Thread: Pilgrim

On Thanksgiving morning, 2009, a very young feral kitten ended up on my front porch. Wet, cold & hungry, it managed to make its way out of the forest and into our house, right next to the wood stove. Being too young to tell if it was male or female, my wife named it Pilgrim. I guess that's a transgender name, 'eh?

Turns out Pilgrim is a girl. A very feisty one at that. We keep her indoors so the many foxes/coyotes/etc don't make a meal out of her. When the time came we had her spayed by one of the two vets in my small town, about a year and a half ago. For some reason we took her to the other vet, not the one we take our dog to.

About six months after having her spayed she went into heat. WTF? Oh well, must be a fluke. Three months after that it happened again. I took her back to the vet that did the spay and told him he did a sloppy job and did not remove everything. He copped a tude and wanted to charge me "big money" to research the problem. I told him to stick his big money research where the sun don't shine and made a huge scene in his crowded office before I left for good.

Over the past few months the cat has been going into white-hot heat every two or three weeks, real bad. I knew something was very wrong and made an appointment with our regular vet. That was last Thursday, where we discussed the possibility of even a small piece of ovary being left in the cat could cause "false cycles", but that would not explain the severity or frequency of the cycles.

Today the good vet did exploratory surgery on Pilgrim. He found a whole intact ovary with a cyst attached that was ten times the size of the ovary. Not only would that explain the troubles she has been having, but he said removing the cyst most defiantly saved her life, as it would have turned ugly in short order.

I pickup Pilgrim up tomorrow morning, have already paid for today's surgery, and am currently really pissed-off at the other vet. Not sure what I'm gonna do about it but something must be done. Maybe frequent his office and warn his patrons about what a lousy vet the guy is.

Whew, thanks for listening. I need a drink.

Ah, she sounds like a trooper .

I wouldn't mess around too much in person at the bad vet's office. That would probably invite a visit from the local constabulary. A Google review of the business should be sufficient to warn other folks who care enough to research potential vets for their animals.

Keith

The negative internet review is the way to go.

Good idea. I'll just copy/paste this post to a google review. Most of the work already done

Back in 1989 when we were living in the Medford area we took our Australian Shepard female to the vet because she was sick, I think it was Jackson County Vet but my memory fails me. We visited her daily, it didn't look like she was getting any care, her cage was never clean and she got worse. After a week the Vet said she was dying and it would cost us close to a grand to put her down. We were broke and trying to save money to move up here so we paid the bill and took her home to do the deed ourselves. She was very happy to be home and started to get better. Days later she was completely over it. That vet was an animal killer. We talked to another vet about it and he said that those animal killers had a bad reputation in town and it didn't surprise him at all.

Be very careful about where you take your friends for care. If they act like they just see $ signs leave.

Yelp. Put it out there, and then drop a note on the Humane Society's website along with ASPCA.

There are some good vets in the world; the bad ones need to be called out so people can support the good ones.

And props to you for doing the right thing by the little kitty.

Originally Posted by Bigfoot

Back in 1989 when we were living in the Medford area we took our Australian Shepard female to the vet because she was sick, I think it was Jackson County Vet but my memory fails me. We visited her daily, it didn't look like she was getting any care, her cage was never clean and she got worse. After a week the Vet said she was dying and it would cost us close to a grand to put her down. We were broke and trying to save money to move up here so we paid the bill and took her home to do the deed ourselves. She was very happy to be home and started to get better. Days later she was completely over it. That vet was an animal killer. We talked to another vet about it and he said that those animal killers had a bad reputation in town and it didn't surprise him at all.

Awful story. Yes, Jackson County.

Sonic, good ideas. I'll be contacting the Humane Society, ASPCA, and anyone else I can come up with.

Threat of a small claims suit? I don't know if there's a statute of limitations or not. Maybe get the cost of the original spay back so he won't have to deal with you picketing (legaly on public property) in front of his shop every week?

Good luck with this yutz! I have a similar story of a very ill, four week old feral kitten that came to us. We had to put "Frankie' down last July after enjoying his bubblegumedness for 10 years.
Makes me sad.

Mike

Sorry 'bout Frankie, sounds like you did well by him. Feral cats make "interesting" pets.

At this point I don't care about the money, just want other pets to avoid this vet's incompetence. The guy is bad news. Already considered some kind of picketing, but the only public property is the road, his parking lot is his property. I'll figure something out...

Originally Posted by rufus

Sorry 'bout Frankie, sounds like you did well by him. Feral cats make "interesting" pets.

At this point I don't care about the money, just want other pets to avoid this vet's incompetence. The guy is bad news. Already considered some kind of picketing, but the only public property is the road, his parking lot is his property. I'll figure something out...

the hiway (road) has a right of way about 20' into your prop. you can picket there.

Glad to hear it had a happy ending!!! That is super cool of you taking the cat in!
My wife and I volunteer for the West Columbia Gorge Humane Society, and we get cats in all the time that the owners are just 'tired' of having a cat.
I made friends with one cat that was just released into the general population (i know its not a prison, but it works... we quarantine them for a while to make sure they are not sick or have bad tempers, then they can run around with the other cats). He was such a happy nice cat!!! He purred for like ten minutes and drooled all down the front of himself.... I dont get how some people just dont care about cats after they take the time and spend the money to make them a part of their family.

We addopted a HUGE 25 pound cat. When he came into the shelter as a feral, he had a major double ear infection, he had problems with his eye's, and to top it all off, he has cat AID's. Once his ears cleared up they operated on his eye lids and got those fixed. When he came back, my wife just fell in love with him. He wasnt too keen on me, he would swipe at me and kinda hiss, but he loved my wife. Welp, fast forward a year, he sleeps on me and will use my head as a pillow some times. He is always by the door when I get off work and will set on my lap while I play PlayStation 3. He doesnt really give my wife much attention anymore, we think its kinda funny.

Allright... thats the end of my cat rant.

Whoa, did anyone get the number of that truck that hit me?

Adorable. Whatever I may disagree about your positions on stuff, that you look out for our furry friends makes you okay in my book.

You've mentioned that you live in a small town. I'm sure word-of-mouth spreads pretty quickly doesn't it? You tell 2 friends, they tell 2 friends, etc, etc.....

Originally Posted by AMT

You've mentioned that you live in a small town. I'm sure word-of-mouth spreads pretty quickly doesn't it? You tell 2 friends, they tell 2 friends, etc, etc.....

That is so true. In fact, when we took Pilgrim into that vet, he was new in town. Since then you would not believe the horror stories I've heard about the place. There have been lots of other incidents, many far worse than ours. Word is traveling, I just want to shout it from the rooftops.

[QUOTEHe was such a happy nice cat!!! He purred for like ten minutes and drooled all down the front of himself.... ][/QUOTE]


I want that one..

This is the cat I rescued

Does the Veternarian's have a society to write compalints to.

You know - a single person filing a small claims court action may not achieve much. But if you had several people doing it I have got to believe you will create a movement that would get everyone's attention - Call it the Rufus Movement - Save the Animals from Bad Vets.
Bet you the courts side with you.
Ban togeher and get local paper involved.
Bet you he changes or leaves.

OMG has this become an Oprah sponsored site? I want to hear from
the ".22 is the cure for feral cats" faction.

Originally Posted by pokerace

This is the cat I rescued

Grew up to be a big one.