The Tale of Chancey Blue's Tail!

My cat is a Russian Blue, Tabby cross, he is 4 years old.

His name is Chancey Blue.and he has no tail!

Monday, November 24th, 2003

My wife called me at work to let me know that the cat had injured his tail
and it was bleeding.

I got home from work and assessed the cat and verified the tip had been torn
off to the bone.

There was no actual bone trauma.

I called our Animal Clinic and was instructed to bring the cat in for an
examination.

The vet said that a bandage, antibiotics and a head cone was the best option
as the injury was minor and the skin should heal over the end of the bone.

This was done and an appointment made for assessment in 4 days.

Bill = $150.00

Tuesday thru Friday

The cat was annoyed, this was expected. The cat paid little to no attention
to his tail.  Antibiotics were easily administered morning and night.

Friday, November 28th, 2003

I was to bring the cat in for an assessment and bandage change.  A different
vet saw the cat and removed the bandage with most of the fur on his tail.

The wound looked much the same although a little drier. The cat was not
impressed when the vet squeezed the wound. The vet said she would change the
bandage and have the cat come back on Wednesday for assessment and that we
would probably be booking surgery for Thursday to amputate a portion of the
tail.

The vet proceeded to change the bandage.

The vet suggested that leaving the bandage open a little would allow for
oxygen to get at the wound to aid in healing.  Upon doing this the vet also
made the bandage longer.

There was no assessment made to see if the cat could get at the bandage.
The cat was put immediately into the carrier.

Upon arriving at home and releasing the cat he immediate chased the bandage.
The cat would turn towards the bandage step on it with his hind legs, reach
around with his front legs and pull at the bandage. Once the bandage was
long enough to be reached by his mouth he tore off the bandage and any
healing that had taken place in the past week.

We proceeded to re-bandage the tail with gauze and hockey tape. We called
our vet, they were closed. We called the Emergency clinic, they said they
could see him.

Upon arriving at the Emergency clinic we were let in and shown to a room.
We released a very annoyed and paining cat.  He proceeded to turn towards
the bandage step on it with his hind legs, reach around with his front legs
and pull off our makeshift bandage.  The amount of blood was more than the
original wound.

At this point it was 5 days after the original trauma and the cat was worse
off.

The vet on duty suggested we could either re-bandage again or amputate the
tip.

The train of thought that led to my decision..

 a.. 5 days and we were no better off
 b.. $150 of bandage care and we were no better off
 c.. This would cost more and possibly not work
 d.. a bandage could take over 2 weeks to heal the wound
 e.. An amputated, stitched closed wound would heal in about a week.

We opted to amputate the end vertebrate of the tail.

The vet called and said the surgery was successful and she had put on a full
tail bandage incorporating a syringe casing to solidify the bandage.

Upon arriving at the clinic the vet said that the cat had tore off the
bandage again and was best to probably leave a bandage off entirely. If he
went after the tail we were to put baby socks on his front paws.

I was a little leery but listened to what the professional was suggesting.

I left with a confused cat and some pain medication.

Bill = $300+

Saturday, November 29th, 2003

The cat was fine with the situation. He was wagging the tail and at times
smacking the stitched end into objects. This made me cringe though it didn't
bother the feline. I guess the pain medication was working.

I did notice that he would still turn to see what was wrong with his tail
and attempt to catch it for some examination.  These attempts were mostly
futile and I accepted it as instinct. I found a pair of baby socks and taped
them on his front paws. This worked. He was entirely too busy with his paws
to worry about this tail.

Eventually he go the socks off.  I taped them back on and went to sleep.

Sunday, November 30th, 2003

The cat was a little more annoyed in the morning as I woke up to him chasing
his tail on our bed. The socks were off again. I got up and gave him a pain
and an antibiotic pill.

Later he was still annoyed and I toyed with the thought of exceeding the
recommended dosage and giving him another pill. I chose not to go against
the recommendation.

The cat then came up to me meowing loudly and I noticed that he had torn off
the end of his tail again. This time much worse than before. There was blood
all over the kitchen.

I quickly proceeded to the Emergency clinic, again.

After an enormous rant to the staff on duty the decision was made to
completely amputate the tail.

After 5 hours I was able to pick him up, less 1 tail.

The Emergency clinic did not charge me for the services this time.

I am pretty sure I would have refused to pay another bill.

He is now sedated, wearing a cone, with a hockey taped stub.

My poor cat.

Are these people actually doctors?

This experience has made me a thorough skeptic of the animal care industry.

Any thoughts?