A visit to veterinar

29th October 2013

I was on medical leave yesterday due to '"tendinitis" that caused me a miserable fever. After taking appropriate medicine prescribed by the doctor and maybe due to the MC, I was well enough to tag along with Hubby and Syahirah taking the cats for regular check-up at University Putra Malaysia Veterinary Hospital in Serdang.  

Lady veterinarian inspecting Phoenix tails passionately

Phoenix and Kayla gave full cooperation when Syahirah put them inside their carrier, whilst Tottie stiffened his body, refusing to enter. Syahirah had to push him hard before she can locked the carrier into safety. Tottie has been acting strangely ever since Lola passed away on 3rd October 2013. He was on and off rushes everywhere looking for Lola to the extend of waiting by the gate and calling for Lola's return. I was the one who found Lola's dead body on the road just outside neighbor's gate that morning. Haunted for few days with the sight of her laying peacefully "as if she was on sleeping position" made me praying that she be in heaven with my beloved parents (both were cat lovers). I was feeling relief while imagining her running around care-freely on the green grass by the streams of river under my late parent supervision. How idle was my thinking :(:(

Tottie had to be force into the carrier unlike Phoenix & Kayla

Few days after Lola's burial, I came to know from Syahirah that some religious scholar's quoted that, cats, rather animals, becoming ashes once they died, provided that they were in a good behavior categories. For bad animals, they will be reborn and received punishments from other dominant animals among their species should they behave badly in previous life. Paused: this is what the Hinduism beliefs. In the meantime, let's take a look how Tottie behave during a 15 minutes drive to the veterinary.

Tottie during travelling, Kayla & Phoenix chose to stay inside 

My husband whenever he can usually takes the cats for a ride in his 4-wheel drive as according to him, our beloved cats must be bored staying indoors all the time. In truth, we shall not let any of them out from the gate after the sad episode of our previous cats, i.e Kitty (hit and run case), Billy (missing), Tommy (missing), Maya (hit & run), Roger (missing), Micky (infected with disease from mixing with stray cats) and Lola (hit & run). Our pains are too much to bear. We sometimes let Phoenix and Tottie stays outdoor within the house boundary but Kayla is strictly indoor as we caught her few times outside the gate.  

There were many patients (mostly cats and dogs) at the waiting area of the hospital. We had to wait a while. Syahirah open the carrier door for them to mingle with others. Phoenix and Kayla opted to stay inside but Tottie, straightaway jumped and roaming at the clinic hall. It was not his first time but it's time to register Phoenix and Kayla since they came to stay with us in August 2013. 

Checking previous records with the doctor

We were very happy with the services offered by the university's veterinary hospital. The veterinary physician are very experience and trusted with the consultations. 3 physicians attended to our cats at the same time. First, they weighing the cat for a monitoring record, inserted the temperature measurement scale inside the buttocks, inspected animals physical body, including both ears and mouth, performed yearly vaccination if the cat is in good health and lastly given advice about their diets. 

Waiting for thorough inspection

The doctor was very happy with Tottie except for fleas found in his body. They applied flea protection behind his backbone. According to the physician, the cat flea "ctenocephalides felis" is one of the most abundant and widespread species of flea on Earth. Therefore, it's important to make sure that their breeding spot at home must be cleared too as the 3 months intensive flea protection will not work effectively if the breeding place was not treated properly. Hence, we were advised to clean and vacuum all of the cats favourite spots at home including taking them out under a hot sun to kill and clean the flea from spreading.

Doctor: Good, Tottie's have a healthy teeth but the acne on his chin can be clean using a prescribe medicine

We were informed that the cat flea coming in 3 different types attacking not only on the body but inside the eardrum too. The flea is a small, sucking insect of the order "Siphonoptera', it's adults range from 1-2mm long and usually a reddish brown color, others are compressed laterally resulting in an extremely thin insect that can be quite hard to find in animal coats. Human can be bitten, though a long term population of cat fleas cannot be sustained and infest people. Kayla is the most infected by flea as compared to Tottie and Phoenix.

Screening sample from Tottie's ear to check the amount of flea

As for Kayla, his weight is a quite worrisome, 3.2kg. After listening to Syahirah's story of what happened during feeding time (she has to wait for Tottie and Phoenix to finish their meals before can enjoy hers), the physician advised us to separate her meals from the other dominant cat. Being a minor, she must be feeling stressful to really enjoy her food. Hmm.. she's being abuse all this while!!

Checking Kayla's body temperature, 38.9C, found to be normal

Kayla's behaving well during a Vaccination jab

Both Kayla and Tottie did not make any sound during injection time but given a hard time for the physician vet to place the tablet into their mouth. Tottie spilled it out 3 times and Kayla 4 times. What a challenge at home thereafter to finish a week flue tablet medication for Tottie.

Phoenix weighted at 3.65kg (we are not happy as Tottie's weight is 5.8kg)

I was worried sick about Phoenix when I found few spots on his bodies thought initially as skin infection. Few times I bath and clean the black spots found on his mouth but to no avail. Though I pestered everyone to bring him to the vet, they were too busy to entertain my request. Only yesterday he was properly investigated by the vet and be assured by 3 of them that Phoenix had to heal from all infection found inside his mouth before he can be vaccinated though it was due in October this year.

Ulcer's and infection found inside Phoenix's mouth

The lady veterinary physician was very passionate in consulting Phoenix cases. She told us not to worry so much about his condition. She gave further advice and tips not to let Phoenix mixes with stray cat as many cases found that cuts and wounds while mixing with stray cats can infected our domestic cats to serious illness such as FIV (similar to HIV) and leukemia. We are most Lucky as Phoenix are easy to take medicine and definitely never again crossed the gate. We hope Phoenix will recover soon to take his due vaccination.

Phoenix, last out from the examination hall

After a long hour of medication, we were happy when it was time to pay the bills and collected the medicines from the dispensary counters. It's time to go home. 

Collecting medicines from Dispensary Counter

Thanks for reading our story :)

Don't you dare to disturb me Kakak.... at 2pm