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vet visit
We started with Baldur having a voluminous accident in the carrier on the way over, which meant we gave him a bit of a sponge bath upon arrival. (The assistant was very kind to take the carrier away and wash it. Normally I think of the "bio cleanup" fee they tack on as just skimming, but they earned it tonight.) This probably did not start things off on a good note. :-) But hey, fresh sample from an identified cat and I'd forgotten to collect a sample from the box -- it's not all bad. But Erik was also uncharacteristically jumpy tonight, including when the vet was trying to draw blood. She has never before had trouble getting a clean draw from him.
Baldur, presumably still grumpy from the bathing, growled through the entire exam. He also fidgetted a lot. When 17.75 pounds of grumpy cat decides to fidget, you notice. I thought he was going to take the vet's fingers off when she did the dental exam, and she told me to just stay away from his head while the assistant was clipping his claws because she was afraid he might bite me. (I'd already gotten scratched once.) It has been many years since I've seen him behave that badly at the vet's.
At least they both took their shots without squirming. Baldur once had a presumed allergic reaction to one of the vaccines, so he also gets a shot of kitty Benadryl.
I couldn't get three adjacent appointments, so I'll have to go back another time with Embla. I made this appointment as "Erik plus one" and that was ok with them. (The vet specifically wanted to see Erik tonight.) I'm not surprised that I was unable to capture Embla tonight.
But in interesting news, it seems the Atkins craze has cat-food analogues. I had commented that I expected Erik to have gained some weight (he didn't) because he's been getting canned cat food (to bury medicine in); the vet told me that actually, anecdotal evidence suggests that cats are more likely to lose weight on canned food. The dry stuff, by contrast, is full of carbs. Mind, this isn't scientifically-validated research; it's just what some vets have started to talk casually with each other about. Curious.
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If they don't go out (ever) and you never bring another cat in, then you're gold. Unfortunately, most of my patients do the inside/outside thing, and I see way more feline leukemia infections than I do fibrosarcomas. There are other factors working that cause fibrosarc besides FeLV vaccines (considering at least two of my fibrosarc patients never had ANY vaccines, with owners who had them from kittenhood on).
_M_
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And I do completely agree that, if your cat is at risk for the disease, the vaccine is appropriate. My frustration is that most vets don't even talk about the risks involved. And even 1 in 10,000 should be discussed.
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I have no doubt they'd appreciate the cookies.
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That turns out to be my situation, and a few years ago my vet recommended that we discontinue the vaccines for feline leukemia because it sometimes does harm. (She didn't give me odds and I didn't ask.) The only other non-human mammal that's come into the house since I got the cats is one Italian greyhound (single visit), and I'm pretty confident that he wasn't carrying the disease. :-) (When I added Embla to the household I did so only after having a vet screen her.)