a trip to the vet

Iggy has been suffering from pain in his hips/back legs for a little while; it seemed to come and go, but on Friday we determined we would take him to the vet this week, and so fetched one of the cat baskets out of the loft while we were getting some other stuff down.

We were away for a couple of days, and when we got back, he seemed quite miserable, and wanted a lot of company, so I phoned for an appointment this morning. As he sat on the stool in the kitchen, I said to Pete that his mouth looked a bit … crumpled, and we wondered if he’d had a mini stroke or something.

Anyway, off we trundled to Chants Vets, and explained why we’d brought him. Sarah said he would need an X-ray under anaesthetic, but obviously wanted to have a general look at him. She went to open his mouth, and he really didn’t want her to. I held him while she managed to take a look and, to our horror, his mouth was in a dreadful state; he had a hard lump in there, and there was no question but it would have to be properly investigated. She said it might be an abscess, but it might also be a tumour, and if it were the latter, it would almost certainly be kinder to not let him come round from the operation.

We came home about 10.30, and just waited. They phoned about 1, and said they’d done a blood test which showed his kidney function was a bit poor, but that really they had to go ahead with the operation, he couldn’t be left as he was. I phoned at 2, and was told he was still in the theatre, and phoned again at 3.30 as instructed, to find he was out, and could be collected at 6.

Along we trundled, to find that all four canines had broken (one of which was causing the abscess), and had to be removed, two other molars ditto, and several small incisors. We have an opiate-based painkiller for him, and he has to go back in a week to see what to do about the kidney function, and the arthritis – our options on the latter are a little limited due to the former, but there are several options. We were warned that he probably would have little appetite today, and to try and tempt him.

Cost today: £525 (ouch), and we will be paying for various treatments for him for the rest of his life. And the chap is worth every penny. He’s now sitting in front of the stove, which we lit before we went out so that it wold be properly warm for him, and it’s exceedingly nice to have him home, given that we thought he might not come back at all … Oh, and his first action on coming out of the cat basket was to wander into the kitchen for some ham, and then to the bikkit bowl 🙂