Some Advice for Fat Cats & General Practitioners

The truth of the saying "you are what you eat" has been brought home to me recently. My adoptive cat has just changed his dietary preference from a soft Tesco's ready-meal to an apparently more healthy (nine out of ten vets seem to recommend it) "active maturity" granule. Not only has he lost weight, but resumed life on the prowl, having become a bit of a couch potato of late. This goes to show that relatively modest changes to one's regime can achieve almost immediate beneficial effects. Extreme changes are often unnecessary, and maybe lethal.

From a business/management perspective, what I particularly dislike about the New Labour "Regime" is its preference for "constant revolution" in many areas of government. Spurious administrative changes in the name of "modernisation" have been very much in fashion, particularly where these involve the purchase of expensive and, arguably unnecessary, IT systems from which many a cat has grown fat. Nor, in the case of the Health Service, is it only management practitioners who have become excessively prosperous.

In my personal capacity as a patient, I can only think of one General Practitioner who would merit a salary of circa £100k per annum, apparently the going rate for GPs these days. This gentleman was an African doctor practising in this country who combined an excellent consultative manner (calm, caring gravitas) with the ability to offer clear diagnosis and appropriate treatment. The true value of this kind of medical practitioner is illustrated in the following case study from my personal experience, and, as it happens, that of my cat.

Some years ago, my then cat and I both developed lumps in our mouths. In my case, I had rather foolishly allowed the National Health Service to extract my wisdom teeth, something which seemed to lead not to cure but subsequent dental problems. When my lump appeared I was therefore anxious. However, the doctor mentioned above assured me that this was a harmless bony growth and I should not worry about it. Indeed, I have had the lump now for about 12 years, and it has caused me no problems at all.

Meanwhile, my old cat's veterinary care was rather less appropriate, and, in the end, perhaps fatal. The vet suggested that the growth in his mouth might be cancerous and advised a biopsy.
In removing tissue for this purpose, the vet blocked a salivary duct and my cat developed a cyst on the side of his neck, in size probably half way between a golf and tennis ball (ie big for a small animal). The biopsy revealed there was no cancer. However, the cyst caused serious subsequent health problems for the cat, although it was eventually treated effectively by another vet.

In the case of my cat and, and other animals in whose care I have been involved, my experience is that veterinary treatments can be overzealous. This may have something to do with the veterinary insurance industry which has boomed in recent years. Purchasers of private medical care please take note ! However, even within the NHS I would suggest that there is much unnecessary "treatment". Not only is this costly in money and "opportunity cost" (when people who really need treatment cannot obtain it), the cure, as they say, may be worse than the disease.