A helping hand

In private practice, there are actually not that many days where your direct intervention actually saves a patient's life.  In a way this is good, because these kinds of illnesses and injuries are often unexpected bumps in what is already loa busy day.  They can also be stressful to the owner, pet, doctor, staff or all of the above.  But the lack of this kind of situation can also make private practice mundane and even unfullfilling.  No one really wants to go to school seven years to give rabies vaccines and treat fleas all day. 

And so....our feel good, hero story of the week!  Yesterday afternoon as we were wrapping up surgeries at the spay/neuter clinic someone walked in requesting an emergency cat spay.  Our very patient office manager who deals no shortage of crazy people kindly explained that was not how we worked and that we really didn't have any openings this week.  The person was very distraught and said her cat was having an issue with her pregnancy and a vet had told her if it wasn't spayed right away it would die.  They then asked if there was anything they could do at home to help her.

Now, that's not a lof of info to go on, but generally speaking this didn't sound like a situation for at home remedies. I offered to take a quick look at the cat and see what might be going on and determine some options for them.

The kitty was sweet and quiet, not in any distress, not depressed and not in active labor.  There were no kittnes in the birth canal but there was an abnormal discharge, mild dehydration, and fever.  I suspected the fetuses had died and were becoming necrotic.  While this did not warrant a spay right that second it did warrant a spay in the next day or two for sure.  We initially thought we could give some fluids and send them some antibiotics to buy a little time.  But realistically I realized no full service private practice was likely to help them.  We decided to add the kitty to our already full schedule for the next day since I just couldn't send her away to potentially die over a surgery that would not likely take me more than 15 minutes.  Fortunately we have some grant money that allows us to assist people who can't afford our already reduced fees.  The owner happily paid the associated $35 co-pay and today the little momma got all fixed up!  Everyone went home happy and we got the chance to directly save a life and also help someone in need.