Truth and Consequence
March 15 –
A Sheltered Cat
A large part of our mission at Hoofstock Vet Clinic is to treat animals that many shelters would euthanize simply for lack of funding; as you may imagine, we work with a variety of non-profit animal organizations and rescue groups. Most of the care we give is strictly routine – spay/neuter and vaccinations – yet sometimes we get an occasional head scratcher.
Meet Lewy; a loveable, seven-year-old orange tabby.
He was owner- relinquished to an animal shelter a month ago because he had contracted a respiratory infection. The owners didn’t have any money and they hoped Lewy would get the medical attention he needed if they gave him up.
We treated Lewy right away with an antibiotic shot and sent him home to the rescue.
The next day, the shelter called. “Lewy stopped eating,” they said.
“Hmm,” was my clinical response, followed closely by, “bring him back.”
Hoofstock sees its fair share of overweight animals with food induced health problems. This time, we had a cat that refused to eat. Period.
We hospitalized Lewy right away – and started to entice him to try different foods. We carry several high quality dry and wet cat food – all of which he politely declined. Blood work and radiographs all showed the same thing: a healthy cat.
Next, I tried an integrated approach. The acupuncture point on a cat that stimulates the appetite is on the tip of the nose where the hair meets the smooth skin. That needle lasted 0.38 seconds.
And the scoreboard reads:
Lewy-1
Dr. Cathy-0
Stay tuned . . .