Melanie the calico cat had been to several veterinarians and Mrs. James was getting frustrated that her cat's ear infection was never clearing up. Mrs. James lived on Denman Island and had been spending quite a bit of time traveling to see veterinarians up and down the island.
It is often difficult being in the position of seeing a patient for a fourth or fifth opinion with a chronic condition. Some health conditions are not an easy fix or worse yet, are incurable. As Mrs. James listed vet after vet she had been to, I knew I had my work cut out for me just tracking down all the previous medical records. Mrs. James listed medication after medication that she had tried to various levels of success and then ultimate failure and I worried I might not be able to offer much more.
I was just about to have a look in Melanie's ear when Mrs. James explained how she and her cat were reading my column in the paper when they had a psychic vision that I would be able to fix the problem. I tried not to look too startled with the latest revelation as it only put extra pressure on me to succeed.
Visualizing the cat and her reading the paper together and getting a psychic experience was hard for me to comprehend so I decided to take Melanie to the back treatment room and have a look down the ear with an otoscope and have the assistance of a veterinary nurse. I could see why other vets had difficulty in even examining the ear as the ear was so full of pus and debris that I could see only partly down the ear canal. I took a culture swab in case an antibiotic resistant bacteria was the culprit. I then began to clean out the ear flushing and swabbing it out so I could see down the ear canal to the ear drum. I would just manage to see part-way down the ear drum when more material would get in the way. I would then swab and clean some more knowing I would have to see down all the way to the ear drum to find out what I was treating. I needed to make sure there was no foreign body or growth as a source of the infection.
I finally reached the end of the ear canal and managed a quick peak when I saw a red glistening rounded cherry-like tissue visible where the ear drum should be - Melanie had a polyp. The reason other vets were unable to clear up the problem was that the polyp was hidden down the ear canal and was a continuous source of the infection and irritation in the ear. After a short anesthetic I managed to reach down the ear canal with an alligator forceps and pluck out the offending growth. With the polyp removed I now knew that the medication would clear up the problem.
I breathed a sigh of relief as I explained everything to Mrs. James. I explained how lucky I was to have discovered the problem and been able to rectify it. "Oh, I knew all along that you would fix it," Mrs. James said with an air of confidence, "don't you remember, I told you I was psychic!"
