Update to Home Vet Visit

You know how, even though you have the best intentions, sometimes things just really don't go like you think they will?  Our vet visit on Wednesday was a little like that.  Don't get me wrong--our vet was fantastic as usual, and it was really nice not rounding the buddies up and smushing them, kicking and screaming, into the carriers.  The problem, the way I see it, is that even though we think of ourselves as people who do a good job thinking like cats, we aren't cats.  And sometimes, our human "logic" gets in the way of actually thinking like a cat.

It made sense to think the vet visit would be less stressful because they didn't have an hour-long round-trip car trip, right?  And all the accompanying vet smells, and the dogs in the lobby and the bright lights, etc.?  Except what we weren't thinking about was the intrusion on the inviolable boundaries of their domain.  The one place on earth where they knew nothing would ever or could ever harm them.  Oops.  

Okay, so it was a tactical error.  But to be fair, none of them technically got "harmed."  Nobody was due for any shots, and only Mister had to have his blood drawn.  But they got prodded, had their mouths pulled open to check their teeth, and had to suffer the embarrassment of getting weighed.  This apparently counts as harm, in their book, from the way they responded to it.

So, Wanda was not at all placated by having her vet visit in her home.  She much resented being pulled from her warm, cozy nappy place deep in the folds of the bedclothes to go visit the guy in the proverbial white coat.  Not only did she fight like a banshee this time too, it really seemed more like she was a banshee with superpowers.  She nearly threw herself off the dining-room table twice, and her tiny little body looked like it had enough adrenaline coursing through it to enable her to lift a good-sized SUV, if she had discovered any reason to do that.  Instead, she was using her superpowers to flail, thrash, and make unearthly growling/moaning sounds that made us wonder for a moment if she had been possessed by Mango for a few minutes.  Our vet took this all in stride, even the really scary part when he had to open her mouth to check her teeth (yikes!).  Let me tell you, that took several attempts.

Elroy, Reggie and Mister all handled the experience pretty much the same way--they resisted like crazy.  Reggie, who is arguably the most friendly of the bunch, suddenly became a surly teenager in the presence of the vet and the tech and all their medical implements.  Elroy and Mister were equally unamused.

Only Otto (bless his little heart) seemed completely nonplussed by the whole situation.  He was second in line, and within the first five minutes on the dining-room-table-turned-exam-table, he was purring up a storm.   Finally, the Big Buddies are letting him walk all over the dining room table!  And all this attention!!  Four whole people all looking at Otto and petting him at the same time!   Otto was in heaven!  So much so that, when his turn was done and he was put back on the floor, he seemed a little disappointed.  Every time we had to go back to the bedroom and get another cat, he looked up at the new patient and people wistfully, as if saying, "are you sure you don't need to examine me again?  My whiskers have been feeling a little bloated lately..."

 Otto, basking in the glow of all the attention.

And then, the pièce de résistance:  descending down into the basement to corral Mango.  Turns out Mister had fled down there, too, which was a darn good thing because we still needed to draw blood on him.  We only discovered this after weighing him and confirming he had lost a lot of weight.  I had put him down immediately after weighing him, and he dove for the basement post haste.  After talking it over, we decided drawing blood would be the best option.

So, down into the basement we all went.  Mango, poor thing, did exactly what we thought she would do--made a beeline for the (now closed) door, skidding across the floor helplessly when she realized her escape was blocked.  Around and around the room Sean and I went, trying desperately to trap her somewhere where the two of us could successfully grab her.  Eventually we succeeded, and Mango also got her examination.  Mango's going to need a dental, but we really kind of expected that.


It turns out that Mister has hyperthyroidism, which we also kind of expected.  He'd been losing weight lately, and tearing around the house like a cat on speed (or acid).  He's been playing a lot more, too, which made us falsely hope that maybe he was just experiencing a "second-kittenhood" of sorts.  Turns out his bursts of happy energy have been purely hormonal.  We're talking to the doctor tomorrow about alternative medicine options for him, since the three standard treatments, while effective, seem really kind of scary to me.  I'll go into that more once we talk to the doctor tomorrow.


All said, the home vet visit was a success, although not necessarily a rousing one.  I'm sure that if we polled the buddies, they would probably disagree with that assessment.  But the good news was that, with the exception of Mango, all the buddies were doing really well, even with their teeth, which is always good news with cats.  And at least the group wellness visit is done for another year.  I'm sure they all breathe a sigh of relief knowing that.