When do you take your pet to the vet?

Oscar has a sore spot on his tail and I can feel a bump.  So can he—he hisses at me when I try to assess it for size and, er, texture.  Is it an abscess, which could potentially cause him to lose his tail?  Or is it just a small injury that will heal on its own?

A 30 second examination would answer this question and, even if it’s an abscess, about five  minutes of doctoring (shave, lance, apply Neosporin) would probably do the trick.

The problem is, Oscar is a cat.  The chances that he will hold still while I probe, view, shave, poke, and disinfect a wound are slim, dim, and none.  If he were, for example, an eight-year-old child, I could easily take care of the matter myself.   There might be tears, but I’d probably emerge from the event unbloodied.

Can you chloroform a cat?

Well, I can’t, so I have to capture him, put him in a carrier, drive him over the metaphorical river and through the not-so-metaphorical woods to town, then pay someone $75 or so to perform the exact same procedure.  Actually, I wouldn’t mind performing the procedure – I’m actually going to be paying $75 for someone to hold the cat still.

I’m between checks (a couple on the way, but not likely to arrive for a couple of weeks) and need oil for my furnace, groceries and to pay my cell phone bill.  Oh, and I’m low on the very expensive cat food my vet insists that the boys must be fed to avoid urinary tract problems.

So I’m tempted to get my brother to don workman’s gloves and, perhaps, full body armor, and attempt to restrain Oscar still while I “operate.”

But I won’t.

I’ll bite the bullet and schlep him to the vet’s office as soon as it opens.  Oh, well, at least the roads aren’t frozen this morning.

Aaaaargh.