| Tributes - CeeCee Ryder K. |
| CeeCee Ryder Knowles - Kew Gardens, NY Female, Domestic Shorthair June 1999 - August 14, 2011 Diagnosed with probable triaditis in early August 2011 |
My husband and I thought it was important to document CeeCee's story, so that it won't happen to other cats. My husband Jim
and I are volunteers for a rescue in NY called Bobbi and the Strays. Some 3 years ago Bobbi took over a small Cat
Sanctuary/Shelter in Long Island City that was filled with 70 cats. We are the volunteer managers. We aren't perfect - it needs
more than what we can do. That said, we are the ones that take the cats to and from the vet.
Bobbi uses two vets in the Queens Area. One is not the greatest, but he does his best. He's not my favorite person, but he's not
done anything so far to give us cause to complain. The other is the Howard Beach Animal Clinic. I want to add that this clinic
does have other vets on staff, and we have found one of them, Dr. Rafael, to be a compassionate and caring vet. However, no
other vet there will contradict the clinic owner, Dr. Weinstein.
A month ago one of our cats, Miss Charlotte, an elderly cat from the cat house stopped eating. Bobbi instructed us to take her to
HBAC and we did. We were told by one of the associate vets that Miss Charlotte - who had lost a great deal of weight had
extremely bad teeth and needed to have dentistry. I asked if this was something that should be done, as Miss Charlotte seemed
so frail and elderly.
They stated yes, they would give her fluids, antibiotics and build her up for a couple of days. She was there a week and they did
the dentistry on a Tuesday, then discharged her the next day. I was very concerned. At my own vet (who I adore) my own elderly
cat would have been held at least 2 days because of age and kept on fluids. I asked if she needed meds and we were told no,
she had been given a shot. I asked about pain meds and they told me she didn't need them, she had been given a shot. They
couldn't tell me anything else, not even if she had eaten. We took her out of there, back to the Cat House and into her room there,
(the cats aren't caged but have small rooms they share with others). Miss Charlotte curled up on a towel and meowed. We
kissed her forehead and left her with the two volunteers there. She kept looking at me and looking at me. I'll always be haunted by
what she was trying to say to me. The next day she was found passed away by the kennel worker who went in to clean. We were
devastated. Miss Charlotte was older and frail, it's true. But it haunts me that we should have known and done more and that they
shouldn't have released her. My own vet said it was handled in probably not the best way, but Miss Charlotte could have had
something happen even under the best circumstances and we shouldn't blame ourselves.
A week later a volunteer found a cat outside she believed had been put out by someone when her owner died. The little cat, who
had only been eating roast beef and turkey from the deli and some baby food, stopped eating. I gave her Nutrical while everyone
tried feeding her baby food and other different foods to try and get her to eat. But it was a no go, she seemed interested, but
wouldn't eat. We called Bobbi who told us she sounded like she needed to see the vet and we were instructed to bring her to
Howard Beach Animal Clinic. They admitted her right away and told us that a cat not eating could come from many things. That
they would have to run bloods and do an x-ray, etc, start her on fluids and find out what they needed to do. She was seen by a
young woman vet, who seemed to know what she was talking about. We believed her and of course left her for treatment, as
CeeCee was very, very thin.
Two days later Bobbi called us and said that the Owner of the Clinic, Dr. Steven Weinstein, was recommending euthanasia for
CeeCee as she "probably has fatty liver disease. She's 10 and why would you want to spend your money on an old cat with
health problems?" We didn't believe that CeeCee was suffering (she had tried to play with my key chain when we were bringing
her to the vet) and we don't believe a cat of 10 is old. We told Bobbi that was not fair. That this little cat had lost her home,
probably the only family she had ever had, and now would lose her life because the vet felt treating her was a waste of time? I told
he that we wanted to take her to our vet. Bobbi said she wasn't going to let them put the cat to sleep and she would see what they
recommended. The vet came back and told her that she needed a sonogram and then a feeding tube. This was done. We were
told that once the feeding tube was in, we'd be able to bring her home. When my husband went to pick her up, (we were going to
keep her at our apartment till we got a full time foster for her), Dr. Weinstein himself came out and said that they preferred to care
for her there. That they could give her more attention and feed her more often than we could. As he was a gentleman with my
husband and appeared genuine, my husband agreed. After all, they were a vets office and did have a lot of staff. We were
allowed to visit with CeeCee, the place was very clean and she had an IV, though not yet the feeding tube.
The associate vets were good about giving us updates when we called. They told us that CeeCee was improving little by little,
that the sonogram did show fatty liver disease, and she was being fed through a tube in her neck (normal for a cat with fatty liver
disease) and responding. Then we got the call that CeeCee was eating on her own and we could bring her home! We were
really excited. We went to get her fully expecting her to have a tube in her neck to continue the feeding. We were told by a young
vet there that the tube usually stays in for a minimum of 12 weeks and that it's not a big deal for the cat, who has to be eating full
well on her own before it's removed. When we got there we expected to meet with one of the vets and get instructions on how to
feed via tube. Instead, we were handed a carrier that wasn't even hers, wasn't clean, only hurriedly rinsed out. They put CeeCee
in the carrier and handed her over to us. When we asked for instructions the girl went away then came back and said "the vets
don't have any instructions for you." We were really surprised. My husband asked about the feeding tube and was told "oh, they
took it out a few days ago." We were shocked and I asked if she was ok to eat on her own. The girl told us "well, she eats some
ham or turkey if you warm it up." We were still in a state of shock when we left.
She meowed all the way to our apartment. We had set up a cage for her as we have 5 other cats and we live in 2 rooms. I didn't
want her to be overwhelmed or get less than a good welcome when she was still so vulnerable. When we took her out of the
carrier I was horrified! She was skin and bones, much smaller and thinner than when we first brought her there. She was also
dirty, she looked as though no one had brushed her or cared for her at all. I had gotten a variety of cat foods, as well as some
roast beef, turkey, and stage one baby food. She would only eat five tiny pieces of turkey and a little piece of roast beef. I tried
every food I could think of, but she wouldn't eat. She acted as though she wanted to, and then would do a lot of licking air, which
with my cat with pancreatitis, can indicate they feel nauseous. At the advice of a friend who's a vet tech, I gave her a quarter of a
tablet of pepcid, and then after half an hour of trying to get her to eat, I syringe fed her some baby food mixed with a bit of natural
balance cat food and water.
The next day she hadn't eaten at all, though she had tried to play. But had laid down with her back to us in the cage, which was
worrying. We allowed her some time out of the cage, fearing she had been depressed, but after a bit of scratching on our cats
cardboard post she laid down in the corner. That evening we brought her to our vet, who had saved my eldest cat's life twice. She
informed us that CeeCee was obviously underweight, that she wasn't sure why they had removed the feeding tube so
prematurely and she was puzzled by CeeCee's lack of care. She also told us she highly suspected that CeeCee might have IBD,
and this might have been the problem from the start. She said that given we knew so little of CeeCee's past, there was a chance
that IBD, which was a very difficult to diagnose condition, might be playing a part of what was going on. She said it did seem
fairly likely that CeeCee also had pancreatitis, which can go together with IBD. She said the only reason to remove the feeding
tube would have been infection. But that was never mentioned to us whatsoever and we were never given any medications for
her.
She admitted CeeCee and treated her. She basically gave us a huge discount for all the care CeeCee needed but it still cost us
$1500 dollars, which came out of my bank account. The estimate for something like this is usually $3000-4000 including all
treatments and tests. We're not well off by a long shot and this was something we couldn't really afford. But at the same time my
soul would not have been able to function if we had done anything else. There was no guarantee that CeeCee would make it.
She had a vet she trusted come in and do a sonogram. CeeCee was so weak and emaciated that they could not and didn't think
at that point she'd survive putting in a PEG tube through the neck. The vet that did the sonogram came back and did a small liver
biopsy himself. He used a very small amount of sedation to do the biopsy, as he was afraid that CeeCee would not make it if he
used what they normally do. When the sonogram was done, the vet doing it stated that he had not seen a cat in a long time in as
bad a condition as CeeCee. He stated that from what he could see, CeeCee had an extremely inflamed pancreas.
Several days later, we got a call from our vet. CeeCee had begun to turn around. She was in the largest suite in the hospital,
being fed through a feeding tube in the nose. She appeared to be doing well. She told us that she hoped that the tube through the
nose would help - she was tolerating it, which some cats don't. She did tell us that losing the peg tube though, wasn't good. In
CeeCee's condition at that point, it couldn't be replaced. The next day brought bad news. CeeCee had taken a turn for the
worse. She had thrown up, something our vet had been afraid might happen with the nose tube. Our vet, despite us not being
able to afford it, brought in blood plasma in an effort to stabilize CeeCee. It seemed to work and for 2 days she improved.
It was on the 4th day, early in the morning, our vet's associate called us and sadly told us that CeeCee had passed away that
morning. We were devastated, as we had come to love CeeCee. The next day our vet called us with the results of the biopsy and
the full sonogram. CeeCee's pancreas was extremely inflamed and her fatty liver disease was very bad. The sonogram vet
commented that the early placement of a stomach tube that would have been kept in might have saved her. He stated to that the
only reason one would have been removed would have been infection. This was never told to us. He stated that he was fairly sure
that CeeCee had IBD, and that early treatment and detection were so very important. So was finding a vet that was
knowledgeable about it.
We are still grieving and still experiencing the 'what ifs'? We are poorer, but we feel that we tried and that was all we could have
done. I wish that we had more time in the beginning, and had known CeeCee's history. I wish we had worked with our vet from
the beginning. But we believed, naively, that a vet with a thriving private practice in business for years must be good. We were so
wrong. In some ways we feel we let CeeCee down. Working in Rescue is heartbreaking sometimes, and we'd love to be able to
do more for most than we can. We fell in love with CeeCee. We will always love her, and we so want to share with others the
importance of trusting your instincts about a vet. Not all vets are good, just as not all doctors are. We wonder as well, if CeeCee
had been an 'owned' cat from the beginning, if she would have been treated differently. If she had been our cat would the same
care had been afforded her? I think probably not. But sadly, it could have been, and we hope that perhaps CeeCee's passing
was not in vain if her story can help another to learn from our mistakes.
I want to add, on a positive note, that the owner of this website, Lisa, was so kind and thoughtful to us and provided us with so
much knowledge during CeeCee's brief time at home with us, and with questions to ask the vet. We also want to thank our
wonderful and kind vet, Dr. Theresa Paloni, her associate Dr. Miglirino, Dr. Harding and the staff at Vet Care Unlimited for their
devotion and care of CeeCee. We know that if will and skill could have saved her, as well as love, that CeeCee would still be with
us. But perhaps, she is, if in Spirit.
Please, pet parents, find a vet who you trust. One is up front, honest, and who you get good vibes from regarding care. Ask
questions and expect answers. If you don't get them or you get the wrong ones, don't be afraid to take your animal elsewhere.
and I are volunteers for a rescue in NY called Bobbi and the Strays. Some 3 years ago Bobbi took over a small Cat
Sanctuary/Shelter in Long Island City that was filled with 70 cats. We are the volunteer managers. We aren't perfect - it needs
more than what we can do. That said, we are the ones that take the cats to and from the vet.
Bobbi uses two vets in the Queens Area. One is not the greatest, but he does his best. He's not my favorite person, but he's not
done anything so far to give us cause to complain. The other is the Howard Beach Animal Clinic. I want to add that this clinic
does have other vets on staff, and we have found one of them, Dr. Rafael, to be a compassionate and caring vet. However, no
other vet there will contradict the clinic owner, Dr. Weinstein.
A month ago one of our cats, Miss Charlotte, an elderly cat from the cat house stopped eating. Bobbi instructed us to take her to
HBAC and we did. We were told by one of the associate vets that Miss Charlotte - who had lost a great deal of weight had
extremely bad teeth and needed to have dentistry. I asked if this was something that should be done, as Miss Charlotte seemed
so frail and elderly.
They stated yes, they would give her fluids, antibiotics and build her up for a couple of days. She was there a week and they did
the dentistry on a Tuesday, then discharged her the next day. I was very concerned. At my own vet (who I adore) my own elderly
cat would have been held at least 2 days because of age and kept on fluids. I asked if she needed meds and we were told no,
she had been given a shot. I asked about pain meds and they told me she didn't need them, she had been given a shot. They
couldn't tell me anything else, not even if she had eaten. We took her out of there, back to the Cat House and into her room there,
(the cats aren't caged but have small rooms they share with others). Miss Charlotte curled up on a towel and meowed. We
kissed her forehead and left her with the two volunteers there. She kept looking at me and looking at me. I'll always be haunted by
what she was trying to say to me. The next day she was found passed away by the kennel worker who went in to clean. We were
devastated. Miss Charlotte was older and frail, it's true. But it haunts me that we should have known and done more and that they
shouldn't have released her. My own vet said it was handled in probably not the best way, but Miss Charlotte could have had
something happen even under the best circumstances and we shouldn't blame ourselves.
A week later a volunteer found a cat outside she believed had been put out by someone when her owner died. The little cat, who
had only been eating roast beef and turkey from the deli and some baby food, stopped eating. I gave her Nutrical while everyone
tried feeding her baby food and other different foods to try and get her to eat. But it was a no go, she seemed interested, but
wouldn't eat. We called Bobbi who told us she sounded like she needed to see the vet and we were instructed to bring her to
Howard Beach Animal Clinic. They admitted her right away and told us that a cat not eating could come from many things. That
they would have to run bloods and do an x-ray, etc, start her on fluids and find out what they needed to do. She was seen by a
young woman vet, who seemed to know what she was talking about. We believed her and of course left her for treatment, as
CeeCee was very, very thin.
Two days later Bobbi called us and said that the Owner of the Clinic, Dr. Steven Weinstein, was recommending euthanasia for
CeeCee as she "probably has fatty liver disease. She's 10 and why would you want to spend your money on an old cat with
health problems?" We didn't believe that CeeCee was suffering (she had tried to play with my key chain when we were bringing
her to the vet) and we don't believe a cat of 10 is old. We told Bobbi that was not fair. That this little cat had lost her home,
probably the only family she had ever had, and now would lose her life because the vet felt treating her was a waste of time? I told
he that we wanted to take her to our vet. Bobbi said she wasn't going to let them put the cat to sleep and she would see what they
recommended. The vet came back and told her that she needed a sonogram and then a feeding tube. This was done. We were
told that once the feeding tube was in, we'd be able to bring her home. When my husband went to pick her up, (we were going to
keep her at our apartment till we got a full time foster for her), Dr. Weinstein himself came out and said that they preferred to care
for her there. That they could give her more attention and feed her more often than we could. As he was a gentleman with my
husband and appeared genuine, my husband agreed. After all, they were a vets office and did have a lot of staff. We were
allowed to visit with CeeCee, the place was very clean and she had an IV, though not yet the feeding tube.
The associate vets were good about giving us updates when we called. They told us that CeeCee was improving little by little,
that the sonogram did show fatty liver disease, and she was being fed through a tube in her neck (normal for a cat with fatty liver
disease) and responding. Then we got the call that CeeCee was eating on her own and we could bring her home! We were
really excited. We went to get her fully expecting her to have a tube in her neck to continue the feeding. We were told by a young
vet there that the tube usually stays in for a minimum of 12 weeks and that it's not a big deal for the cat, who has to be eating full
well on her own before it's removed. When we got there we expected to meet with one of the vets and get instructions on how to
feed via tube. Instead, we were handed a carrier that wasn't even hers, wasn't clean, only hurriedly rinsed out. They put CeeCee
in the carrier and handed her over to us. When we asked for instructions the girl went away then came back and said "the vets
don't have any instructions for you." We were really surprised. My husband asked about the feeding tube and was told "oh, they
took it out a few days ago." We were shocked and I asked if she was ok to eat on her own. The girl told us "well, she eats some
ham or turkey if you warm it up." We were still in a state of shock when we left.
She meowed all the way to our apartment. We had set up a cage for her as we have 5 other cats and we live in 2 rooms. I didn't
want her to be overwhelmed or get less than a good welcome when she was still so vulnerable. When we took her out of the
carrier I was horrified! She was skin and bones, much smaller and thinner than when we first brought her there. She was also
dirty, she looked as though no one had brushed her or cared for her at all. I had gotten a variety of cat foods, as well as some
roast beef, turkey, and stage one baby food. She would only eat five tiny pieces of turkey and a little piece of roast beef. I tried
every food I could think of, but she wouldn't eat. She acted as though she wanted to, and then would do a lot of licking air, which
with my cat with pancreatitis, can indicate they feel nauseous. At the advice of a friend who's a vet tech, I gave her a quarter of a
tablet of pepcid, and then after half an hour of trying to get her to eat, I syringe fed her some baby food mixed with a bit of natural
balance cat food and water.
The next day she hadn't eaten at all, though she had tried to play. But had laid down with her back to us in the cage, which was
worrying. We allowed her some time out of the cage, fearing she had been depressed, but after a bit of scratching on our cats
cardboard post she laid down in the corner. That evening we brought her to our vet, who had saved my eldest cat's life twice. She
informed us that CeeCee was obviously underweight, that she wasn't sure why they had removed the feeding tube so
prematurely and she was puzzled by CeeCee's lack of care. She also told us she highly suspected that CeeCee might have IBD,
and this might have been the problem from the start. She said that given we knew so little of CeeCee's past, there was a chance
that IBD, which was a very difficult to diagnose condition, might be playing a part of what was going on. She said it did seem
fairly likely that CeeCee also had pancreatitis, which can go together with IBD. She said the only reason to remove the feeding
tube would have been infection. But that was never mentioned to us whatsoever and we were never given any medications for
her.
She admitted CeeCee and treated her. She basically gave us a huge discount for all the care CeeCee needed but it still cost us
$1500 dollars, which came out of my bank account. The estimate for something like this is usually $3000-4000 including all
treatments and tests. We're not well off by a long shot and this was something we couldn't really afford. But at the same time my
soul would not have been able to function if we had done anything else. There was no guarantee that CeeCee would make it.
She had a vet she trusted come in and do a sonogram. CeeCee was so weak and emaciated that they could not and didn't think
at that point she'd survive putting in a PEG tube through the neck. The vet that did the sonogram came back and did a small liver
biopsy himself. He used a very small amount of sedation to do the biopsy, as he was afraid that CeeCee would not make it if he
used what they normally do. When the sonogram was done, the vet doing it stated that he had not seen a cat in a long time in as
bad a condition as CeeCee. He stated that from what he could see, CeeCee had an extremely inflamed pancreas.
Several days later, we got a call from our vet. CeeCee had begun to turn around. She was in the largest suite in the hospital,
being fed through a feeding tube in the nose. She appeared to be doing well. She told us that she hoped that the tube through the
nose would help - she was tolerating it, which some cats don't. She did tell us that losing the peg tube though, wasn't good. In
CeeCee's condition at that point, it couldn't be replaced. The next day brought bad news. CeeCee had taken a turn for the
worse. She had thrown up, something our vet had been afraid might happen with the nose tube. Our vet, despite us not being
able to afford it, brought in blood plasma in an effort to stabilize CeeCee. It seemed to work and for 2 days she improved.
It was on the 4th day, early in the morning, our vet's associate called us and sadly told us that CeeCee had passed away that
morning. We were devastated, as we had come to love CeeCee. The next day our vet called us with the results of the biopsy and
the full sonogram. CeeCee's pancreas was extremely inflamed and her fatty liver disease was very bad. The sonogram vet
commented that the early placement of a stomach tube that would have been kept in might have saved her. He stated to that the
only reason one would have been removed would have been infection. This was never told to us. He stated that he was fairly sure
that CeeCee had IBD, and that early treatment and detection were so very important. So was finding a vet that was
knowledgeable about it.
We are still grieving and still experiencing the 'what ifs'? We are poorer, but we feel that we tried and that was all we could have
done. I wish that we had more time in the beginning, and had known CeeCee's history. I wish we had worked with our vet from
the beginning. But we believed, naively, that a vet with a thriving private practice in business for years must be good. We were so
wrong. In some ways we feel we let CeeCee down. Working in Rescue is heartbreaking sometimes, and we'd love to be able to
do more for most than we can. We fell in love with CeeCee. We will always love her, and we so want to share with others the
importance of trusting your instincts about a vet. Not all vets are good, just as not all doctors are. We wonder as well, if CeeCee
had been an 'owned' cat from the beginning, if she would have been treated differently. If she had been our cat would the same
care had been afforded her? I think probably not. But sadly, it could have been, and we hope that perhaps CeeCee's passing
was not in vain if her story can help another to learn from our mistakes.
I want to add, on a positive note, that the owner of this website, Lisa, was so kind and thoughtful to us and provided us with so
much knowledge during CeeCee's brief time at home with us, and with questions to ask the vet. We also want to thank our
wonderful and kind vet, Dr. Theresa Paloni, her associate Dr. Miglirino, Dr. Harding and the staff at Vet Care Unlimited for their
devotion and care of CeeCee. We know that if will and skill could have saved her, as well as love, that CeeCee would still be with
us. But perhaps, she is, if in Spirit.
Please, pet parents, find a vet who you trust. One is up front, honest, and who you get good vibes from regarding care. Ask
questions and expect answers. If you don't get them or you get the wrong ones, don't be afraid to take your animal elsewhere.
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