Luna at the Vet, an epic task

I brought Luna into work today to get blood and urine for a complete senior cat battery of tests; chemistry, complete blood count, thyroid, urinalysis, the works. In order for the chemistry part to be completely accurate Luna had to fast. She hadn't eaten since 8pm last night by the time we got into work at 7:45am. Because we needed to draw the urine sample directly from her bladder, she couldn't have a blanket or litterbox in her cage. She was put in a metal cage with a vinyl covered thick metal grate on the floor, in case she peed, and a bowl of water. One of the other cats in the room meowed all day. This is not Luna's idea of a good time and she did an excellent job of making me feel very guilty about it.

Luna's vet is on call tonight so he didn't get into the office until 11:15am. I decided to try and get the blood before he got in because the doctors are not as good as blood drawing as most of the techs and assistants.

First attempt was made by my manager, a great woman I respect a lot who is really wonderfull at getting blood. I was willing to hold and restrain Luna for the draws, but not to poke her. We tried for a jugular stick first because it is generally faster, hurts less and doesn't scar the vein. The plan was valid, but I forgot to run it by Luna Moth first. She most definatley did not think this was an appropriate idea and actually pulled herself off the needle after we had only gotten 1/3ml, not enough for any test. We tried two more times, even got another assistant to help hold her to no avail. Luna was now thoroughly "watered off" as my gram would say, and her heartrate was over 200. Time for a break.

After a little while I had our dental tech feel to see if she had a full bladder. No. Of course not. So I gave her 200ml of subcutaneous fluids to increase the chances she would fill her bladder. This was 11:30am.

After my lunch I managed to snag our very capable and talented morning medical technician to try again. We managed to get one tube of blood (about 3ml) from a back leg vein, which Luna absolutely hated. And the vein bruised. We tried for the little tube from the other leg and that was dismal failure. This fine person also felt for a full bladder. No. Of course not. It was now about 2:30pm.

I managed to snag the doc and see if I could give her more fluids subcutaneously. I worry because of her heart but knew I needed at least 5ml of urine for the test. And lucky for me, doc said okay to more fluid. So I got poor Luna out of her cage again, carried her down to surgery prep passed the scary dog wards, again, and stuck an 18 gauge needle in the skin of her back, again. No wonder Luna occassionally smacks my glasses off my face.

I continued to work for a bit and then managed to grab yet another very capable nurse, who's name is one letter different from mine, to try and get the lavender top tube for the cbc. She managed it on the first try from the same back leg above the bruise. Awesome. Then she felt the bladder. No, of course not... It is now 3:30pm, and my shift is over at 5:00pm. Her doc still hasn't seen her.

I got called into ultrasound to help with an unhappy pitbull for quite a while. That was pretty cool, there was a big ugly cyctic mass that we got a bunch of gross liquid out of. Very nifty. It was now 4:30pm. I brought cyst fluid to the lab to be sent to the University of Penn and as I was leaving, the last nurse to poke Luna told me they had already gotten her urine so it could get sent out. And she said they had put her back in her "regular cage, without the grate" which was odd. But having all the samples, awesome again. However, her doc still hasn't seen her.

In the next 25 minutes I brought visitors back to the dog hospital ward to wait for their doc to tell them their dog couldn't go home. Their doc, is my doc. And I discharged a fairly nasty dachshund who had been neutered. I managed to bump into Luna's doc at 5:00pm and he said to get Luna and meet him in our treatment room.

I ran to the ward Luna was in, and her cage was empty. Turns out there was another cat in the hospital with my last name. That cat was in recovery. My cat was in her cage. So I grabbed my baby goddess and ran to treatment.

Luna was seen by another doctor at the hospital last week for pain and it was suggested she might be arthritic, so I wanted her regular doctor to check it out too. And yeah, he felt bone on bone in her back legs. She has arthritis. Not major, but definately progressing. Great. And I will have her tests results tomorrow. I really hope I don't get horrible news.

In the mean time I have to find a joint supplement for Luna. The brand we sell at work I don't want to use. I don't approve of their company. The vet said I can get an over the counter supplement if I want but recommended that I find a company that has independant testing of their ingredients.

So that was Luna Moth's day at Mommy's work. You should have seen her scarfing cat food when she got home. Now she's crashed out on my lap.

I love this cat.