- Joined
- Nov 29, 2015
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- 137
- Purraise
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Sorry in advance for the wall of text!
So I chose my vet based on reviews and how friendly/accessible they seem. They were highly reviewed and the staff are always friendly, knowledgeable, the place is clean and spacious, and they are open from 7:30am to 9:00pm, which is great. They follow up and remember pet names and make me feel like I'm not just a number.
HOWEVER, it seems they are also very pushy/overly recommending tests and procedures...
Background:
My 10 month ragdoll kitten Waffles was meowing a lot before and after going to the litter box as well as having pee on his fur, so I took him in for a urine test, and he had crystals and very concentrated urine. The vet recommended we get him prescription food and recheck his urine in a month - all of which is normal/ok to me.
We put him on an all wet food diet and added a lot of water (1/4 cup) to his food twice a day and noticed his pee clumps increase 3x in size and number, but he also stopped meowing and reduced pee tracking. Our AC broke for a week and it got really hot (80F) and we noticed that he was panting a lot (he used to just pant after we tired him out with the Dabird).
So on our next vet visit for the urine check, we brought it up and they were very concerned and did a full physical and recommended an xray since the vet said everything was normal from the physical exam. We agreed to the xray ($200) to check for heart conditions, nodules, fluid etc, all of which sounded very scary! His xray came back normal, EXCEPT the vet showed us that his heart was 'a little rounder on the sides' (exact words) than she would've liked and recommended we do a cardiac ultrasound ($500-800!!!). At that point we asked for the xrays and said we needed time to think about it.
We contacted our breeder who said all her cats were negative for HCM and none of which had heart problems, and we gave her the xrays so she could get a second opinion, which we are waiting on.
I read up on cats and panting, and it seems to be split between those who think some cats just have a panting quirk, do it when anxious/stressed, over heated or tired, and those who think panting is not normal and a sign of disease. Our vet kept saying 'cats just don't pant when they're hot, they just don't' when we mentioned our AC had broken (it's fixed now).
Since the AC has been fixed, he's only panted twice a day, mostly when he's excited and wants to play, but not after a lot of activity either, which concerns me.
So the urine came back negative for crystals (YAY!) but it was super dilute, which we kind of already knew because he peed outside the box once because we didn't get a chance to clean it and it didn't smell or anything (and cat urine is supposed to be stinky right?). They recommend we bring him in TEN days to do ANOTHER urinalysis for the concentration only, which would involve either buying this special litter to get a urine sample at home or bringing him in for another stressful test. They also said to stop adding water to his wet food, which we are doing now.
I'm not overly fond of the fact that they want another urine test so soon, I feel like they could have just recommended we cut down on his water and monitor his pee to see if it decreases in size and amount before jumping to conclusions that his kidneys aren't filtering/concentrating properly.
We've only had waffles for 6 months, and he's a beautiful, healthy, normal, affectionate cat. He doesn't show any signs of pain, illness, or have abnormal behaviour, and it just seems like we've put him through a lot of unnecessary medical procedures...
Would you recommend getting a new vet?
So I chose my vet based on reviews and how friendly/accessible they seem. They were highly reviewed and the staff are always friendly, knowledgeable, the place is clean and spacious, and they are open from 7:30am to 9:00pm, which is great. They follow up and remember pet names and make me feel like I'm not just a number.
HOWEVER, it seems they are also very pushy/overly recommending tests and procedures...
Background:
My 10 month ragdoll kitten Waffles was meowing a lot before and after going to the litter box as well as having pee on his fur, so I took him in for a urine test, and he had crystals and very concentrated urine. The vet recommended we get him prescription food and recheck his urine in a month - all of which is normal/ok to me.
We put him on an all wet food diet and added a lot of water (1/4 cup) to his food twice a day and noticed his pee clumps increase 3x in size and number, but he also stopped meowing and reduced pee tracking. Our AC broke for a week and it got really hot (80F) and we noticed that he was panting a lot (he used to just pant after we tired him out with the Dabird).
So on our next vet visit for the urine check, we brought it up and they were very concerned and did a full physical and recommended an xray since the vet said everything was normal from the physical exam. We agreed to the xray ($200) to check for heart conditions, nodules, fluid etc, all of which sounded very scary! His xray came back normal, EXCEPT the vet showed us that his heart was 'a little rounder on the sides' (exact words) than she would've liked and recommended we do a cardiac ultrasound ($500-800!!!). At that point we asked for the xrays and said we needed time to think about it.
We contacted our breeder who said all her cats were negative for HCM and none of which had heart problems, and we gave her the xrays so she could get a second opinion, which we are waiting on.
I read up on cats and panting, and it seems to be split between those who think some cats just have a panting quirk, do it when anxious/stressed, over heated or tired, and those who think panting is not normal and a sign of disease. Our vet kept saying 'cats just don't pant when they're hot, they just don't' when we mentioned our AC had broken (it's fixed now).
Since the AC has been fixed, he's only panted twice a day, mostly when he's excited and wants to play, but not after a lot of activity either, which concerns me.
So the urine came back negative for crystals (YAY!) but it was super dilute, which we kind of already knew because he peed outside the box once because we didn't get a chance to clean it and it didn't smell or anything (and cat urine is supposed to be stinky right?). They recommend we bring him in TEN days to do ANOTHER urinalysis for the concentration only, which would involve either buying this special litter to get a urine sample at home or bringing him in for another stressful test. They also said to stop adding water to his wet food, which we are doing now.
I'm not overly fond of the fact that they want another urine test so soon, I feel like they could have just recommended we cut down on his water and monitor his pee to see if it decreases in size and amount before jumping to conclusions that his kidneys aren't filtering/concentrating properly.
We've only had waffles for 6 months, and he's a beautiful, healthy, normal, affectionate cat. He doesn't show any signs of pain, illness, or have abnormal behaviour, and it just seems like we've put him through a lot of unnecessary medical procedures...
Would you recommend getting a new vet?