Persian Cat, Needs Home

Got (another) test tonight. It’s early afternoon in the library and I can’t concentrate. The test is theoretically on stuff I should already know from my veterinary training, but there are a few curveballs in it, and a few things I’m not sure how to handle.

An example: sclerotic means “hardening”. I know it means hardening. The text book we’ve been assigned and the class teacher both say it means “narrowing”. It does not mean narrowing. “Stenotic” means narrowing. If the stupid root word is on tonight’s test, do I simply answer with the wrong thing, or do I give the right answer, knowing it’s the wrong answer. If I choose the latter, do I then just sit there and take it when Teacher marks it wrong, or do I pick a fight over something so meaningless?

Another example: Last class Teach spent some time explaining that a cataract is the clouding of the cornea. It is not the clouding of the cornea (a real condition that for reasons that elude me seems to have no other name than “corneal clouding”). A cataract is the clouding of the lens of the eye. Teach went to great lengths to explain that they correct cataracts with the surgical implantation of a lens, replacing the cornea. He had it right, up to the final word of his sentence. They replace the eye’s lens with an artificial lens. They can do corneal replacements too, but they use a cadaver cornea to replace the clouded one. I don’t think that is going to be on tonight’s test, but misinformation irks me.

Yet another example: The gall bladder does not make bile, it merely stores bile for release into the small intestine when needed. Teach persisted in saying that the gall bladder made bile. He then said that bile digests fats. It doesn’t. It emulsifies fats. Teach knows the word “emulsification”. He used it earlier in class when talking about compounding drugs. He just doesn’t understand biology of digestion. It doesn’t stop him from talking about it though.

I sit on my hands through all this. It’s not my place to correct the teacher, or be the know-it-all in the class. So far, I’m doing OK in the class. I got one answer wrong on the first test, which was my own fault. I knew the answer, but at the last minute panicked, crossed out the correct answer and wrote in an incorrect one. Mea culpa. I deserve to lose the point. I haven’t gotten anything wrong since then.

This isn’t to say that I know it all. I don’t. I’ve had to spend hours learning human drug names. We need to know the generic names and the brand names of the top 200 prescribed drugs in the US. By the time Teacher got done with adjusting the official list, it was actually closer to 250 drugs. I’ll need to know them to get through the certification testing, so I spend most of my time memorizing drug names. Stuff like tonight’s medical nomenclature test I could probably pass without studying. I would like to end up top in the class though, so I do study for all the tests. Or I have until today, that is. Like I said, I’m having a hard time concentrating.

It’s been a tough year for many people in my life and the animals they love. Several e-friends have lost pets or learned of their pets’ have a terminal illness. Two board members of the shelter I volunteer have recently lost long-treasured cats to protracted illnesses. Another cat I fostered a year ago was diagnosed with fibrosarcoma, and is now in permanent foster with another family. She’s still relatively healthy, but she is unadoptable. And this week I’ve taken in a new foster, Teddy, a purebred orange and white Persian who has been adopted twice and returned twice.

Teddy lost his original home when he stopped using the litter box. His owner took him to be evaluated by the same veterinary practice that our organization uses and found he had bladder stones. She elected to have Teddy euthanized rather than have surgery done to remove the stones. The vet on duty at the time instead had the owner relinquish Teddy to her, and did the surgery herself. Teddy did well post-surgery, and was put on a special diet to help prevent formation of new stones.

The vet (who has done tremendous favors for our group in the past) then asked if we would accept Teddy and find him a new home. Since he’s a registered Persian we actually had no trouble placing Teddy the first time. Unfortunately, Teddy boomeranged back to us within a week for “inappropriate elimination”. He checked out healthy at the vet, so we put him back up for adoption. After spending some weeks with our organization (during which time he displayed perfect behavior in his cage), we were able to place Teddy with what appeared to be the perfect home. The new owners were fully aware of his history, and were willing to work with Teddy to prevent future accidents. That lasted another week. After Teddy ruined a king sized mattress and the accompanying bedding he again boomeranged right back to us. He went straight back to the vet, and after several hundred dollars of testing no medical problem was found.

At this point Teddy has cost our organization thousands of dollars in medical bills, cleaning bills and furniture replacement. He’s on a special diet and a drug that is supposed to help with inappropriate elimination. While he’s otherwise a wonderful cat (gentle, great personality, and cute as a button) Teddy is unplaceable unless we can find a specialty rescue or a sanctuary that is willing to take him. The board has already voted to euthanize him if we can’t get him placed in good order. I agree with the vote, but it’s hard to understand how it got to this point when I’m downstairs interacting with Teddy in the foster room. There are further drugs and veterinarians who specialize in behavior modification that might help this guy, but the money that would go into that could literally save dozens of other cats.

If anybody knows a Persian rescue or cat sanctuary out there that could help, I’m all ears.