SENIOR DIABETIC CAT SUCCESSFULLY TREATED----

We took our cat into Dr. Thomas' clinic because our cat was losing weight and she looked like death was nearing. The tests revealed that she was in renal kidney failure. My husband and I were very emotional at the idea that we may have to put our beloved 13 year old kitty to sleep, but Dr. Thomas explained our options. She suggested that we could take our cat to another clinic that offered intravenous dialysis, which we did, even though Dr Thomas was clear that the treatment may not work. (The 3 day treatment was almost $1700- ouch.) After our cat was treated, we took her back to see Dr. Thomas for all follow ups, plus we eventually went on vacation and had our cat boarded with Dr Thomas. As part of our cat's health regiment, Dr. Thomas told us that we would have to give our cat a DAILY fluid treatment for the rest of our cat's life. As scared as we were of subjecting her to a painful life (daily fluid injection by needle), we have to report that we are VERY HAPPY we listened to all of the advice provided by Dr. Thomas. It's almost one year later and our cat has such a great life and is full of energy. (Our cat is very used to the process of getting her fluids, which only take about 5 min. We recommend this treatment if one is considering it.) Dr. Thomas directed us through the entire process of helping our cat, including calling us often to check on her status. Truthfully, that first day we took our sick cat into Dr Thomas' office, we thought it was more humane to put our kitty to sleep, but Dr. Thomas had a persuasive attitude that our cat could get through this and still live a happy life. Even though we questioned this, Dr. Thomas was so passionate about her advice that we listened and are grateful we did. My husband and I both think Dr Thomas profoundly cares about cats, posses knowledge and experience and offers realistic advice. We trust her with our cat's care and health. Her staff is also worthy of mentioning as they are truly wonderful as well.

I took my senior cat in to make sure she was comfortable in her old age because I live hey close to them and my regular vet passed away. They ran blood work and determined she was diabetic, all other organ functions were good. They wanted me to start giving her insulin shots twice a day in hopes that they were treating the correct form of diabetes. There are 3 and they couldn't tell me what kind she had from the blood work they ran. They said it could go the other way and kill her but if they had her there and saw her going down hill they could try to reverse what they did and try treatment for a less common form of diabetes. I'm not chancing her life on it. They added medications for bladder infection and special diabetic food it was well over $300 with no definite diagnosis. They wanted to put her in intensive care and made me feel like a horrible owner for not doing this treatment that could kill her! She was dehydrated from eating the wrong food but she wasn't on deaths door like the tried to scare me into believing. I researched it a lot and changing her food to high protein to start. It seems to have done great! She's been much more active after just changing food! This was about a year ago. I love all of my animals! I've had her since she was a kitten, almost 20 years! I will not torture her with unnecessary shots the last year's of her life! Always research before letting vets do life threatening procedures! No matter how bad they try to make you feel...there are almost always alternative treatments! I've discovered this from working decades with rescues that have their own vets...that aren't racking up bills for their employers...

Dr. Thomas is a very conscientious & skillful vet. She only works with cats, and is knowledgeable and experienced.

She and her staff are caring no matter what the issue- behavioral, physical, etc. She always tries to save us $ first by going with the minimum testing necessary, if at all. For our case, she thought it was behavioral and she was right.

Highly recommended.

I believe that a more eclectic view of feral cat treatment should be offered and presented to future clients. A TNR option is not always the only option to advertise in terms of feral cat treatment.