Tuesday, April 28, 2009

I am Frustrated

I admit to frustration tonight. I am trying to help a Lebanon couple get a lot of cats fixed. They have a lot of animals. Dogs, a ferret, twenty plus cats. One mother had kittens and they have the three six week old kittens in a small cage. I suggested vaccinating since several of their cats have had herpes and one, fixed today, has two clouded over eyes, apparently from contracting herpes when a kitten.

None of the cats are vaccinated due to the sheer numbers of cats they have, I guess. I told her she could buy vaccines if she couldn't afford to get them all done at a vet. She doesn't like needles however. I suggested the intraocular, intranasal vaccines Densons carries.

She got some. But then she wants me to tell her how to give them. Then she tells me the kittens are sick and what should she do. When I warn her against giving vaccines to sick kittens, she says "Well I shouldn't have gotten them then." And, "What am I supposed to do with sick kittens, just see if they survive?"

It's frustrating. I'm just helping get the cats fixed. It isn't my fault they have too many animals to afford vet care for all of them. I know she's frustrated, but I can't give them answers for everything.

I told her to give the vaccines then to other cats there, to increase the protection and health of the herd, so they are not active vectors for carrying disease and transfer to other cats not yet vaccinated.

These folks have web access. They can look things up, do searches on the web for answers, too. I suggested that also.

I've had this problem elsewhere. An older couple who use a very expensive Albany vet called me to say an adult they took in from a neighbor is losing hair in patches. They have had three other cats do this, before they took in this one, they said, and took one or two of their cats with this condition to a vet who said it wasn't ringworm but did not know what it was. They wanted me to come over and look at the cat and tell them over the phone even, what they should put on it. I said "Consider taking her to the vet." They said they couldn't afford to. I said, "Consider calling around. There are less expensive vets than the one you use." And then I gave them the number of the vet I use in Jefferson.

They know their vet is extremely expensive. So when a cat has a problem, they want me to come look at it, and possibly take it to my vet, paying the cost myself. That ain't going to happen.

I have a designated little speel now, to recite, when people request this.
"I am not a vet. I do not know what is wrong with your cat. If you cannot afford to take your cat to your own vet, I suggest you call around to find a vet you can afford."

When people have kittens that are sick and they cannot or will not take them to a vet, I tell them to consider giving them up to a shelter that may have the resources to take care of them.

That's all I can do.

I'm know this woman is fed up with having so many animals. I am hoping she will talk to her husband, who she says loves kittens, about getting another pregnant female fixed. She would not let me take her yesterday to be fixed today, saying her husband wants the cat to have kittens, "because she's so pretty". She had at first hedged at getting the teen, who was fixed today, spayed, because she was pregnant. I pointed out they already have over 20 cats and now three more kittens, and two pregnant females could result in ten or more kittens born, in addition. She readily then agreed to her being spayed and really wants the other one also fixed, if she can just convince the hubby.

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