Alexandra Cornish
TLDR: Consistent won’t listen when we bring information. Never had evidence of notes or test results, everything verbal only, and VERY minimal advice. I’m not quite sure how to go about this one so please read with a gentle tone: We moved here end of 2020 with two cats. The Receptionists are really the stars of the place. The general care has been average like the minimum standard you would expect — which may have been partly disguised under the fact our cats were really young; 1 and 3 at the time. In past 4 years: I’ve been told girl cat has herpes, completely on visual assessment, no blood tests just “my cats have it so I recognise it, but don’t worry as nearly all cats have it; give her eye drops, the eye discharge will clear up.” Boy cat bowels are poorly, has eye discharge & itchy ears. Told: he has ear mites, here’s some drops, observe IBS bring him back if he starts vomiting. We’re back 2 months later — have sussed he doesn’t take commercial cat food (abnormal belly swelling, wet pooping and wet farting) so I ask more questions & I’m offered a poop test £280 — but after the test we were only advised he “probably” has IBS & needs hypoallergenic cat food. This was useless as we’d already tried him (and told them) on hypoallergenic cat food. No further advice nor follow up so we remote consult an EU vet to develop his current eating plan. Boy cat, 4 yrs old who visits them every year at minimum, spat out one of his teeth before we realised his bad breath wasn’t bad breath — actually his teeth are rotting in his mouth. He had 16 out in one go. No one at the vet had checked his teeth or noticed in 3 years. We didn’t notice as he was still crunching kibble every day. Boy cat, 5 yrs old, latest episode of recurring eye discharge & itchy ears (not mites) On this occasion, one eye was swollen shut & weeping. Vet struggled with the instrument to test eye pressure, mentioning he “couldn’t get a reading.” Paid £45 for the test on top of £50 consultation fee, again no results nor advice following test aside from drops. Still don’t know what’s really wrong with him & it came back a few weeks later as usual. Fed up, we again consult European vet, we got some colloidal silver & manually clean his ears or eyes when it bothers him which really helps it from building up to critical point. Oct 2025: Girl cat stopped eating, mouth smells off, and she’s been licking patio slabs. Vet noted her teeth and gums are inflamed, spotted an ulcer / lesion at back of mouth; I ask if licking the patio paving slabs could have contributed. Something like “No not really. So, I’m going to inject antibiotics and painkiller, and let’s see how she goes.” Leaves room, comes back, administers 2 injections, and we’re invited to leave. Ummm hey so about licking patio slabs, is it a vitamin deficiency? Iron, calcium? I’m persistent because strange licking behaviour is bad news for cats. He comments it could be kidney issues but she’s too young for that. He calls us 1.5 hours later and says that if she really does have kidney issues then the medication she’s just received would put kidneys in distress, we should bring her to the hospital and have a blood test right now. We bring her in for IV and head home to await blood test. Vet calls to say she is at risk of kidney failure and she may not make it so they’ll admit her for 48-hour observation. Hundreds of pounds later — we learn she has stage 4 kidney failure. She had lost 25% of body weight over 3 years and the vets hadn’t noticed until they looked at her weight history. Conclusion: I’ve rung up our local cattery and asked who they vet with so I’m moving us over to there. Could just be bad luck but I’m a bit scarred from these experiences. I do know that as owners we should be monitoring our own cats and noticing behaviours or markers, but we’re first time cat owners and don’t know what to look for. And yes we did tell them we’re first time owners. We did ask questions and mention observations, we were just told it’s normal.
