"Everything was OK for the past 2 weeks after spay," the cat owner I had not met before brought in a black cat with yellow pus in her spay wound matching the colour of her yellow eyes.
As I did spay a black cat with yellow eyes recently, I assumed that this was the cat I had spayed and there was the post-spay complications of wound breakdown or infection which do happen in rare cases.
In the black cat I spayed recently, the owner pressured me to charge him $35 for spaying as it was the fee offered by some vets. Spaying of a cat is a commoditised such that the lowest priced vet gets the most business (my presumption).
"The reason I do not pay $35 to the vet who charges much lower than you is that my cat's left ear tip must be snipped off after the spay."
It is difficult to sustain the profitability and upgrading of a veterinary practice if I compete on "lowest spay price". So I was prepared to let the case go as I don't want to lose money doing a surgery. I will become bankrupt providing loss-making services in time to come.
Unlike a human general practitioner, a veterinary practice has surgical and anaesthetic equipment to buy and maintain. The rentals and staff overheads are high. Therefore, going down the path of the being the lowest priced vet is not sustainable for profitability in the long term.
Back to the black cat on my consultation table, the owner said he did not know who had spayed his cat as he was not the one who brought the cat to the vet. One look at the cat's incision wound told me that my "surgical signature" would be around 1 cm from the umbilical scar. This cat's wound was at least 2 cm away. Therefore it was not me who had spayed the cat.
In any case, the owner said that there was no problem for the past 14 days. The cat I spayed was 7 days ago and I had never heard from the other owner with the black cat.
I noted some brown stains of an iodine-like antiseptic further away encircling the wound. I did not ask the owner whether he applied antiseptic which had been licked off. How could his black cat do it when she had worn an Elizabeth collar?
"Do you have another cat in the house?" I asked him.
"Yes,"
"It is likely that the other cat cleaned up the wound for this black cat," I said. The owner nodded his head.
So, what's the solution? The cat had a fever. It would cost the owner more money to get her treated. In times of recession, this post-surgical treatment is not kindly accepted by a pet owner.
I removed the stitches, warded the cat and gave antibiotic injections for 3 days at minimal cost of $50.00. For the last 7 days, I did not hear from the owner and presumed that the cat had resumed a normal life.
Other pets licking the wound of the spayed cat or dog are unexpected causes of post-spay complications. Vets seldom if ever ask the owner to separate the spayed pet from another as we never think of such situations.
