A tale of two vets

Last Tuesday, the 14th, I was on the way home when my wife called to see how close I was.
"Pulling down our street, why?"
"Kitty's doing that pee thing again."
That pee thing is a urinary blockage that he's had before, and since it was almost 9:30 pm, I couldn't take him to our regular vet, so I packed him up and headed to Grady Veterinary Hospital. We've taken our cats there before when something came up after the other vet was closed. I dropped him off, parted with a good chunk of cash, and headed home, figuring it would be like that last two times he had the same problem. The vet clears the blockage and keeps him for a couple days to make sure he's peeing normally before releasing him to go back home.

We're not thinking much of it because this had happened before, but Wednesday night, I get a call around 11:00 pm that he's having trouble breathing and they're going to put him on oxygen to see if it gets better. She didn't sound overly concerned and said she'd call me back if there was any update. Then I get a call at 1:30 am, saying that he now has fluid in his lungs, is struggling to breathe, and hasn't been responding to the treatment. She said he probably wouldn't make it until morning. I drove straight there, calling my wife on the way because she was working a night shift. When I got there, he looked awful. He was in this small cage with oxygen being pumped in, was struggling for each breath, and trying to cough up fluid. Occasionally, he would cough something up and there was blood mixed in. The vet was basically giving up at that point and was starting to suggest putting him down. While we were talking, she reached in to adjust one of the IV lines and he tried to bite her. I figured he still had some fight left in him and told her that I wanted to wait to see if the medication would take effect. I reached in and stroked his head and he looked straight at me and slow blinked his eyes twice.

I told her that I would check back with her in a couple hours and I called my wife again. We both agreed that we weren't going to put him down just yet, but wanted to give the medication more time. I went back home and crawled into the bed, but sleep was far away. I cuddled with out other cat, who sensed that something was wrong and kept leaving the room and coming back with toys. He was giving me his toys, trying to cheer me up. I spent the next two hours playing with the other cat and praying, very quick heartfelt prayers that didn't amount to much in the flowery line. Then my wife called me. She had spoken with a friend who also has cats and that friend told her of another 24 hour vet in Blue Ash that specializes in more critical care situations. I called them, told them the situation, and was told to bring him as soon as I could. I called Grady back, told them to get him ready to transport, and went back there. By then it was nearly 5:00 am and it was looking like he was improving slightly, but I still packed him up and took him to Care Center in Blue Ash.

By the time I got him checked in there, I was wiped out, not having slept much the entire night, so I went home and crashed. Care Center called around lunch time to tell me that he had improved and the prognosis was good. I checked back with them a couple hours later and they had most of the fluid out of his lungs and he was comfortable. The next morning, he was good to go and ready to come home. We went from being told Wednesday night that he should just be put down, to another vet getting him back to good health in a day and a half.

I shared this whole story with the people on my author mailing list and promptly got bombarded with cat photos from readers. That was pretty cool. Now, a week later, and he's back to his old self, sitting on the side of my desk and supervising my writing. If you need emergency vet care, no matter the hour, Care Center in Blue Ash has my wholehearted recommendation.

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Yep, Care Center is the best around.

I took my cat and dog there for many years, when it was time to put them both down I took them there. In addition to expertise, they have to have the best bed side manner around. Even sent me sympathy cards in the mail after my pet's death and on the one year anniversary of their deaths to tell me they haven't forgotten about my loved one.

I was amazed that after a year of not making money off me, that they still found it worthwhile in their opinion to do that for me.

My local vet in West Chester has pretty extensive hours and they do take emergencies. But it’s inevitable that I end up at Care Center because dogs can’t help but hurt themselves at 10 PM on a Saturday. One of my hounds bit into an albuterol inhaler once and was pretty touch and go for a couple days, but Care Center made her right.

And you’re not the first person I’ve heard bad stories about Grady from. Including some techs who used to work there.

Glad your cat hung in there!