Newman's surgery saga, Part 1

We got Newman in 2011 from a cat rescue when he was eight years old. He had lived at the rescue since he was FOUR -- we had to take him. Maybe one reason he was not adopted was that he had rheumy-eyes, or watery eyes.

We took him to the vet, who said there was tear-duct surgery we could try, but it was often unsuccessful. Newman also had frequent ear infections (bacteria/fungus) that we managed for the next four years. Newman slept a LOT -- but most cats do, right? He was just a less active sort, we reasoned.

New symptoms
In February we noticed he was sneezing, with copious nasal discharge. Off to the vet and then a course of antibiotics--which did their job while we administered them--and then Newman's symptoms returned.

Back to the vet. On vet visit 2, they looked at his teeth and pronounced them *bad* --  4 on a scale of 5. You could visually see how icky they were, and Bob and I felt awful. Newman needed teeth extractions, we were told, but there was no guarantee that this would resolve the issue. To be honest I'd lost a little faith. We'd made repeated visits our vet clinic to for various symptoms, all him his head, plus annual visits. No one thought to open his mouth?

In the end it is our responsibility, though. We could have done more.

Second opinion
We went to Quakertown Veterinary Clinic, which has dental specialists. They concurred with our regular vet and suggested a similar course of action except that they would also check for nasal polyps, for no extra charge. Our regular clinic did not have the equipment to do this, and they could not have been more gracious about our decision to have the surgery at Quakertown.

On Wednesday, April 8, Newman went "under the knife."

To be continued...