Second opinion

Paul demanded Attitude get a second opinion on her nasty URI(he was refusing to give her her antibiotic so she was really bad.) Vet told him my vet had done everything right(which I could have told him and DID.) Vet was all gloom and doom and the only thing that saved her from being put down was me saying that she was my cat and she still had a quality of life and there was no way in heck I was having her put to sleep. I knew in my heart if I didn't go to this appointment I wasn't going to have a cat anymore. Not to mention I'm not putting my cat to sleep because she has a URI. Trying a new antibiotic, hopefully it works. I have never been to such a pessimistic vet in my life. Needless to say she will never be back there, not that I was going to change vets anyways. They were almost bullying us into putting her to sleep, the vet didn't even have his fatality statistics correct. It also didn't help when he said the oldest FeLV+ cat they ever had made it to 6, at my vet they have had 10+ year old cats and one of the vets had an uncle whose FeLV+ cat lived to be 17 and died of old age. I know all cats are different but they said 6 like it was some great number, my vet isn't happy when they make it to 10.

I have never had a worse vet visit in my life. I told Paul I will only consider putting Attitude to sleep when MY vet brings it up not some vet who has seen my cat once, especially considering it was almost like they were trying to bully us into it. My vet is always willing to try something else as long as we are, they were basically telling us that there was no use in doing anything and we should give up. I made him give us a different antibiotic(one we haven't tried before) and we paid and got out of there. I'm still steaming over this. I almost lost my cat. If it wasn't for me going to this appointment they would have bullied Paul into putting her to sleep.

Taryn

It would be one thing if she was truly suffering but she's not. Yes she's miserable due to the URI but I'm not giving up until everything is exhausted and she's only been in 2 antibiotics for this bout so almost nothing has been tried. They didn't carry the antibiotic that knocked it out the last time and couldn't find any place that did(it can supposedly sometimes cause aplastic anemia in humans if it is absorbed through our skin, so most places don't carry it) so we tried a newer antibiotic that we haven't ever used before. Hopefully it works.

I didn't want to use this vet and certainly wouldn't have used them for a second opinion if I had had my say in it.

Like I said I trust my vet and if they say they think it's time for Attitude to cross the bridge and/or all options have been exhausted or she's suffering or no longer has a quality of life then it is time. All the visit did was stress out Attitude. She had to go for a ride in Paul's car(she has never been in Paul's car before) she was taken to a strange place with strange people who were poking and prodding her and sticking things up her rear end(they obviously took her temperature) and I could tell she was very uneasy and on edge. She was still very friendly to everyone but I knew she would be more at ease at her normal vet's office, they just seem nicer and aren't all gloom and doom.

Taryn

My vet is farther away from this one but close enough that I could get there quickly in an emergency. I use them because of the wonderful care they gave to Abby, my Old English sheepdog. In the end she was blind(a non-issue, she went blind at 5) and had severe arthritis but they kept her going and she still had a great quality of life. They told my parents to make sure she was walked everyday which is what kept her going and prevented her from getting really stiff, you could tell when she hadn't been walked, she was a lot worse. They were wonderful with her and she loved them. In the end her liver or spleen burst and she had massive internal bleeding so it was decided it was her time to go, it wasn't fair to try and save her(she was fine when healthy, she had a quality of life) but it wasn't fair to put her through everything needed to save her and have her continue to live the life she had and she didn't have much left in her) and she was put to sleep at 11 1/2. She had lived a long happy life(average OES life span is 10- 12 years.)

They are doing the same for Attitude, they won't give up but will be honest if they think it's time. With Abby it was very cut and dry that keeping her alive would be only for us and not her.

They love animals and have always provided top notch care for both Attitude and Nuts, as they did for Abby. They are patient and calm and Dr. Jessen even found it funny when he tried to worm Nuts and ended up getting wormed himself(I think he ended up with more of it in him than Nuts did, I forgot to warn him that Nuts wasn't like Attitude when taking liquid meds.)

It was just a great reminder of why I love my vet.

She is still snuffling but seems to be doing good. She seems to be more accepting of this one so I think it doesn't taste as nasty as the others. She seems to be more like herself so she is doing better.

Taryn

I also think this vet was looking at the giant amount of records my vet faxed to him. They are extensive and long, but 99%, other than routine appointments have been for eye issues.

Yes she is on lysine and has been for a while, it doesn't make much difference but it makes enough of one that I give it to her.

I'm more worried that she has dropped over a lb. I gave her some a/d last night I got from my own vet a week or 2 ago and her and Nuts(who totally didn't need it) both inhaled it. I know the weight loss might have something to do with the possible scale differences or her just not eating much due to feeling crummy. She is eating and drinking fine(she is eating enough that her liver isn't in danger, and she is no longer overweight), just not as much as usual.

Like I said everyone else is healthy, except Half-Tail who still looks like a concentration camp survivor but she is being her normal self so she, while being skinny, is healthy too.

Like I said my normal vet(and their staff) know Attitude and how she is, this guy has met her once and basically said there was nothing to do about it and it was useless to try. The massive amount of vet records he received should have told him that neither her nor I(nor the vets that I trust) are ready to give up. If she gets to the point where I, or the vet thinks she needs to cross or Attitude tells me she has had enough then it will happen, but until then I'm not going to surrender and say there is nothing that can be done when almost nothing has been done, counting what she is on right now this is only the 3rd antibiotic we have tried this round. I know Baytril makes her puke, so that is out. That is the only antibiotic we're going to remove from what we try when she gets sick. You never know which one will work on what she has, sometimes the first one works other times it doesn't.

I also didn't need him saying she needed a CT or MRI since there was obviously something else going on in there like cancer. My vet has CT available on site so I know they make money on(CT and MRIs don't come cheap) that so I know if they thought she needed one they would have suggested one by now.

It just made me mad for them to essentially say everything has been done and there is nothing else to do just really made me mad. I'm almost positive that is why their oldest FeLV+ cat only made it to 6. He doesn't know Attitude and how she normally is. I think I am the best judge of how my cat is and when she has had enough.

If this antibiotic doesn't work she'll go to her normal vet and see what they can do for her but it seems to be helping.

Oh well, I got reminded of what a great vet I have, I'm sure Attitude would have been long gone if I had these yahoos as my regular vets and not the ones I currently have. I'm also not fond of one vet only practices when it comes to cats like Attitude, multiple heads work a lot better than one. Also they were a very small practice and they just didn't feel like they had a lot of experience backing them up.

Taryn