Thought I would ask this since the vets are now shut so I won't be able to sort out an appointment until tomorrow morning.

I picked the cat up this evening (which I do quite often) and she let out a bit of squeal. I could feel a little lump in the space inbetween her ribcage and her stomach. It definitely wasn't there yesterday, it's squishy, although she obviously she doesn't like me touching it. She seems completely normal, she's not been sick, she's been to the loo and she ate all her tea.

It sounds like a hernia although it seems a little too far up.

Any cat people fancy a diagnosis?

Is it a large lump like a large distended area in her abdomen, or a small lump like a bug bite? Does it appear to be under her skin, or part of her skin?

I don't think it's a bug bite, it's a bit bigger than a grape and it's under the skin, she gets very upset if you try and mess with it.

Could be anything, but definitely worth a trip to the vet.

P.S. Is it just me, or is it stupidly expensive to go to a vet?

Does she go outside? It could be the beginning of an abscess from another cat's bite which can turn serious. If it is an abscess, she needs to be on antibiotics.

Vets aren't that terribly expensive. Try getting the same procedure at a doctor's office.

They are when you live in the UK and the visit to the doctor is free.

They've kept her in overnight in order to do an x-ray first thing. But the current diagnosis is a rupture of some description possibly caused by a fall from a tree (or more likely missing her footing when jumping off the roof onto the fence). If it's something that's operable then they'll do it then and there.

Looks like my joke of a bonus is now spent. Must get her insured.....

Vets and dentists may be good at their jobs, but their knowledge of inflation is like the Monty Python Sketch of the bed salesman who multiplies everything by ten.
Beware pet insurance schemes, whatever your pet has is excluded! - but I suppose that counts for all insurance!
If you want to see what vets bills add up to in a year, look at our boxers, we eat for less! But if you love your pets and you want peace of mind: It's cheap.

I've heard a few horror stories about pet insurance, I think I'll still have a look, sods law she'll never have a problem again!

The thought of a massive bill is a worry. I'd like to say money is no object but I have to live in the real world.

Get well soon Lottie <3

According to this chart, making what I make in the US, I'd be paying about 28% of my income in taxes. In the US, I pay about 17%, combined, to the federal and state governments, but health insurance costs about another 3% of my income (a portion of which is usually, but not always, paid by the employer, but that's still money paid privately). In addition, that health insurance does not pay 100% by any stretch of the imagination. Every time you see a doctor, it will be at least another $20. Medications cost $5-$30 per prescription per month. Large procedures are not covered very well. (I just had a dental crown put in. They paid half, but that's still $400.) I doubt you could go to an emergency room for less than $500.

I guess if you're healthy, you come out ahead in the US. If you're not, I'd say you come out ahead in the UK. But all of that, as has been pointed out, assumes you're completely indifferent to everyone else's health.

Having spent more time in a hospital recently than I would have prefered, I would be interested in hearing what your experiences with the NHS have been. My limited experiences have been at Red Hills and Hammersmith hospitals and make me wonder if you have had a different experience than I that makes you in favor of the NHS.

To avoid futher thread-jacking, we can start a new thread but I would be interested to know.

It was a rupture not a hernia. She's back at home wearing her cone and sporting a nice big scar on her chest. Follow up appointment on Monday but that appears to be it.

This is what I love about this forum, a thread about cat lumps turns into a discussion on state provisioned health services and no-one's called anyone a c*nt!

I know you weren't asking me, but I thought I'd chime in with my 2 cents about NHS.

When I was in the UK about two years ago, for that year's empeg meet (I'd gone over there after the meet ended), I had what I now believe to have been a kidney stone.

I was by myself in London when I developed a blinding pain in my left kidney area. I didn't know what else to do, so I had the hotel clerk call an ambulance for me. It didn't take too long for the ambulance to get there. I got taken to a hospital (St. Mary's) and was made to wait in the waiting room. I ended up having to wait several hours (though it felt like longer) to see a doctor. This sounds like a long time, and felt like it, too, but to be fair, there were people there with problems clearly worse than mine, and I've waited as long in US hospitals. She performed some tests and decided I had an infection. I was given some horse-pill sized ibuprofen and a course of Cipro. At this point, the pain had subsided significantly, so I was happy with the diagnosis and release.

The point of all of that is that that service (and you Brits may be irritated by this) cost me nothing, even though I wasn't even a UK citizen. If I had had that done in the US, even if I had good private health insurance, an ambulance ride, an emergency room visit, and two prescription drugs would have easily cost me $750. If I was poor, I simply couldn't have afforded it.

I felt like the service I got was slightly worse than what I would have expected in the US, but only very slightly, and based solely on the wait. And I have had worse in the US, as well as better. And paid the same amount for both.

All in all, I was rather impressed.

Generally, in UK, if you have a serious A&E problem then you will get everything you need with no comprimise. The ambulance services in general are pretty good, I live a 30 minute normal drive from several large hospitals and the turnout times for a 999 call are between 15-20 minutes, 40 on a bad day and if they know it's not live and death problem (my dad is a First Responder and generally one of those will be there in 5 minutes, but those schemes are quite rare).

Also, very minor problems that can be sorted with one or two doctor's visits are no problem, although most surgeries have a 2-4 day waiting list.

The problem seems to be chronic or degenerative problems which need lots of time and somebody interested in fixing the problem rather than fobbing off the patient to either get their workload done or save money.

For example my gran has been in excellent health for 92 years but had a back problem after weeding the garden a few months back, she spent 9 weeks in hospital and I don't think anybody is clear about what is the problem, and seem reluntant to refer her to somewhere/body with more experience. Luckily a second epidural has solved the bulk of the pain, but she is on 15+ pills a day at the moment.

Gareth

Glad to hear that she's back home and doing well.

But now, let the thread jack begin.

Here's my experiences.

Visting my GP is almost the same as visiting my PCP in the US. Both are competent and professional. Prescription drugs are dramatically cheaper in the UK. But emergency treatment or more serious illnesses seem to require a level of stoicism and waiting that I can't get my head around. Are our experiences just bad luck or do most folks accept this as a matter of course?

My memory's a little sketchy on the whole event but this is what I recall, about 10 days before Christmas 2003 SWMBO is flying back to Gatwick from Port Harcourt. She deplanes, heads to the hotel, and collapses. At this point, she's in and out, delirious, fever, shaking, major badness. The doctor knows where she's been, but delays the malaria tests for 2 or 3 days even though our company doctor is stressing to him the importance. I ask nicely and then not so nicely and they do finally run a test but not the follow-ups that are usually required. A group of doctors show up once a day for the first 2-3 days and it's almost like a science project where they consult on the side to decide what test to try next. All were very young and looked very overworked. Maybe it was the fact that it was over the holidays and they were short staffed but on about day 4-5, a different set of doctors showed up and it was like a scene from Outbreak.

Masks, rubber gloves, and plastic aprons. The room is locked down and they start limiting who can come and go (except for the little old lady who brought around the tea trolley, she came in and out and no one said a word. Avian flu oubreak? Fear the tea trolley vector.) On day 5, a tropical disease specialist shows up announces that she doesn't have hemmoragic fever because she would already be bleeding out her eyes if she did. (No joke.) They speculate its dengue and leave medication instructions for the nurses.

Things get worse for the next day or so as there seems to be a handoff mixup. No one comes for awhile, then 2 other doctors show up. They get into a dust up with the nurses and personally wheel SWMBO out of the ward to another ward upstairs. Much nicer, much cleaner, much better on the communication, and care. SWMBO stays for another 2-3 days. My company wound up picking up the tab on the whole fiasco as we were living in France at the time and did not fall under the Samaritan rule. ( I think this is what covered you Bitt) This was at Red Hills.

Similar situation happened this past weekend with SWMBO at Hammersmith. Turns out it was a bacteria this time. 4 days in the hospital but it took until day 3 before she was locked down again and a similar but shorter process started. In both instances, it seemed that we had to wait until we hit a certain point in the system, before the next level of healthcare kicked in.

Granted both instances involved rare diseases but a similar emergency room visits that I've experienced were dramatically different. I took a friend to the emergency room in the US when he had Giardia. They had pinned it down within hours, pumped him full of fluids and antibioitcs, and he was out the next day.

When I had a particulary bad case of bronchitis in Paris after returning from Algeria, I visited the American Hospital in Paris during the height of the SARS outbreak (probably not a good comparision since everyone on duty freaked out). They diagnosed me and released me that day.

Yeah, they told me that if I was admitted that I would have paid, but there was no reason to admit me at that point. As it was, I probably could have just toughed through the whole thing, but I was really scared at the time.

I'm glad your pussy (I didn't call her the c* word) is doing well Poor little thing, it's good you got her to the vet right away. Take good care of her.

I'm really in no way qualified to comment on your experiences, only to sympathise in what must have been an unacceptable nightmare.
I'm only posting to say that in a distant recollection of when I worked for a large company pre '72, the only similar experience I remember, again Nigeria, the company doctor immediately had the patient, with similar symptons to those you describe, whisked off to a BUPA specialist tropical medicine unit, which presumably still exists. At the time we all thought it made the BUPA contributions seem cheap, and I can't remember opening an African operation being on the board room agenda afterwards!.

Thanks Boxer. My experience with Bupa has also been very good. My company is revising its malaria policy based on our experience to recommend where employees should go if they have a choice at the time. Hopefully, it will allow others to avoid the problems that we went through.