The teenage girl sat in the floor of our examination room sobbing loudly. I evaluated the kitten's problems as her father and older sister sat on the bench, waiting.
Instinctively, they all knew the verdict as well as I did, but waited for me to make it official: "I'm sorry, but the kitten is beyond help. It's best that we let her go."
The father could have prevented this hurt.
He could also have prevented the inevitable recurrence.
We call it "fire engine medicine," the worst kind of avoidable health problems that are allowed to worsen until there is a crisis, if not a catastrophe.
In this case the ingredients of the recipe were nature, combined with man's unwillingness or inability to control it, creating an end product of heartache.
A friend gave the family a kitten. The family never took the kitten to see a doctor for preventive care or spaying. And they allowed the kitten to roam outdoors.
Enter nature.
The unvaccinated kitten interacted with neighborhood strays and became infected with a variety of diseases.
She also became "infected" with pregnancy.
The family never noticed.
A little over two months later the kitten has kittens and, at about two weeks of age, the litter and the whole family arrive in our examination room. The mother kitten has generously shared her variety of diseases with the defenseless newborns.
A basket is filled with sick babies. One has been so sick for so long she's not going to make it. All are heavily parasitized with intestinal worms that could even be transmitted to the humans. The next two weeks will be touch-and-go for the other five. That is, if the Feline Leukemia Virus test is negative.
I'd like to say this story has a happy ending, but we've already lost one kitten.
But at least the Feline Leukemia Virus test did turn out to be negative.
We did successfully treat the remaining kittens and get them through a full series of kitten vaccinations.
I'd like to say the story has a happy ending, but that's the end of the story.
The mother cat never had spay surgery. None of the kittens was altered. None has been back for follow-up preventive care.
And it's just a matter of time until the whole scenario is repeated. All because no one cared enough to provide basic care for one precious kitten.
As a father and grandfather, I ask myself, "What wouldn't I do to prevent one of my loved ones from heartache?"
As veterinarians, your pet's doctor wants to provide you and your pets the opportunity to avoid the avoidable and keep your pets healthy and happy.
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