Gus's trip to the vet-Part I

This is the "baby" of our fuzzy children, Gus. I took him to the vet last week for a yearly well-kitty check up and a vaccination. When the vet checked his teeth he noticed that Gus had a cavity and needed his teeth cleaned. So I took him back Tuesday and dropped him off bright and early at 7:45am. The vet however called me around 10:30 and said that when doing a pre-surgical physical he noticed that Gus had a heart murmur, something he must have missed last week. The heart murmur indicates that Gus most likely has heart disease. It's not a for sure diagnosis, the vet said that sometimes murmurs are harmless but that's pretty rare. And that given Gus' weight and overall size he probably has heart disease. The murmur makes it risky to put Gus under anesthesia because they don't know how that can and will affect his heart rate.

The vet advised that he couldn't do the cleaning and extraction, and recommended we get some further testing done on Gus to find out the exact cause of the heart murmur and if it is heart disease how bad it is. However he called ISU VetMed for me to find out what they charge for an ultrasound and an EKG, and found out that they'd also do an X-ray and it would cost $650. We can't just get the ultrasound and EKG, so we'd be paying for an X-ray that we don't need. And I'm sorry, but while I love my cats I'm not paying $650 for some tests. When after it's all said it done Gus still has a tooth that needs to come out.

So I picked Gus up and brought him home. I called around to all the local vets I could find and asked if anyone would be willing to do a tooth extraction without completely sedating Gus, and no one would. I called down to a pet hospital in Des Moines that can also do the ultrasound and EKG, and it would be $300 to go there just to get the ultrasound. Which again doesn't fix Gus' tooth.

After Josh and I discussed it at length, I pointed out to him that doing all of this testing on his heart doesn't fix his tooth. So I called our vet back and asked them if they'd put Gus under if I signed a waiver saying that I understood there are risks but we want Gus's teeth cleaned and bad tooth extracted anyways. They said that was fine. So Gus goes back Tuesday. I'm kind of a little nervous about it since we don't know for sure how bad the murmur is. But I also know that Gus has been extra whiny the last couple of weeks because of his tooth and I feel so bad that it's bothering him. So I'm just hoping that it goes well.