It\’s a strange place to be, when you\’re new in practice as a vet. Brim full of knowledge, overflowing with ideas, and hardly any practical experience to speak of. I was always ducking out of the consult room to delve into textbooks (I still do, now and then!) – always wanting to make sure I was doing the best possible thing for whatever pet I was tending to at the time.
One day, in Western Australia, at my first job, a lovely older lady brought her little cat in. I invited them into the consult room, and she placed the cat in her carry cage on the table. I looked in, to see a huddled up puddle of misery up the back of the cage, eyes closed, totally unresponsive to the world.
The lady burst out with her story before I could even introduce myself. \”She was a bit off colour yesterday, and I thought maybe I should bring her to see you then, but I thought I\’d see how she went, and this morning she was like this. I feel so awful, she looks like she\’s dying, and it\’s all my fault for not bringing her in straight away.\” Her hands flew up to her face, and she burst into tears.
I was still not very good at dealing with people in distress, so I froze for a moment. \”Here, have a tissue,\” I said. \”You sit down for a minute, and I\’ll get your little friend out and have a good look at her, and see what we can do to help her get better.\”
I gently reached in and eased her out. She was struggling to breath, in obvious distress. I took her temperature – a raging fever. I popped my stethoscope on her chest, and could hear rattles and wheezes all over the whole lung field. One thing that was hammered into us at vet school is that if you see a cat with visible respiratory distress, it is at death\’s door. Cat\’s don\’t show trouble breathing until they have a serious problem.
\”Your little cat has pneumonia. I won\’t lie to you – she is seriously ill, and I don\’t know if she will pull through or not.\” The lady\’s face crumpled with fear. It was hard to have to tell her what was going on! \”I will give her an injection of some antibiotics right now to start the treatment, and there is a new medicine that just came in this week which is really good for breaking up mucus, so we will put her that too. You will have to keep her warm, and make sure she gets the medicine, and help her drink a little bit now and then too. Do you think you can nurse her at home?\”
Her face lit up with determination. \”You bet I can! I will make up a hot water bottle for her, but not too hot, just nice and warm, and I\’ll sit with her on my knee and hold her as much as I can. Love is very healing, you know, and I love this little one like my life!\”
I sent her home, and crossed my fingers… It was a long day, worrying about the little cat. The next morning she rang in to tell me that her little friend was lots better, had started to get up and move about a little bit, was purring, and had even eaten a little bit of food!