Korean Job Discussion Forums

schwa · Joined: 18 Jan 2003 Location: Yap

This is a bit of a complex tale about a pet in distress & vet clinics in my town refusing to deal with it for ludicrous reasons. Maybe some of you will be interested to read on & offer comment.

I took my cat to the vet to be spayed some while back. Good guy, nice modern clinic, I'm sure he did a thoroughly professional & conscientious job of it.

Problem. About a year later she started going into heat again. If you know cats, you understand this is very unpleasant for all concerned. Intense guttural yowling, spraying, restless pacing 24 hours a day for a week or so every month. This went on for some time. I hoped it might pass but it didnt.

I did my internet research -- it can happen. The best of vets can miss a bit of ovarian tissue. I confirmed this with a Canadian vet. I felt no blame towards the Korean vet & took her back to him armed with facts & implored him to intervene surgically again.

He refused. He suggested my cat's problems were behavorial, not physical. The clear implication was that his work was above reproach. Meanwhile I still had a seriously distressed animal on my hands.

I put up with it for a few months longer. I was contemplating having her put down. I took her to another vet last week. I went with a Korean teaching colleague to interpret who knows the story, because its a fairly complicated scenario to put across.

This is a new very modern clinic, very impressive, & the vet listens patiently. He understands. He checks the cat over & gives her an ultrasound (inconclusive) & says, yes, she needs exploratory surgery. Great, I say, lets make an appointment.

Theres an awkward silence then he says he cant do it. This is a small town, he says, & it would look like he was overstepping the other vet, who happens to be his senior from college. Wtf?!! My animal's suffering evidently takes a backseat to confucianist norms. The clinic's name is "We Care." Right.

So much for humane ethics from animal doctors. My Korean friend, to her credit, was outraged. Her son, coincidentally. is studying to be a vet & I'm sure he got an earful about ethical responsibility that night.

I've still got a cat crying in the background as I type. My only option, evidently, is a hugely inconvenient trip or series of trips to a different city for her required procedures.

Bah. End of rant.

PolyChronic Time Girl · Joined: 15 Dec 2004 Location: Korea Exited

Wow, sorry for your little one. I would be outraged too! Any vet clinic that refuses to help a distressed cat(especially when they can fix the problem) because he needs to bow down to a worthless set of confuscian norms deserves bad publicity. Jeez, can't the guy keep his mouth shut about the operation if he's so worried about offending his "elder" Rolling Eyes

I would bad-mouth the clinic and his "ethics" all over the internet(have your Korean friend write it)
You are probably going to have to go out of town and immediately. Your cat will get more uncomfortable and it needs to be taken care of. I'm not a vet, but it must be very distressing for her. Wish you luck.

coolsage · Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2005 5:07 am Post subject:

I hope that this experience doesn't render you 'cynical' with respect to your life in Korea. You seem to have been on the receiving end of a double-barreled hit. The Confucian mode (when will it go away and die a quiet death?) coupled with the low esteem with which cats are regarded in Korea. Had it been one of those fuzzy 'arm dogs' which the princesses like to carry around, no doubt your dilemma would have been addressed. I hope you can work it out. Cheers.

Real Reality · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Location: Seoul

Ya-ta Boy · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Established in 1994

The deal with the vet is annoying. It makes a good illustration of how Confucianism plays out in daily life. Travelling to another town will be a hassle.

I have a question. Two or three posters said the cat is 'uncomfortable'. I lived with a cat in heat over a three day weekend and it nearly drove me to felinicide. No kidding. I was miserable and embarrassed. (Fortunately, all my neighbors thought it was the crazy waygookin living across the hall from me. My question: I know the cat is howling, but is she suffering? Isn't she just alerting all the potential boyfriends in the neighborhood that she is in the mood? (I don't know much about cats.)

funplanet · Joined: 20 Jun 2003 Location: The new Bucheon!

Find her a boyfriend and when she gets "preggers" and has 6 or 8 kittens...take them all to the last vet in a basket and tell him this is responsibility now...

komtengi · Joined: 30 Sep 2003 Location: Slummin it up in Haebangchon

the only problem is its not just vets like this... doctors are even worse

PaperTiger · Joined: 31 May 2005 Location: Ulaanbataar

I took my wife's dog to the vet to have him neutered not too long ago, and everything seemed on the up and up until we took him to her Mom's house. Presumably the humping should be brought to a shrieking halt with the absence of his *beep*...but no, apparently the good doctor only removed ONE of them. So there's little Mangchi humping my mother in law's arm with schmea smeared all over her (or ojum, as she said) with her own brand of inimicable patience.

Should I go back and kick up a fuss??? He didn't do his job and still charged me money for it. Granted the dog was seven when he got it done, but shouldn't his sex drive be GONE, along with his ability to drip hormone-laden sauce???

My faith in Korean science is shaken...again.