Wednesday, June 17, 2009

My first trip to the ER (or ED as Chris would say)

Jem, the cat, was neutered on Monday morning. I brought him home that night, put the E-collar (did you know that stands for Elizabethan?) on him, and sequestered him in the spare bedroom for the night. Other than the grogginess and semi-paralysis of his hind legs, he was fine.

Yesterday, I let him out for a little bit in the afternoon while I was reading. He sat on the bed with me, occasionally coming to get attention. He was recovering well, I thought.

I went back in to check on him at about 5:30 (after-hours), and his incision had started to bleed. It looked to me like a lot of blood, but what do I know about cat anatomy or post-surgical occurrences? I also noticed that he was completely lethargic; he just let me hold him in my arms without squirming.

We tried calling the vet, but of course, it was after hours and we were directed to call an animal emergency center. Which we did. I think Chris was really happy about this.

The tech came in to check him, and decided to take him in the back to administer some pain medications, because he was probably hurting quite a bit. We then waited for the vet to see us (about an hour later). There was cable in the room, though. I told Chris that they should do this in the people ER so that patients won't complain when they have to wait. He said they already have them in every room, and that some doctors want to get rid of them because patients get to comfortable in their "hotel suite," and start asking for food delivered to their beds, and wanting to stay longer.

But I digress.

Bottom line: the vet gave us two more doses of pain meds to give him at home, and then told us to watch the bleeding. He explained that male cats don't typically bleed from this incision, and that if we wanted, he could do a complete blood count, etc. We declined.

Not that I don't love my animals, but I am a minimalist when it comes to pet health care. I thought the $90 fee to be seen was enough. More than enough.

He's fine today; the Humane Society (who performed the surgery) said to just watch it.

Lesson learned. Pet ERs not worth it.


1 comment:

Kimba said...

Ugh, we've been to too many after hours pet hospitals, in my book. Always ridiculously expensive, and...well. It's just ridiculous. That's all I'll say. :)