6. The brand conscious American Shorthair would rather starve to death

SURVIVAL SECRETS FOR VETS - The American Shorthair cat would rather starve to death.


"Your female American Shorthair has not been eating for the past 5 days," I phoned the cat breeder the second time. "She has normal temperature. I had got the canned food from your company people at branch headquarters but she would not eat it." She had not been eating for around 10 days since the start of her illness.

"Please spay her as advised by the other vet," the breeder said. "The other vet had recommended spaying as she had a severe bacterial infection of the womb. Copious sticky yellow pus flowed from her vagina. Non-stop."

The diagnosis was open pyometra. The other vet treated the cat and asked the breeder to give her a vaginal douche to flush the pus and infectons from inside her vagina. The breeder had told me, "I bought the human version. It is of better quality for my cat."

"It may not be appropriate for the cat," I replied. "Human drugs may be too toxic for her. Like all cats, she will lick off all foreign chemicals and the higher dose in human drugs may kill her or make her sick."

Well, she had not been eating for the past 3 days before I saw her. A light brown iodine from the douche stained her back area Her vaginal discharge had lessened considerably in amount after the first vet had treated her. The colour changed to dark red. Within 2 days, there was no more discharge.

However, the cat just would not eat. Thin. She survived dehydration as I was given her fluid therapy.

On the 3rd day, she would rub her body against the cage bars as a normal cat would. I smeared her paws with butter and cat food. The next day, she would be clean. So she was healthy enough to keep herself clean. She would meow once a while. She became tired easily. She got stronger after the fluid injection.

What to do with her? She was like the teenager suffering from anorexic nervosa? Simply refused to eat so as to get a slim figure.

There was something missing in the management of this case. What was it?

It might be the wrong brand of canned food. This cat was brought up with a Japanese brand of canned food, I recalled after talking to the pet shop girl who reared her. The pet shop girl was working in another branch and was not the person giving me the canned food. She had told me about the brand much earlier and I had not checked what my veterinary assistant had been offering this cat.

"What brand did you feed?" I asked my veterinary assistant. "Whiskas," she said. This well known brand was not Japanese. So, the missing ingredient in the management of this case was the brand.

I phoned the pet shop girl to return the cat to her. She was not elated with the burden of having this heavy responsibility, "You are a veterinarian. You return a cat that is not eating. If she dies, I am accountable for her death."

In the pet shop industry, every death is a black mark on the performance of the pet shop girl. She would get scolding from her boss. I had not thought of her point of view as I thought that the cat would eat when she was back to familiar surroundings and food.

Maybe she would not get her performance or annual bonus. Every employee needs more income in a very expensive first world country. She was thinking that I was passing a terminally ill cat to her.

So, what should I do? I really did not know. Should I phoned the boss and persist?

Well, I had not thought of getting the Japanese brand of canned food from her but that would be the solution.

In any case, every additional day at the veterinary surgeon cost the breeder. So, it was not to his advantage. As for spaying the cat, it was not what he really wanted. Spaying means more income to the veterinary practice.

But that was any breeder wanted, I am sure. If I were a breeder, I don't want my American Shorthair who had produced two lovely kittens to be spayed just because she had a severe womb infection due to mating with a new cat. It was a curable disease.

I tested the breeder earlier when I phoned him, "Do you really want her spayed?"

"Doc, I have not recovered the cost of this imported cat," he explained. Now, the cat was back to normal. An affectionate meow occasionally. But she would die in the next few days if she did not eat.

And the solution was obvious. The Japanese brand "Elite" was the answer, I thought.

The pet shop girl phoned me and said she was instructed to take back the cat. I waited the whole day for the transport man to come. Nobody arrived.

By 4 p.m, I had to travel to a few places to vaccinate puppies and kittens. From Chua Chu Kang's Farm Mart, Jurong Point Shopping Mall, Upper Serangoon Road and to the East Point Shopping Mall. Transversing from West Singapore to East Singapore. A lot of travelling time.

Well, it was better to send back the cat myself. The cat went with me in a carrier cage. My assistant took her up to the pet shops I visited.

"Are you coming?" the pet shop girl phoned me at 7.15 p.m. "I will be closing shop soon." She worked long hours six days a week. Few Singaporeans would want to work that hard. She was good worker. A rare gem and I find it hard to believe she was a bartender previously pouring whisky and brandy to hardened men in the downtown financial district.

I was actually 2 minutes' drive away. It was dusk now. Amber street lights glowed in this quiet suburban middle-class residential enclave. At the pet shop, I asked for the Elite canned food.

"The cat is terribly thin," the pet shop girl frowned. "She needed her own brand of canned food. Your colleague gave me the wrong brand."

Her assistant opened the Elite can and poured the gelationous pinkish stuff into a stainless steelbowl while the pet shop girl was busy attending to customers. This branch had brisk business even at closing time on a Wednesday evening.

Would my theory be correct? The cat sniffed the Elite cat food. It looked like there were slices of onion and all good smells. She ate. More than she ever ate for the past 5 days at my surgery. Then she stopped. The assistant pushed her head towards the canned food. She ate and rested. She repeated this four times.



The American Shorthair would rather starve to death if she was not offered the Elite brand of canned food. 

I felt so much happier. The pet shop girl had thought I was sending her a sick cat to die in her hands. I phoned the breeder. "The Whiskas was the incorrect brand. And so was Science Diet Cat food that your staff at a different branch gave to me for the cat earlier.

He said, "She must be hungry."

"It was the Elite brand," I responded. "She had hunger for the Elite brand. She would rather starve to death if she was not given Elite."

I continued, "The good news is that she was not spayed. It will take time for her to recover her health. Then she should be able to be a mother again."

This might be good news for the breeder as that was what he wanted. A sick cat recovered, recuperating at home intact. Not a healthy spayed female cat. I mean, a spayed cat is of no value to a breeder and would have less attention than an intact female. So, it was also in the interest of this young American Shorthair that she could regain her health. Her infection might be due to mating with a new cat.

The next few days, this American Shorthair was happily eating and putting on weight. She would rather starve to death than eat any other brand of cat food, dry or canned.