30/03/2009 by Arielle.

I had 3 cats booked in for their yearly vaccinations, program injections and worming. The computer flashed up a sign saying owner warning, but I was in too much of a hurry to read it and called through Ms Cooper - a tall blonde ‘lady’ with all her cats.

As soon as I looked at Ms Cooper with her large jaw, I realised that she was in fact a man  - with a very pretty smile wearing a long pink skirt and equally bright pink top. She had 3 cats that had put on far too much weight as she had moved to a flat and her cats had become indoor cats but she had continued to feed them as though they were outdoor cats.

I checked the owner warning when she left and it said that from July 2008, Mr Cooper wished to be referred to as Ms Copper as she was transgender. I dealt with her as I would any client but had a quiet chuckle to myself when I asked her if she wanted me to carry the cat carrier with her 2 very heavy cats in it for her. She sweetly replied ‘Oh yes’ as if she was not very strong but her arms were probably twice the size and strength of mine!

Posted in Being a Mum and a vet | No Comments »

19/03/2009 by Arielle.

Charlie Houston is a 5month old sweet young cat who had found her current owners by being found at the husband’s factory. They acted very responsibly with their new cat and brought her in for her first vaccinations and identichipping. She came in today for her 2nd set of vaccinations. I am not sure why I did it as I do not often do it as routine but I decided to check her identichip with our scanner once I had vaccinated her.

It had miraculously disappeared. I tried another scanner thinking that the first was faulty and ran it all over sweet patient Charlie - even down her legs but nothing! The only think I could think of was that it was a dud chip which can occur very rarely. Never having been faced with this problem before, I set about identichipping her again. When it came to the payment section, I told the owners that as I had never dealt with a case like this before, I was not sure if they had to pay again.

Once they had gone, I sent a message to our administrator upstairs. I hope she enjoyed my inital heading it read ‘Charlie Houston - we have a problem!’

Posted in A veterinary day | No Comments »

05/03/2009 by Arielle.

Annabel was a young small cat who had recently been admitted in the hospital for tests as she was vomitting her food everyday. All the results were negative and today Annabel was in for her vaccinations. I asked the owner whether the vomitting  problem had been sorted out and she answered that yes, after all the extensive tests; the owner had worked out the problem!

She had changed Annabel’s food from Whiskas to Felix and all the vomitting stopped. The owner worked closely with the cat’s protection league and had many cats of her own. She went on to tell me something I had never heard and wondered if it could be true.

She had been told by a vet many years ago to not feed any of the rescue cats Whiskas as they added an ingredient that they would never make owners aware of - caffeine to the food. This obviously made the food addictive to our cats which meant that they would only eat this brand of food - I wonder how true this is and if it is, how deceiving!!

Posted in A veterinary day | No Comments »