin!!!! and I had to do a necropsy to find out what caused his death, and even that was not dine properly this time.

So he says I could give him Pepcid. I said should I wait a while since he’s vomiting. Oh no, just give it to him right away. so I wait 10 minutes I gave him half a Pepcid and he vomited that up immediately, and now he’s just laying on the couch in the other room and he looks like he feels horrible. Breathing etc is ok.

I call back and the same woman tells me they’re having a shift change and I can call back later….Nobody can tell me what to do now. I had to ask her like two or three times when is the shift change going to happen….she could barely speak english I had a hard time understanding what she was saying.

I’m sorry this is so long-winded and I just wanna know what else I can do to help his nausea. I mean if he gets a lot worse obviously I’ll have to take him back somewhere. I don’t think I’m gonna go back there though. I’ll probably go to some other hospital now that I have my car back thankfully.

I had ended up not doing the toxo pcr because I thought they were gonna do IgG IGM and I thought the PCR was outrageously overpriced.

My plan was that I have an appointment for him and Quinn at another place that I have gone to in the past on Wednesday and that I would ask them what to do. Plus, I had called earlier the er he just went to yesterday if I was supposed to get refills of clindamycin with them.
The paper work said recommend treated at home and three refills for this, but he didn’t tell me that they wouldn’t do that. I mean I just spent $1300 there and these idiots at the front desk are telling me to go to my primary vet. Which I explained I don’t have one now because my last primary vet killed Merlin essentially with terrible treatment and was abusive and I don’t have an appointment until Wednesday with the new one, i don’t want to run out of medication and have zena die. That woman was so rude to me that I asked her her name and said I want to talk to the office manager. The office manager has never called me back probably because she didn’t tell her about it.

I don’t know what to do here because if he is getting nauseous from the clindamycin and it’s not something else, maybe he needs to get a shot of cerenia. I don’t know how he’s going to be treated at any place if he gets so freaked out that they can’t do anything to him. I’m going to let him sleep for a while and see how he’s doing. And maybe I’ll try to give him some more Pepcid later. I have to go to sleep for a while because I only slept for like two hours. I was basically up all night, keeping an eye on him and doing things.

now I’m terrified all my cats are gonna die from this and I’m gonna have to try to deal with these nut cases. And spend thousands of dollars. The doctor that treated him actually seemed a lot nicer than most of them. I think the only thing that got me through that was that lovely woman there with her dog who I talked with most of the night while we waited there.

I know some of you have used on ondansetrin/ zofran for your cats and I’m wondering if they would give him that? I have never used that in my cats, but I’ve been given that that in dka, and I have pills at home.

thank you if you have a managed to read all of this. Tia for any ideas here.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Have you tried giving the medication immediately AFTER he has eaten? Sometimes having food in the stomach can help ease the nausea, and clindamycin can be given either way.

 

[Meowmee]

Than you

I had planned to try that. Problem is now he is not eating and he still feels sick, although he seems like he feels better than last night. I tried giving him tuna. Usually he runs downstairs to get some if I open a can. He just stayed on the bed and looked at a small dish of it.

Another thing that happened was the first morning he was under my bed and then when I was falling asleep, he came and lay on top of me so I knew he was feeling better.

But when I woke up later, I couldn’t find him anywhere. It turned out he got locked somehow in the closet with the furnace downstairs.

I think Quinn was still being very aggressive to him- hissing, chasing him etc. and he ran in there and the door closed somehow, so I took him out of there… he had all kinds of yucky stuff all over him which looked like a little mouse or animal debris stuck on his fur. I cleaned it as well as I could, but I didn’t wanna give him a bath, obviously with everything going on. I’m wondering if that made him sick too? Prolly not.

I called the hospital again before I went to sleep and got the new shift people. She said they could give him a shot of cerenia, and just call them later. I told her I’m going to sleep for a while. I think the dvm who treated him should be back on tonight, I’m not sure. I mean it’s probably another shift change again by the time I call them.

But at the time she said to give him a shot I had forgotten that he may freak out again, and I’m wondering if they would let me do that at home? I have type 1 Diabetes, and I know how to do subcutaneous injections. I thought I had some cerenia pills left over from Merlin, but I guess I used them all for him- because at some point when he had stopped eating, they were worried it could be nausea and I had given him Pepcid too. He did not vomit at all while he was sick, but I read that toxo can cause that too.

I just don’t know if it is clindamycin how I’m gonna get through four weeks of this. He’s essentially stopped eating now, which is what happened with Merlin and I also wonder if the telazol could have something to do with that. The doctor was worried that he might stop eating from that. However, he was fine for the first few hours. It was after the second pill that this started.

Another thing I want to add here which may have contributed to Zena freaking out: this hospital now has a very large dog who one of the techs told me is her dog an is a therapy dog for the entire hospital and the patients, who can recognize/ predict seizures. I met her later and she seems like a lovely dog. However, when I knocked on the door twice to ask questions once for myself and for the lady with her dog, that dog started barking right away and I’m sure that can’t be good for the cats. So I’m wondering if that could be part of why he freaked out because he never did that when he went to the doctor before now.
Obviously, he was in the highly stressed situation from what had already happened and from all of the crap with the Uber drivers, etc. He may also be scared of carriers because he could’ve been in a carrier when he was dumped outside. However, again, as I said, he never did this before.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

You may need to assist feed him for awhile. Then if you can get the nausea under control with Cerenia or Zofran, perhaps he'll start eating again on his own. It's good that whoever you talked to last at the clinic said it would be ok to give him the Cerenia injection. Now let's just hope they will let YOU give it to him, since he's not a good patient. If nothing else, maybe they'll give you a script for it in pill form. Not ideal, but better than nothing. Will he eat anything at the moment? Treats? If so, maybe you can get him to eat more using treats as toppers.

 

[Meowmee]

You may need to assist feed him for awhile. Then if you can get the nausea under control with Cerenia or Zofran, perhaps he'll start eating again on his own. It's good that whoever you talked to last at the clinic said it would be ok to give him the Cerenia injection. Now let's just hope they will let YOU give it to him, since he's not a good patient. If nothing else, maybe they'll give you a script for it in pill form. Not ideal, but better than nothing. Will he eat anything at the moment? Treats? If so, maybe you can get him to eat more using treats as toppers.

I really can not do assist feeding, it ends up with smearing food allover him, gagging etc., stress for him, and worrying about aspiration which is the last thing he needs now. Each time I have tried that with a cat it ended up in disaster and the cat died.

I don’t think Xena is at the point that he’s going to die yet but look what happened with Merlin. He certainly did not look like he was going to die either and he did. But Merlin was more advanced I think in the pneumonia.

I’m going to call them in a little while and see what they say. I’m still kind of nervous to do the cerenia injection because I don’t know if there can be side effects from that and what am I going to do if he has a bad reaction to that. If I do it at home.

I need to get some more coffee or tea in me to get through all of this. Zena is still on the bed and I’m going to try giving him some baby or other food and see if he will just lick some off of my finger maybe.

I don’t think Xena is a bad patient really to be honest with you. He never did that before. If you read the information that I added in, there were other stressing factors, and he was highly stressed out from whatever caused all of this. I don’t think it’s a good idea to have a large dog that barks in an emergency hospital in a big open room where you have cats, even if the cats are in cages. Even if the dog is not aggressive at all, many cats are going to be scared of that if they’re not used to being around dogs.

 

[Meowmee]

Ok. Calling the hospital was an absolute disaster. I got another rude woman on the phone whose name I got again. She again accused me of yelling at her when I was not yelling at her.

She was talking over me and I was trying to explain to her why I don’t have a primary vet. She’s telling me go to the primary vet when I asked if I could give Zena the cerenia at home I said I’m not bringing him there and have you sedate him again simply to give him a shot.

I said, can I speak to the doctor after she already hung up on me telling me that I was yelling at her and I have to calm down !
I called back and I said I want to talk to the doctor. She tells me all the Drs, they’re all different. This is not the doctor who treated him and he can’t talk to you. I said I already spoke to a doctor this morning who also had not treated him and he got on the phone and talked to me, so this is not true.

She says well this doctor is different. His medical license is going to be in danger if he speaks to me! WTH?

I want to know what the hell is going on here. I don’t wanna sound like I’m racist… but most of the people that have been rude to me at this hospital have strong or some accent and the doctor who treated Merlin at another hospital where he died, when I visited him also, who did not even intro himself and was staring into space doing nothing. He wasn’t directly rude but just seemed in a daze and would not have said a word to me if I had not asked where is the doctor to speak with.

I wonder if they even have proper training, they’re condescending and rude and have 0 compassion, and I’m in shock that I can be treated this way by these idiots after spending thousands at their practices. The front desk and techs etc. just love having their little bit of power over you when all I’m trying to do is save my cat’s life against all odds and having to deal with this crap and abuse. Do they even realize that their abuse of me is hurting my cat?

But again they obviously don’t care about my cat or anybody else’s dog or cat probably unless it’s one of their buddies. She cares about the doctor’s medical license because he’s going to lose it if he speaks to me- have you ever heard of anything like that before?

 

[Meowmee]

Update. Zena ate a tiny bit of baby food from a spoon and then I crushed a pepcid and gave him half in some baby food. He did not want to eat more after that prolly because it tasted bitter. I’m going to skip the medication tonight because I don’t want him to start vomiting constantly again.

I just hope he doesn’t end up dying.

The doc who originally treated him is going to be there this morning so I will try to talk to him. If that doesn’t work, I may go to the other hospital near here who is not really an emergency hospital, the one that said they didn’t have a doctor, because the one doc is on vacation I guess and they have no one to cover. I wonder if they would give me some pills if they read his records or if I take him there, that he may not freak out and they may be able to give him a shot without sedating him. Anyway, it’s worth a try.

I’m pretty much on my own here now. I don’t feel supported by any of these people anymore, and I have no desire to go back to that place and be verbally abused by their employees again etc. and give them more of my money.

This is the beginning of the end of me having any more cats or pets. I’m not going to tolerate all of this anymore. That’s the state of veterinary care here now very sadly.

I was reading some reviews of another hospital. I was recommended to go to which I have been to several times in the past. The last time I was there, they were unbelievably crooked and horrible. My father was with me then because he was still alive. I snatched my cat out of their clutches and let her go to the bridge the next day at another veterinarian. The reviews now were so horrendous. I couldn’t even believe it, but I can sadly.

 

[Meowmee]

Another update for anyone who is still reading.

I searched again for Merlin’s cerenia. I found pills, not his but Sybil’s. I found zofran generic, cerenia and mirtaz in pill form for Zena in the past…but I’m sure it’s all good still because the US army did studies that show pills last for many years with a few exceptions and several docs have told me they send expired pills here to other countries.

I am wondering now if I should try to give him some. I am not sure of the dose for Zofran though. Or if I should wait to try and speak to the dvm who treated him in a few hours and see what he thinks, of course I’m sure he may tell me oh I can’t use those pills and I have to pay $60 or whatever it is to get more from them.
I don’t remember giving zofran to any of my cats before, but that was in a little jar with some prednisolone pills which were in gel capsules for Sybil…so, maybe she was on that and I have forgotten, or maybe I put some of mine or my father’s in there for some reason. They were in a little pack with foil over though, so they were probably for her.

I have to add in here that after speaking to awful woman number 2, who hung up on me, and then told me the doc can't talk to me because he can lose his license, she told me his name and I am pretty sure he is the same doc who was there at the other hospital who was treating Merlin the night before he died, and who was odd and totally out of it.

 

[Meowmee]

Ok, so Zena is doing ok. I am going to wait until I speak with the doc later then give cerenia pill, and hopefully resume the antibiotic. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that he will do better now and not vomit. Last thing we need is to have to take him to some other hospital before his appointment on Wednesday.

I looked up the doc I mentioned in the last post and it is the same one who was zoned out and giving questionable care to Merlin. He does not have a dvm degree from here as far as I can tell but he took exams to be able to practice after coming here and getting degrees in other semi related fields.
He never went to any dvm college here or elsewhere as far as I can tell. Yet he is here with his own practice and mostly working in these er hospitals and two other hospitals.

This has been happening in people hospitals for many years now- doctors coming in from other countries who do not have equivalent degrees from the US & Canada, etc. they take exams and they are allowed to practice medicine here when they don’t have the same degrees. Now it’s also happening in veterinary medicine as well apparently.

I am deeply disturbed by all of this. I read more reviews of this hospital now and they were absolutely astounding and shocking which included one where veterinary technicians physically assaulted a client while they were holding her critically ill dog.
There was also a review which mentioned abusive behavior by one of the women who abused me on the phone.

 

[Kwik]

I'm so sorry you are being subject to all of this awful treatment on top of being worried sick about Zena- it's imo criminal!

If it were me I'd not go back there and now that you do have the cerenia at home there's really not much need for them- he has to eat and eating before clindamyacin is often recommended to prevent nausea,vomiting so even the baby food,lickables,churu or whatever Zena will get down to cost the stomach will be beneficial

I'm sure the stress induced fear and anxiety only added to Zenas upset- hell certainly do my better at home with you after decompressing from a very traumatizing experience,poor darling

Dogs barking,towels thrown on top of him ,highly likely bit someone as they do not know how to approach a frightened animal- his escape tells us they started out by approaching head on verses from behind and over- that's what transfer cages,squeeze forks and top loaders are used for....idiots,if your carrier has plastic screws all around those are the best for fear best aggression and they come apart quickly and easily for that very reason

There's no reason why they couldn't administer gas except for not knowing what they are doing- it's outrageous!

You did the right thing with the limited options available at the time of emergency,he is still not stable and you've not had a proper diagnosis but now you have your car and Id suggest a private practice cat veterinarian if you can find one that would be great - those corporate run clinics/hospitals are pretty much all the same as I have found

I'm praying for you and Zena -I don't think I'd be wasting time on the ones you've already had bad experiences with as time is of the essence

This type of treatment of pet parents makes me sick,and Vets don't jeopardize their licenses by talking to folks on the phone,that's a cockamamie excuse......

 

[Kwik]

Don't forget after bring sedated the poor baby feels groggy,drowsy and out of sorts as well,up to 24hrs

 

[Meowmee]

Thanks for affirming what I suspected that they are the reason Zena bit the tech on the glove not Zena. It is a plastic top loader.

I have been up all night again and I just don’t know what to do. I’m going to try and sleep a little and then call and talk to that doctor was one of the few semi decent people there. I just want to ask him if it’s OK to give him the cerenia pill- I suppose it is because someone already told me on the phone that they would give him an injection.

It was Merlin’s cerenia that I found, I believe the dose is a quarter tablet once a day does that sound right? He weighs about 12 pounds. I have to check their records. I think for Merlin it was more because he was heavier, but the average dose seems to be for a 10 pound cat a quarter tablet of 16mg tab once a day.

I’m just worried that what if that other doctor is right and he may have some sort of obstruction. you are not supposed to use it then, but that seems unlikely.
He was still nauseous and was vomiting foam up last time was about 2 hours ago maybe but just a tiny little bit.

I had done some cleaning and had to vacuum because it was so dusty and there was cat hair on the one carpet, and I was worried it will affect his lungs. I hope I didn’t upset him too much but he seems pretty chill now. They were all upstairs.

I gave him and cinnamon some dry food and zena ate some so that is a good sign I hope. I wonder if I should give him the cerenia before I sleep and then wet food when I wake up and then try the clindamycin again? I read that cerenia tablets take 2 hours to work.

It was a small practice we went to for years that contributed to Merlin dying from toxo and I am never going back due to the psycho doc etc. we have an appointment at a clinic that treats a-lot of ferals and outdoor cats, so I am hoping they will do a better job if Zena gets scared again. I have taken my outdoors there for treatments, but not Quinn and Zena before.

I will write more later. If he gets worse before Wednesday I will have to take him to another 24 hr hospital unfortunately and they are all conglomerations. the one left that can treat more complex things has been not that great on occasion but they have not killed any of my cats at least. What a rec.

A reviewer said that there’s another one that’s near one that is really awful now, which I mentioned above, not the one I took Zena to this time. I’m wondering if I should try one, but it’s a lot further away and I don’t do a long car ride.

 

[Kwik]

Thanks for affirming what I suspected that they are the reason Zena bit the tech on the glove not Zena. It is a plastic top loader.

I have been up all night again and I just don’t know what to do. I’m going to try and sleep a little and then call and talk to that doctor was one of the few semi decent people there. I just want to ask him if it’s OK to give him the cerenia pill- I suppose it is because someone already told me on the phone that they would give him an injection.

It was Merlin’s cerenia that I found, I believe the dose is a quarter tablet once a day does that sound right? He weighs about 12 pounds. I have to check their records. I think for Merlin it was more because he was heavier, but the average dose seems to be for a 10 pound cat a quarter tablet of 16mg tab once a day.

I’m just worried that what if that other doctor is right and he may have some sort of obstruction. you are not supposed to use it then, but that seems unlikely.
He was still nauseous and was vomiting foam up last time was about 2 hours ago maybe but just a tiny little bit.

I had done some cleaning and had to vacuum because it was so dusty and there was cat hair on the one carpet, and I was worried it will affect his lungs. I hope I didn’t upset him too much but he seems pretty chill now. They were all upstairs.

I gave him and cinnamon some dry food and zena ate some so that is a good sign I hope. I wonder if I should give him the cerenia before I sleep and then wet food when I wake up and then try the clindamycin again? I read that cerenia tablets take 2 hours to work.

It was a small practice we went to for years that contributed to Merlin dying from toxo and I am never going back due to the psycho doc etc. we have an appointment at a clinic that treats a-lot of ferals and outdoor cats, so I am hoping they will do a better job if Zena gets scared again. I have taken my outdoors there for treatments, but not Quinn and Zena before.

I will write more later. If he gets worse before Wednesday I will have to take him to another 24 hr hospital unfortunately and they are all conglomerations. that one has been not that great on occasion but they have not killed any of my cats at least. What a rec.

Typically dosage ( tablet form)would be 1mg per pound body weight - a 12 lb cat would get 12,MG-however it is a drug thst has wide range to dose safely

 

[Meowmee]

Thanks, doc said whole pill is ok. However it did not work. I gave 1/2 zofran and it is working so far. I think he’s going to need to take that for the duration of the treatment which could be four weeks. It’s going to cost a fortune. I just hope it works.

I called and talked to the doctor that treated him yesterday and it was pretty unbelievable at first he seemed OK and then he basically started trying to tell me that it was my fault that the staff mistreated me can you believe this? I told him what you said about it being their fault that he bit someone. but he just said oh I’m just trying to blame them for everything again. And that I have a tendency to talk over people, so am I aware of that. I said even if that were true, it wouldn’t make it what they did to me ok- hanging up the phone on me, idiot Dr making fun of me, lecturing me. I’m trying to get medication for my cat when I spend a huge amount of money there. In the end, he did apologize and said I shouldn’t have been treated that way.

This all started with him telling me am I aware that I talk over people, etc. to which I said no you’re the first person that has ever told me that. I mentioned that I went to another well-known doctor here for years with my cats and I talked to him on the phone all the time and he never had a problem with the way I talked to him. I think he enjoyed discus cases with me because I was very knowledgeable and cared and wanted to learn. he was even showing me how to read the x-rays. for one of my cats who had heart disease.

One of my cardiologists years ago also told me that I should be a doctor after asking if I was medically trained because of how knowledgeable I am about all of this stuff. I told her I would never want to be a doctor because I would feel so terrible if I did something wrong and it hurt somebody or killed them.

And then he was trying to tell me I might have to go back to get more medication or something. I said look I’m never coming back there again, based on how I was treated, and the only reason I went, there was by accident because I didn’t know which hospital I was going to . lol. I said I would never have gone there in the first place because Byron was killed due to negligence there many years ago. And the same doc still running this place who was his doc for years was horrible- he would not even speak to us!!!!

No acknowledgment from this one that some of the staff are coldhearted, condescending, and incompetent. At one point he was actually almost yelling at me because I just said look can I just get my cerenia. I really didn’t see the point of this conversation at all if he was just trying to bully me into saying I did something wrong and that made it OK for them to mistreat me.

I told him look if you’re in that profession, you have to realize you’re gonna be dealing with stressed out people who are trying to advocate for their pets and if you don’t know how to treat people properly or deal with that you should find a new profession!

I say profession, but most of the people that work at the front desk who are usually the ones who are the rudest and the most horrible don’t have any medical training, but they try to Lord it over you like they’re some type of more knowledgeable person who is above you, who knows more than you do, etc.

meanwhile I spend $5000 on Merlin. I got severely abused and they never figured out what was wrong with him until I did a necropsy after he died at least in part from their incompetence etc. But I’m the one who’s in the wrong here. Because I wanna save my cats life, and I don’t want Xena to die from this too.

Anyway, I’m stressed out about taking him and Quinn to this other place on Wednesday because I don’t know how he’s going to react now I don’t want him sedated again and they only do sedation an early morning appointment. Don’t know if I should tell them what happened at the other place. I’m just worried because we’re going to be out of clindamycin by that point. I was considering ordering some online from overseas and just paying to get it shipped as fast as possible. Has anyone ever done that here?

This place we went to that killed Byron has over 251 one star reviews online. All with horrific stories and with stories of being maltreated by people there, including being assaulted. I didn’t mention this to the doctor, but maybe I should have told him why don’t you go and read some of the reviews of your hospital and then get back to me.

 

[Meowmee]

By the way, for those who don’t know this spinning is another symptom of a toxoplasmosis infection. When Xena jumped off the couch and was dragging his hind legs he was also spinning and vocalizing so keep that in mind if your cat does this. I think that toxoplasmosis infection that is severe and can threaten life of your cat is pretty rare so most Dvm do not have a lot of knowledge about it and they don’t even consider it as a possible diagnosis. There are other neurological conditions that can also cause spinning. I found a good video about it. I’ll post that here later.

Yet in their records at this place we just went to even though I told them at least twice that he was spinning that was not even written in the records.

I went there with three possible diagnosis for them before I even got there because I’m knowledgeable and I read about all of this stuff. But had I not done the necropsy on Merlin I would not have known that he died from a t gondii infection.

 

[Kwik]

By the way, for those who don’t know this spinning is another symptom of a toxoplasmosis infection. When Xena jumped off the couch and was dragging his hind legs he was also spinning and vocalizing so keep that in mind if your cat does this. I think that toxoplasmosis infection that is severe and can threaten life of your cat is pretty rare so most Dvm do not have a lot of knowledge about it and they don’t even consider it as a possible diagnosis. There are other neurological conditions that can also cause spinning. I found a good video about it. I’ll post that here later.

Yet in their records at this place we just went to even though I told them at least twice that he was spinning that was not even written in the records.

I went there with three possible diagnosis for them before I even got there because I’m knowledgeable and I read about all of this stuff. But had I not done the necropsy on Merlin I would not have known that he died from a t gondii infection.

True, toxoplasmosis is difficult to diagnose, oddly but because it is commonly found that most cats have had this parasite and they are believed to only shed once in their lifetime( usually as kittens) and then are immune to onset of disease - not so with immunocompromised cats

What I don't understand is how these Vets have gotten,handed to them on a silver platter btw ,information from you for a highly probable diagnosis and what? Ignored you? Toxoplasmosis can indeed result in a sudden onset and spread quickly to other organs, neurologicsl( Zenas spinning ) where treatment must begin immediately..... Full 2 week course of treatment is clindamyacin,they just seem incompetent - it's mind boggling

To be honest Id be wary of ordering overseas - have no way of knowing what you are actually getting...are you saying they did not give you at least 14days Rx? And with cats and dogs a little" extra ' are typically given in the event ,well who knows how many things can happen to the pill administering un-cooperative pets!

It's disturbing to know that any pet owner should have to be put through all of this while trying to get medical attention for a beloved pet,it's heart breaking

The sad thing is that we hear more and more stories similar to yours in the past few years when it would have been unheard of in days gone by.Id consider this unethical practice and report it to your State Veterinary Licensing Board ,including all documentation to support the allegations

Going back to what happened to Merlin,the necropsy report determined that negligence and unethical practice imo

Right now you need to stay focused on getting the Rx,after Zena is well you can think about taking another course of action if you want to.....

 

[Meowmee]

True, toxoplasmosis is difficult to diagnose, oddly but because it is commonly found that most cats have had this parasite and they are believed to only shed once in their lifetime( usually as kittens) and then are immune to onset of disease - not so with immunocompromised cats

What I don't understand is how these Vets have gotten,handed to them on a silver platter btw ,information from you for a highly probable diagnosis and what? Ignored you? Toxoplasmosis can indeed result in a sudden onset and spread quickly to other organs, neurologicsl( Zenas spinning ) where treatment must begin immediately..... Full 2 week course of treatment is clindamyacin,they just seem incompetent - it's mind boggling

To be honest Id be wary of ordering overseas - have no way of knowing what you are actually getting...are you saying they did not give you at least 14days Rx? And with cats and dogs a little" extra ' are typically given in the event ,well who knows how many things can happen to the pill administering un-cooperative pets!

It's disturbing to know that any pet owner should have to be put through all of this while trying to get medical attention for a beloved pet,it's heart breaking

The sad thing is that we hear more and more stories similar to yours in the past few years when it would have been unheard of in days gone by.Id consider this unethical practice and report it to your State Veterinary Licensing Board ,including all documentation to support the allegations

Going back to what happened to Merlin,the necropsy report determined that negligence and unethical practice imo

Right now you need to stay focused on getting the Rx,after Zena is well you can think about taking another course of action if you want to.....

No they only gave me one weeks pills! Which should be illegal the idea as I’m supposed to go to my primary care doctor or go back to them to get more. I already explained to them that I don’t have a primary care doctor and it was only pure luck that I was able to get an appointment two weeks ago for this Wednesday.
So I’m pretty much terrified now what if the doctor won’t give me clindamycin? What am I going to do? This just shouldn’t be happening as you said and it never would’ve happened a long time ago. A long time ago the doctor would’ve given me the medication for all of my cats right away and then I could bring them in later. I will write more later about all of this just dealing with some other stuff I have to do.

zena is doing well, finger crossed. Zofran seems to be working- thank goodness I had some of that. I think that was left over from my father probably. Those idiots at this hospital delayed me getting anti-nausea medication for two days and then he was off the clindamycin for almost 24 hours or more. Which the doctor yesterday said he has to start all over again.
He seems to think it’s going to be four weeks not two weeks but I have read online. It’s 2 to 4 weeks. I hope two weeks will be enough because it’s going to be really hard. If he starts having more nausea…at some point, he will have to have a repeat x-ray to check the pneumonia, hopefully will be done at the new place.

He was already having symptoms of coughing on and off and that’s why I was bringing him and Quinn and they had to go in for a check up anyway overdue for that because I fractured my spine last year. Quinn is coughing too on and off so you can understand why I’m in a state of fear right now.

I didn’t even know about the toxo until I got the results of Merlin’s necropsy which was like 4 weeks ago and then then I was trying to ask questions but Cornell never replied to me. I guess I should’ve made an appointment right away and I would’ve got one sooner however I had a lot of other stuff going on besides this if you can believe it.

I will write more about this later. Maybe I should just go ahead with those complaints I don’t think what they’re doing is legal although I’m sure they’ll come up with some excuse for it and all of their friends upstate will back them up on it because that’s what happened last time when they killed Byron.

maybe these if these people had actually listened to what I told them when I came in they would have a clue about what’s going on because I had to explain to him yesterday about Merlin all over again. He was accusing me of not doing toxo test on Merlin or Zena , I don’t know what he was talking about. Maybe he’s on drugs or something for all I know.

I had to explain to him again that Merlin was never tested for toxo, it was never even considered and that’s part of why he died because he didn’t get the right medication. Quickly enough so they knew that when I went there and yet this is what they’re doing to me torturing me that I’m terrified that my cat is going to die.

I don’t know if they even realize how quickly it can happen. And then they want to sit there and psychoanalyze me. These people need to be put out of business in my opinion for what I read about what they do to people and to animals.

I have to correct myself. I think it’s like 70 to 100 one star reviews, not that it really makes a difference because a lot of those sites you can pay them off to get rid of bad reviews.

I have to go do something. I will write more later. Thank you for replying.

he did not completely discount my ideas- but I think he obvioulsy did not take this seriously because he was going to send me home no charge after Zena escaped and bit the tech on the glove because he said he couldn’t do that if he had a blood clot, but I pointed out that he could’ve passed the clot already if it was a small one or he could have toxo or some other neuro thing.

In the end, I had no choice, but to let them sedate him with dreaded telazol and he seems to have survived ok so far. Because they wouldn’t do anything without sedation at that point. I don’t know maybe I should just have taken him home and waited until Wednesday, but who knows what could’ve happened then.

Also, zena has been thoroughly traumatized by that whole experience. He could be worse/ scared when he goes to the new Dvm on Wednesday. I’m just gonna tell them look whatever happens here you have to give me enough Clinda mycin to finish treating him. I’m happy to bring him in and get him an x-ray later or whatever if they can’t do it that day, but I’m not going to stop treating him again and I need Zofran too.

At this point, I would really prefer to treat all of my cats because I don’t wanna take the risk that they’re gonna die and it’s not gonna kill them to take them to take clindamycin. I just don’t know how I’m going to medicate cinnamon though.

 

[silent meowlook]

I am so upset to read all of this. I am angry beyond belief for you. I am sickened by the treatment you received and your poor little cat.

 

[Meowmee]

I am so upset to read all of this. I am angry beyond belief for you. I am sickened by the treatment you received and your poor little cat.

Thank you I can’t describe how upsetting this is, it’s a wonder I have remained sane and relatively polite to these people. I’ll write more later.

 

[Kwik]

Do take care of yourself and the other things you have going on,you're not any good to anyone if you are not okay

We are here for you ,we understand you've got a gazillion things happening so write as you can or whenever you want us and we will be right here