Monday, November 22, 2010

Spay story

Nessie got spayed on Friday, which reminds me of a funny story. When I worked in veterinary medicine, we used to have this AWESOME cat that came in regularly for boarding named Tinke Zaglin. Everyone loved Tinke! One day, Tinke came in for boarding and a nice receptionist checked them in and wrote up everything they wanted done before they came back to pick up Tinke. The receptionist wrote "Spay before leaving".

Everything was fine until it came time to spay Tinke. Tinke was on the OR table and the DVM opened up the incision. For the life of her she could NOT find the uterus so they determined that Tinke must have already been spayed. Well, the one thing they forgot to check was the sex of Tinke before they started. Oh yes...................Tinke was a BOY! So, even without all of my medical training, I'm pretty sure I would have known that they were not likely to find a uterus in there.

So, of course, we had to call the owner and let her know that actually, Tinke was a boy and that he did not need to be spayed and that actually he was even already neutered! Great news! Well, the owner didn't really think that was great news.......................she KNEW that Tinke was a boy and she KNEW that he had already been neutered!

The doc then began asking questions about why she had wanted Tinke spayed before leaving then? Well, actually what the very nice Mrs. Zaglin wanted was for Tinke to be SPRAYED for fleas before leaving. Yeah............ooooops.......................

Luckily, Mrs. Zaglin was the very understanding type and Tinke got to continue coming back to be boarded with us - which was great because we all loved him. From then on, he became known as Tinke "Spray not Spay" Zaglin. There was no charge for the surgery.

Speaking of getting spayed - Nessie IS a girl and she DID get spayed! Poor little peanut gave the clinic a run for their money too. I told them that they would be best served to sedate her before trying to hit a vein on her for anesthesia. That little wild thing does NOT like to be restrained. They willingly complied and they gave her a pre-med, injected her with sedation and then had to repeat the sedation injection again in order to get her intubated. She's a tough little cookie I tell ya! About an hour after surgery she was back to hissing at the staff and making them generally not want to deal with her. I can't say I blame them. She's kind of a pill!

Here she is sacked out on the couch after her big day.



The other cats were generally avoiding her by all piling up on the other couch with Wayne. Quite frankly, I think they were glad to be rid of her for the day and be able to avoid her frequent attacks!

4 comments:

Owl Chick said...

That's a great story! Also love the photo of catpile on the other couch. :)

I wonder if it's an orange/white female cat trait to be hissy? My ex has a lovely orange/white can that I loved to death, but she was a real b*tch when she felt like it, and they're both creamsicle kitties.

judith said...

We've adopted a feral Birman cat that is scheduled for shots and then a spay in the coming weeks. Thanks for the tip on sedation, Gracie is a wild one too. Let me say, I feel (literally) your pain.

turtlegirl76 said...

OMG what a mistake to make! I hope the receptionist was more careful after that. heh.

Intubated? I thought they still used ketamine on cats. No intubation required.

Knit Witch said...

Ketamine is still used but it is only a sedative. For abdominal surgery, such as a spay, you still have to intubate in order to deliver the gas that keeps the animal under anesthesia. However, this is not necessary for a cat neuter because they are so fast! You can just give the ketamine/valium/atropine mix and have the neuter done in about 5 minutes. So, your cats probably were not intubated for their surgeries! :)