My decision

After seeing quite a number of vets, I finally settled on the one nearest to my house.

The decision is not to operate.
The odds of failure are too high.
Vets who I have spoken with says it's too big of a risk.
One even said if it's bladder stones, it's no problemo - but not kidney stones.

I decided to re-visit the usual vet i go to last week which led to the reason why I chose another vet closer to my house.
Apparently this is quite a well known doctor in the veterinary community.
Whose staff had been treating Poppy since baby.
It is one of his vet who told me that I should operate but told me that Poppy may die.
But also told me that if i didn't operate, he only has a few months to live.
And no other information.
Which prompted me to seek many 2nd opinions from other vets.
Last Thursday, I went back to my vet but insisted I speak to the famous dr whose name is plastered on his clinic's signboard.
He looked at Poppy's x-rays.
And then he said in his 30 years, he has never seen a cat with such a kidney condition.
And that he has never treated a cat with kidney stones.
And then looked at me.
The whole consultation went like this : I asked him and he answered me one or two words.
If i didn't ask him, he would just stare at me.
Like as though he was waiting for me to ask.
In fact, whatever questions I asked him was based on my previous knowledge gathered from other vets' opinion and I was asking him on all the possibilities, treatments, diet...etc..
And he answered but offered nothing else.
At one point, I told him "Look, I am not learning anything from you...could you please tell me more?"
And then he just looked at me.
I felt like it was such a waste of time.
I am a normal person. I don't know vet stuff. But here I am, asking and talking about BUN and Creatinine and diet food and all he just did was answered one or two words and no further addition to that.
It was as though he was waiting for me to lead him with my questions and that's it.
No further insights, nothing.
It was frustrating. Even annoying to a point.
There could be more things I wouldn't know about and I couldn't lead the consultation by asking them cos I wouldn't know what to ask.
I kept asking him what is the next step.
And that took him a while to tell me.
He didn't even want to look at Poppy's ultrasound.
He just said, Poppy's an abnormal cat - buck tooth, signs of cataract, kidney stones.
And charged me consultation fees for his zero consultation.

It was raining when I left his clinic with Poppy.
Each droplet which fell on me felt so punishing, like needles.
That was the moment I decided, he will no longer be my vet.
I droved to the vet closest to my house and walked in with Poppy.
I was tired, without makeup, teary and wet from the rain. I went up to the vet and asked him "My cat has kidney stones. Are you willing to help me? If yes, I will stick with you".
He said yes. And he was willing to listen and give advice.
And that was it.
That's how I made my decision on who I want to help me with Poppy.

I believe now that the majority opinion is to avoid operation, I don't need a vet with 30 years of experience but none so in treating feline kidney stones.
Cos we now have accepted the fact that it will be a diet management.
To inhibit the growth of the stones to ensure that Poppy live as long as he can comfortably.
To do so, from what I have learned, it will be regular trips to the vet for bloodwork, urine tests, etc to monitor his kidneys.
And at later stage (which I pray won't come), I might need to bring Poppy weekly to the vet for treatments.
I have learned this from reading Tanya's site.

This has lead to my decision to go to a vet nearest to my house.
It's like 2 minutes away.
I do this to ensure that if ever there is an emergency, I am able to get Poppy to the vet as fast as possible.
But also, choosing a close by vet helps to lessen Poppy's stress on travelling. Cos he will be doing a lot of that.
And I believe, a vet who is more caring will be able to help Poppy more than a 30 year experienced vet who has an ego the size of a..... and has zero experience on feline kidney stones. And zero consultation skills.

Sorry for the vet bashing here but I do have a right to speak my mind.

Poppy's fine but there are signs of changes in personality.
But he still chases MeowMeow around and enjoys a good grooming session.

He is now in good hands.