For help, advice and discussion about stuff not related to aviation. Play nice: no religion, no politics and no axe grinding please.
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By OCB
#1613121
Hi all,

I have a very sick kitty, and as much as I’d rather not post about it on here, I’m getting a bit desperate.

PM would be gratefully appreciated and PayPal or similar arranged.

I know folks will want to know, so he is 2 yr old, him and his sister caught some sort of cat cold a few weeks ago. It was bad and long enough to take them to our very friendly local vet. She gave Cortisone injection- and that has triggered a dormant virus . The sister is ok now, but the male is not recovering at all.

The vet nor her colleagues have seen anything like it.

Ive asked her to at least get in touch with her former Faculty, but she seems reluctant to do so.

Hence my asking on here. Apart from it costing us a fortune, I’d appreciate a 2nd opinion (not local though).

Cheers.
#1613199
Just this week, I know of a lass that took an egg bound hen to the vet to get it checked out, left it there only for it to pop it’s clogs. The bill £140. There is only one cure for such an occasion - wring it’s neck.
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By Genghis the Engineer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1613253
I am no use to you, insofar as I don't keep animals, have no veterinary qualifications, and none of the universities I have anything to do with have veterinary schools.

But in my opinion, the help you need *may* come from either a student or academic in veterinary sciences - as they will both have access through their university library to the latest and (hopefully ) full academic literature, as well as knowing the meaning of all the difficult words and how to use the relevant search tools.

It is an absurdity that, irrespective of field, most "learned" professionals cease to have full access to the latest literature in their professions the day they graduate from university. This is precisely why there is an ongoing movement and much government pressure towards open access journals. After all the governments, universities and charities who fund most of this research have no incentive to keep it secret - unfortunately we are all fighting against the vested interests of the large academic publishing houses.

G
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By Flintstone
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1613260
Sorry OCB, can’t help but as someone who has spent a small..........no, make that a large fortune on animals over the years you have my sympathy.

Hope you get it sorted.
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By Bob Bevan
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1613262
Hi,

I help my wife run the local branch of Cats Protection. While not a vet, she knows a huge amount about cat ailments and also has access to CP support material. If you want to PM / Email over as much info as you can (i.e. details of cat, symptoms, timescales, treatment received etc) I will ask her to have a look when she gets in.

Cheers,

Bob
By riverrock
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1613264
I have an 8 year old cat, but I'm certainly not a vet.
Cortisone suppresses the immune system, which can be good for many things, but it sounds like it had made things worse for you.
See http://www.catster.com/lifestyle/cat-re ... -cortisone as an example of similar symptoms, so perhaps a URI? There are apparently tests which can determine the virus, but as treatment is generally the same no matter what, they are rarely done.
Quote from that website :
The cure for almost every type of URI is to support the cat’s immune system through nursing care (adequate diet and fluids, nebulization to break down respiratory secretions, rest, love, and antibiotics if appropriate for primary or secondary bacterial infections) until the cat’s immune system can kick the problem.


In Scotland, when something is beyond a local vet, there are referral centres that are attached to University vet departments. You can take your pet directly to them if too. I don't know about where you live.
By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1613266
After all the governments, universities and charities who fund most of this research have no incentive to keep it secret - unfortunately we are all fighting against the vested interests of the large academic publishing houses.


[threadrift] It's the academics who perpetuate this journal problem through misguided ideas of prestige. I wrote a report called The UK Research Data Service on behalf of HEFCE and its main recommendation was to work with DCC in Edinburgh and the major funders to get behind the open access movement. 10 years on it's making good progress but Elsevier in particular has been fighting a heavy rear guard action!![/threadrift]
By riverrock
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1613268
The journal market isn't nice. Lots of "pay to publish" ones, with highly varying quality.
Difficulty with open access journals is who pays the editors and reviewers - without them, the lack of quality makes then no better than Google searching.

I have a fairly recently qualified vet friend and her work gets delivered constant new material and updates for her to go through - hard to keep on top of them apparently. However I'm on holiday so won't see her for a few weeks so no opportunity to ask about OCB's issue.
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By nallen
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1613273
riverrock wrote:Difficulty with open access journals is who pays the editors and reviewers.


The authors and their institutions pay, as always. Publishers just make the process easier (at least, that's the theory), establish some standards (at least, that's the theory), and charge accordingly (or extortionately, depending on viewpoint).

Open access requires a budgetary shift: money that previously went to a library to pay for an expensive journal subscription needs to be moved to the researcher to cover publication costs. Some research funders do allocate allowances to cover open-access publication costs.

(I'm always happy to be paid direct by any authors who want my editing services … :D )
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By OCB
#1613283
Cheers for most of the answers.*

I typed the initial post, left handed (I’m a righty) with the cat in my other arm. I’m annoyed with myself that I lost contact with my Uni mates, some of who will now be vets with 20-25 years experience.

Our vet is quite young, hence I am hoping she has some informal contact with her old Faculty. Alas, I left Scotland for mainland Europe 17 years ago - now settled in Belgium.

The vet is basically following the protocol mentioned by CP website, except for nebuliser. He doesn’t seem to have respiratory issues, so fair enough. Feeding is now done via a catheter down his nose. It is a semi permanent job, which is part of reason for my plea for help. Yesterday evening when I got home I noticed he’d ripped the catheter out. My wife had an appointment so it was 2 kids with her in one direction and 1 with me off and to the vet. The past few nights for various different reasons - not just the cat - I’ve managed about 4 hrs sleep. I’m fuggered.

I’ll ask the vet for his “file”. His blood test turned up negative for the common cat viral infections.

*footnote on the “wringing neck”. It’s already been discussed, even the vet last night kicked my son out the room and said she didn’t have a good feeling.

We’ve already lost 2 cats in the past year to car hits. Local traffic was suddenly routed via our sleepy street, with some nutters easily doing 70 or 80 mph in and out the cars parked one side or other.

I also don’t want my young kids getting the idea that they can fix hard health problems simply with a lethal injection or whatever. ...here in Belgium euthanasia is legal, I don’t trust the little b8ggrs as it is!
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By Bob Bevan
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1613289
OCB wrote:Cheers for most of the answers.*

Our vet is quite young, hence I am hoping she has some informal contact with her old Faculty. Alas, I left Scotland for mainland Europe 17 years ago - now settled in Belgium.



We used to live in Tervuren-Vossem to the east of Brussels and had two moggies at the time. I still wince at the memory of the vet bills but these paled in to insignificance compared with the costs of quarantine when bringing them back to blighty!
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By OCB
#1613304
Bob Bevan wrote:
We used to live in Tervuren-Vossem to the east of Brussels and had two moggies at the time. I still wince at the memory of the vet bills but these paled in to insignificance compared with the costs of quarantine when bringing them back to blighty!


I’m 20 mins away from Tervuren.

Vet fees are indeed eye watering here.

One of the 2 cats that got killed by the sudden wacky races in our street had just recovered from a badly broken leg - I hadn’t folded a garden chair properly whilst cutting the grass. He must have jumped up on the chair later that night, and the scissor legs of the chair trapped him. Femur snapped in 2. His vet bill was well into 4 figures, spent months in a cage before not long after”liberation day” he failed to outrun some muppet tearing down my road.