Sunday 02/24/08
Every other Sunday I work as a volunteer at a stray/feral cat spay/neuter clinic--I just got home from today's clinic. We neutered over 100 cats and lost seven; my feet are sore and I'm tired. But my day wasn't nearly as bad as that of one of the patients, and not one we lost. As I said, this was a spay/neuter clinic--the cat in question was "spayed" and neutered!
I work in the recovery area, and when this cat came out of the OR his belly had been shaved and there was a sutured abdominal incision, indicating spay surgery. The paperwork was incomplete--the vet is supposed to put his name on it and indicate the type of surgery done, and this wasn't done. The comments section simply stated that a uterus could not be found. I was ready to send the paperwork back so that it could be completed when I took a closer look at the cat and noticed a weenie and two very prominent "bowling balls"--this cat was obviously well-endowed.
We quite frequently encounter cryptorchid cats--these are cats with either one or both testicles undescended, and those testicles are removed through an abdominal incision. But this poor boy was very clearly not such a case--one would had to have been blind to miss his package. So back to the OR he went to have the correct surgery done.
When he returned to recovery, he was innoculated and eartipped; the latter so that others would know he was already neutered. The left eartip is cut off and the wound is cauterized with an electric wand. Sometimes the hair around the eartip will flame slightly, but this guy's ear damn near turned into cat flambe. OK, that's manageable--that wound heals pretty quickly and the cat normally doesn't experience too much discomfort from the healing process. But it can be quite painful if done when the cat is awake. Yep, you guessed it--he woke up during the procedure. I suppose we can be grateful that feral cats don't have malpractice/personal injury lawyers. The cat was probably damn grateful just to get out of there and go to a recovery cage for the next few days instead of a disreputable Chinese restaurant....
Every other Sunday I work as a volunteer at a stray/feral cat spay/neuter clinic--I just got home from today's clinic. We neutered over 100 cats and lost seven; my feet are sore and I'm tired. But my day wasn't nearly as bad as that of one of the patients, and not one we lost. As I said, this was a spay/neuter clinic--the cat in question was "spayed" and neutered!
I work in the recovery area, and when this cat came out of the OR his belly had been shaved and there was a sutured abdominal incision, indicating spay surgery. The paperwork was incomplete--the vet is supposed to put his name on it and indicate the type of surgery done, and this wasn't done. The comments section simply stated that a uterus could not be found. I was ready to send the paperwork back so that it could be completed when I took a closer look at the cat and noticed a weenie and two very prominent "bowling balls"--this cat was obviously well-endowed.
We quite frequently encounter cryptorchid cats--these are cats with either one or both testicles undescended, and those testicles are removed through an abdominal incision. But this poor boy was very clearly not such a case--one would had to have been blind to miss his package. So back to the OR he went to have the correct surgery done.
When he returned to recovery, he was innoculated and eartipped; the latter so that others would know he was already neutered. The left eartip is cut off and the wound is cauterized with an electric wand. Sometimes the hair around the eartip will flame slightly, but this guy's ear damn near turned into cat flambe. OK, that's manageable--that wound heals pretty quickly and the cat normally doesn't experience too much discomfort from the healing process. But it can be quite painful if done when the cat is awake. Yep, you guessed it--he woke up during the procedure. I suppose we can be grateful that feral cats don't have malpractice/personal injury lawyers. The cat was probably damn grateful just to get out of there and go to a recovery cage for the next few days instead of a disreputable Chinese restaurant....