Vet Tech Journals: Kitten drama.....

Sorry if this is a second posting...



I get into work yesterday to find out that the co-worker that was going
to take the FELV kitten home was getting cold feet or something. Oh
great.....

I made a few calls, one to the girl that brought in the kitten, for her
to step up the search for a home again. And the other was to a woman I
met a few weeks ago.

This was four days after the kitten came to us and chomped on my
finger. I was getting a few bagels/donuts from Ralphs to bring into
work. It was 7 am. There was only one register open and i had to wait
while this woman had and ENTIRE shopping cart full of cans of cat food.
I mean it was completely full of Friskies. And the cashier was
scanning them one at a time.

The woman looked at me apologetically and said "Sorry, I run a cat
rescue."

A cat rescue? Something in my head clicked. FELV kitten.....needs a
home......cat rescue....

I struck up a conversation and explained the situation and we exchanged
numbers. It turns out she happens to OWN two cats that are FELV
positive that live in a separate room. But last week when I found out
that E was gonna take the kitten, I called the cat rescue woman, K, and
said we had found a home.

Then i find out E isn't gonna take the kitten. WTF? Today E came into
work and I talked to her. Turns out she lives with her adult daugther
and grandson, and there are a lot of pointless details but the
impression that i got was that even though E wanted to take the kitten
home, her adult daughter didn't want the kitten and didn't want to have
to deal with a kitten. Apparently a family argument ensued and so E
didn't think she could bring the kitten home.

Well, it was a bit too much of family drama that I wanted to deal with,
so i stepped up the phone calls. Finally today i got in contact with
K, the rescue lady.

She said she was interested in taking in the kitten. (YAY!) But she
was concerned that it wasn't 100% sure that the kitten actually HAD
leukemia.

Now remember, we tested this kitten when it came in, at around 4-5
weeks old and it tested positive. The smart thing to do is to test the
kitten 6-12 weeks later to confirm it.

K didn't want to take the kitten since it was too early to retest. She
didn't want to put the kitten with her FELV positve cats, cause they
could really spread leukemia to this kitten. And she didn't want to
put them with the rest of her cats cause it could possibly spread FELV
to them.

Now i understood her positon, but she said that she was willing to take
the kitten either way, but ONLY when it was 100% sure that the kitten
had FELV or not. She asked if we could maybe hold the kitten until
then.

That's at least THREE MONTHS. I told her there's no way Dr. S would
approve keeping a kitten here for 3 months.

Dr. S. didn't want to keep the kitten, not just because it was here
free of charge, but also he didn't want to be 'put upon' for strays.
We cannot hold stray animals, period. We are not a shelter. I know it
seems harsh but in a way he does have a point.

So Dr. S was putting the heat on the manager, who was putting the heat
on me. I was still floored that i was the newest employee and I was
the ONLY one who really was putting any effort into finding this kitten
a home. I think it was because I was the one who got bit, and I was
the one who found the cat rescue woman, and I was the one that was
carrying this kitten around on my lunch break wrapped up in a towel.
Basically it was cause I''m a SUCKER!!!

But I digress, as much as I didn't want to force this kitten into a
position where it could get infected or infect other cats, I knew that
we HAD to do something with this kitten.

At the manager's orders i retested the kitten, knowing it was too
early. The test came up positive. The vets and I talked and we
consulted the books. We were using the ELISA snap test, but there was
another test called and IFA test, done by a professional lab. However,
after some research, even if the cat tested positive on the IFA, there
still was a 10% chance of it STILL being negative.

The general consensus was that since it was a strong positive both
times, that it was most likely that the kitten is FELV positive.
Therefore they felt it would be okay to put the kitten with the other
FELV cats.

So I called K back and i did some wheeling and dealing and she agreed
to take the kitten. It sounds like she's gonna keep it in a large
cage, separate from everyone else, for the next three months and then
take her in to be restested. She just wants to be sure, and I don't
blame her. It's like we quarantined the kitten for 10 days, even
though we were 99.9% sure that the kitten didn't have rabies.

Sooooooooo...........the kitten goes to her new foster home on Friday.
The woman lives around the corner from our clinic but can't come pick
her up, so I'm going to personally take the kitten to her house.

I'm crossing my fingers and toes that this DOES work out. This woman
has her own vet she goes to and seems dedicated enough to take on the
risk of taking on this kitten.


So purrs that this does work out.

As much as the whole thing kinda sucks, at least the kitten will find a
home. I know it seems like Dr. S is cruel and cold, but as the owner
of a vet practice, i'm sure he has learned that he can't make
exceptions for every abandoned animal brought into the clinic. Now
SOME clinics do have a contract with the county to treat abandoned
animals, but this one does not. It wasn't just because he wasn't
making any money, and i'm sure that the LAST thing he wanted to do was
euth this kitten. But as a vet clinic owner, he can't afford to back
down no matter how cute the animal is.

Ah well, i just hope this works out.

Kristi

On Wed, 27 Sep 2006 21:31:27 -0700, Mischief wrote:

Sorry if this is a second posting...



I get into work yesterday to find out that the co-worker that was going
to take the FELV kitten home was getting cold feet or something. Oh
great.....

I made a few calls, one to the girl that brought in the kitten, for her
to step up the search for a home again. And the other was to a woman I
met a few weeks ago.

This was four days after the kitten came to us and chomped on my
finger. I was getting a few bagels/donuts from Ralphs to bring into
work. It was 7 am. There was only one register open and i had to wait
while this woman had and ENTIRE shopping cart full of cans of cat food.
I mean it was completely full of Friskies. And the cashier was
scanning them one at a time.

The woman looked at me apologetically and said "Sorry, I run a cat
rescue."

A cat rescue? Something in my head clicked. FELV kitten.....needs a
home......cat rescue....

I struck up a conversation and explained the situation and we exchanged
numbers. It turns out she happens to OWN two cats that are FELV
positive that live in a separate room. But last week when I found out
that E was gonna take the kitten, I called the cat rescue woman, K, and
said we had found a home.

Then i find out E isn't gonna take the kitten. WTF? Today E came into
work and I talked to her. Turns out she lives with her adult daugther
and grandson, and there are a lot of pointless details but the
impression that i got was that even though E wanted to take the kitten
home, her adult daughter didn't want the kitten and didn't want to have
to deal with a kitten. Apparently a family argument ensued and so E
didn't think she could bring the kitten home.

Well, it was a bit too much of family drama that I wanted to deal with,
so i stepped up the phone calls. Finally today i got in contact with
K, the rescue lady.

She said she was interested in taking in the kitten. (YAY!) But she
was concerned that it wasn't 100% sure that the kitten actually HAD
leukemia.

Now remember, we tested this kitten when it came in, at around 4-5
weeks old and it tested positive. The smart thing to do is to test the
kitten 6-12 weeks later to confirm it.

K didn't want to take the kitten since it was too early to retest. She
didn't want to put the kitten with her FELV positve cats, cause they
could really spread leukemia to this kitten. And she didn't want to
put them with the rest of her cats cause it could possibly spread FELV
to them.

Now i understood her positon, but she said that she was willing to take
the kitten either way, but ONLY when it was 100% sure that the kitten
had FELV or not. She asked if we could maybe hold the kitten until
then.

That's at least THREE MONTHS. I told her there's no way Dr. S would
approve keeping a kitten here for 3 months.

Dr. S. didn't want to keep the kitten, not just because it was here
free of charge, but also he didn't want to be 'put upon' for strays.
We cannot hold stray animals, period. We are not a shelter. I know it
seems harsh but in a way he does have a point.

So Dr. S was putting the heat on the manager, who was putting the heat
on me. I was still floored that i was the newest employee and I was
the ONLY one who really was putting any effort into finding this kitten
a home. I think it was because I was the one who got bit, and I was
the one who found the cat rescue woman, and I was the one that was
carrying this kitten around on my lunch break wrapped up in a towel.
Basically it was cause I''m a SUCKER!!!

But I digress, as much as I didn't want to force this kitten into a
position where it could get infected or infect other cats, I knew that
we HAD to do something with this kitten.

At the manager's orders i retested the kitten, knowing it was too
early. The test came up positive. The vets and I talked and we
consulted the books. We were using the ELISA snap test, but there was
another test called and IFA test, done by a professional lab. However,
after some research, even if the cat tested positive on the IFA, there
still was a 10% chance of it STILL being negative.

The general consensus was that since it was a strong positive both
times, that it was most likely that the kitten is FELV positive.
Therefore they felt it would be okay to put the kitten with the other
FELV cats.

So I called K back and i did some wheeling and dealing and she agreed
to take the kitten. It sounds like she's gonna keep it in a large
cage, separate from everyone else, for the next three months and then
take her in to be restested. She just wants to be sure, and I don't
blame her. It's like we quarantined the kitten for 10 days, even
though we were 99.9% sure that the kitten didn't have rabies.

Sooooooooo...........the kitten goes to her new foster home on Friday.
The woman lives around the corner from our clinic but can't come pick
her up, so I'm going to personally take the kitten to her house.

I'm crossing my fingers and toes that this DOES work out. This woman
has her own vet she goes to and seems dedicated enough to take on the
risk of taking on this kitten.


So purrs that this does work out.

As much as the whole thing kinda sucks, at least the kitten will find a
home. I know it seems like Dr. S is cruel and cold, but as the owner
of a vet practice, i'm sure he has learned that he can't make
exceptions for every abandoned animal brought into the clinic. Now
SOME clinics do have a contract with the county to treat abandoned
animals, but this one does not. It wasn't just because he wasn't
making any money, and i'm sure that the LAST thing he wanted to do was
euth this kitten. But as a vet clinic owner, he can't afford to back
down no matter how cute the animal is.

Ah well, i just hope this works out.

Kristi

Sending loud purrs for this kitten to find a good home. MLB