After we had our cat, Whiskers, put to sleep, my wife and I had time to reflect upon our decisions. It was not pretty. We totaled up out costs and they amounted, on paper, to be $9,931.56 and we ended up with a dead cat. Critical Care unit charges: $6,276.56. Housing the cat, x-rays, medications, evaluations, etc.. Surgery charges: $3,655.00 Also the time involved was significant. I had to feed, give medications and a shot every four hours a day….
Today after feeding Whiskers, I returned to the laundry room to find him laying on his side and panting in short breaths. I called to my wife and she took one look a the cat and said that we had to get him to the Critical Care unit right away. We took the cat to this facility and they took a look at the cat quite quickly as I called to let them know we were coming and tried to…
This morning I could not get solids through the PEG tube. I tied at least six times over two hours. Out of frustration, I called the Critical Care facility and they suggested that I bring the cat in. Once I arrived they took all the vital signs and found that the cat had lost one pound. They were concerned and gave me 8 cans of Eukanuba Veterinary Diet Maximum – Calorie food. I was instructed to give 1 and…
We gave Whiskers his normal feeding and medicine using the PEG tube. The cat vomited a small amount about a few minutes into the feeding. I had decided to administer the food over a 10 minute time instead of 5 minutes to minimize this problem. Whiskers took all the medications and food. We moved him into the laundry room with everything he would need for 10 minutes while I went to shower and shave. After dressing for my workout I…
On May 9th Whiskers is put under the knife. The diagnosis was chylothorax, pleural effusion. They cut the sack surrounding the heart and causing part of this heart problem. The surgeons try to attach the thoracic duct but find more than one duct. They cut out all but one, I believe not knowing which one is leaking into the lungs. They take a fatty tissue from the abdomen and put it in line with the duct to help in some…
We were notified to come down and meet with the medical staff. We arrived and were told that our cat had a heart murmur and most importantly his lungs were filling with fluid which we already knew. They did not know what was causing this and requested that we consent to surgery. We were given a 50% chance that the surgery would succeed. (Later, the surgeon told us their track record was close to 80% success). My wife asked me…
