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| - This is lengthy, but so has been my experience... (Skip to the last paragraph if you aren't interested in the whole story, read on if you enjoy an epic journeys sprinkled with some dry humor)
About a month ago I came home to find my 12yr old cat on the kitchen floor making a horrible noise, not moving and he looked like he had a stroke. My daughter scooped him up and shoeless jumped in the car holding my "old man." We raced to this emergency vet (referred by my mom), taking note of the posted speed limit along the way...but adding a few MPH to remain with the flow of traffic (it was late I may have been the only "traffic" to maintain flow with). The whole way all I could think was he was going to die in her arms, which would traumatize her for life, plunging her into a life of all black clothing and spiked dog collar jewelry... I may have a tendency to slightly over think potential outcomes...
Upon arriving, Tigger was immediately taken back. A little while later we were informed of his condition and given hope that it wasn't grave. As we stood there taking in the treatment options verse age of the cat and needing to make a reasonably quick decisions, we were kindly asked several times if we needed anything or had any questions. At one point the doctor look at my daughter and jokingly said "should we try to find you a pair of shoes." Some may find this bad timing, I on the other hand welcomed to small break in the stress. It made her blush which of course made me laugh (I'm just that kind of parent- her harmless embarrassment is my simple pleasure- character building).
After several days of treatment, and monitoring, Tigger was still having issues passing urine (this is what caused his initial condition). The final option was a more aggressive approach of surgery.
After surgery "my old man" came home to spend the next two weeks in a crate (except when supervised) with a cool satellite dish looking necklace. HOWEVER... At the end of week 1, he started limping on his back leg. I took him to his regular vet, we started the guessing game and various treatments (a new issue, surgery related, bone, muscular, infection...). I returned to the emergency vet location at the two week mark with a cat who now could hardly walk to have his surgery stitches removed. Their response was to jump right in to try to figure out what was going on with the leg. Again they invited him to stay, as I had to leave town and wasn't anticipating additional attention, since his regular vet was already troubleshooting the issue. The Outcome: A torn Achilles' tendon. This cat's only saving grace at this point is that he's been a pretty cool cat and he is the man of the house.
The vet was very honest with me about options. Surgery again being his best option but because of so recently being stressed by surgery it was recommended that we hold off and see how he heals on his own. It was guaranteed that he would likely have reduced functionality of the leg without surgery however there was a possibility that he may still be able to live a fairly normal life.
Here we are a week later and he's starting to put weight on the leg and conservatively jumping on things (for the most part he just yells at me till I pick him up, but he's getting where he wants to be...such as on the bed, when I'm not being his personal kitty lift).
There are some very mixed reviews on here and I'm not surprised, it is a VERY emotionally challenging situation when you have to be a voice for someone who can't explain what they are going through. But the long and short... I'm not going to lie, this has been costly, but I didn't expect that emergency services would be inexpensive. They were great about communicating costs prior to treatments and there were absolutely no surprises other than the bill being less than anticipated because some proposed treatments weren't needed. Bottom line is the staff and doctors let me make the choices along the way (such as trying a second round of less aggressive treatment before moving to surgery). They offered guidance and were honest about potential outcomes/risks. By the time Tigger got out of surgery regardless of the outcome I had the piece of mind that I had done all that I could, within reason for my aging cat. I was invited to come visit my old man several times during his incarceration (but we are telling him it was a vacation) and receive daily status calls about how he was doing. Everyone was so complimentary of his snuggly demeanor (why do you think I wanted them to fix him so bad!). The entire team... And I'm pretty sure I met or talked to EVERYONE at some point were professional and compassionate. I would absolutely recommend this location. However, (no offense to the staff) hope we won't be visiting again any time soon, 2 out of the last 4 weeks, Tigger has used up all his vacation time! Thank you for all you do and have done for us!
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