Our fat cat Berta had surgery this Monday – a weird growth on her ear was removed and she had a dental which included two extractions.

Poor baby; but she’s doing fine. Not in much (if any) pain, and loving that I’m feeding her on demand.

Me? I am not happy.

Prior to these procedures, I met with a male vet maybe a month ago.

At that meeting and examination (during which he never touched Berta – the vet techs did everything), we discussed getting her blood sugar under control, the fact that she needed a dental exam and the big and small lump on her ear needed to be removed. Also, since they were unable to get blood from Berta (due to Berta’s overwhelmingly strong and vocal objections), when she came for her procedures they could get blood then.

Fast forward to Monday.

I never laid eyes on, much less spoke with a vet before or after the procedures.  Prior to the surgery I was given a very long list of things I could consent to or decline – including blood work – by a vet tech. I was told I would hear from the vet after the procedures (prior to my picking Berta up to take home).

Never happened. 

I get a call from a vet tech to pick her up.  Picking her up, a vet tech goes over the instructions for Berta’s care, and am handed some pain pills and two pages of (or so I thought) instructions, and I am told Berta needs no follow-up appointment.

I get home.  Turns out one of the pages is blood work results – which mean nothing to me but have a number of items marked “high” or “low”. 

WTF?

I’m giving Berta all the love she deserves after her very bad day, and I see they did not remove the tiny lump above where the big lump was.

WTF?

The more I think about it, the madder I get; and I send a long message to the vet’s office letting them know just how unhappy I am. 

Next day, I get a phone call from a female vet.

WhoTF is she?  I have no idea.  Never met or spoke with her before; but apparently she did the procedures.

She says she was simply too busy to meet with me yesterday but is very apologetic.  She reviews the blood work and mostly poo-poos my concerns – even though she tells me one is indicative of some kind of chronic inflammation.  Excuse me?

She tells me that they didn’t remove the small lump because they didn’t think they had enough skin to properly sew up both places if that one was removed. Folks, it’s tiny – I mean, like the very tip of a ball point pen tiny.

I ask about the diabetes and sugar control (at the time they did the blood work – fasting – very fasting – (poor Berts went from 8 pm Sunday night until I brought her home at 4:30 pm Monday without eating)  Berta’s glucose was at 495 (normal for a cat is 71-159).  And they gave her nothing for this.

The vet told me that I could bring Berta in once a week for blood draws to track her glucose.  I pointed out that at our first meeting they were unable to draw Berta’s blood.  (So unless you knock her out, what makes you think you can suddenly do it now?)  The vet then told me about a pet glucose monitor I could get from Amazon, no prescription needed.  (It’s arriving Friday – wish me luck doing the jabs on Berta; although she’s totally mellow about her twice a day insulin injections.) 

The vet wanted me to make an appointment for Berta and bring her in and I told her that I wasn’t cramming my cat back into a carrier after all she had just gone through unless it was for a very good reason.

And that’s where we left it.

Until today.

I noticed that they removed Berta’s one remaining incisor on the bottom of her mouth.  I was told (prior to the procedure) that the teeth that might come out where molars in the back of her mouth.

Now I get to wonder – just what teeth were removed and why!!!!

JFC. 

So I have an appointment for our orange boy Murphy (who likes to manscape a little too enthusiastically and is basically bald on his lower belly and inside of his hind legs) with my sister Karon’s vet. 

I figure I’ll see if I like these folks better before I move both cats to the same vet.

I had to call my old vet in San Jose (VCA Almaden Valley – if you need a vet they are excellent) to have Murphy’s records sent to this new vet.

I told them: “I miss you guys sooooooooooooooooooooo much!”

And I do.  I really, really do.

Fuck.