Starting with taking in female college students

Chapter 92 Unwilling

Although he is a veterinarian, Chen Rang can only treat illnesses, not defy fate.

All he can do now is find as many cats as possible suffering from feline panleukopenia and treat them.

As for whether they can survive after treatment and during treatment, no one can guarantee that.

The cattery's environment and the caregivers' methods for raising the cats are far too rough and haphazard. The vast majority of the cats here are in a sub-healthy state, with malnutrition and mild skin and respiratory illnesses being commonplace.

In this situation, no one knows whether they can withstand the damage caused by feline panleukopenia.

Chen Rang's treatment for them involved some medications that could prevent bacterial infection and inhibit viral replication, but others only helped to improve their immunity, nothing more.

In other words, medication is not a panacea; the most important thing is to see how the sick cat's own immune system is functioning.

Furthermore, when immune cells and viruses fight each other in a sick cat's body, it places a tremendous burden on the cat's body and can even cause some damage. Once their bodies cannot withstand this damage, and once the high fever, dehydration, diarrhea, and other complications of feline panleukopenia are not controlled, the sick cat will have no way out but death. And this is something that Chen Rang cannot change no matter how hard he tries.

Firstly, he's not a god, and secondly, he doesn't have the ability to administer expensive, highly effective medications to all these cats. The drugs that effectively treat feline panleukopenia are much more expensive than feline panleukopenia inhibitors, and the cost is simply unaffordable for most people.

As I've said many times before, when the cost of treating a cat far exceeds the cost of raising the cat and the owner's expectations, getting a new cat might be the most realistic option.

Moreover, it's not just one or two sick cats here, but nearly thirty that have been diagnosed, meaning that almost a quarter of the cats in the cattery have been infected with the feline panleukopenia virus.

This number has exceeded Chen Rang's expectations.

He called Boss Zhao to pick up the medicine, ordering thirty doses in advance so he could keep ten as backup or increase the dosage for cats with severe symptoms. His expectation was for around twenty sick cats, not that there were already more than half that number.

This doesn't even include the cats that have been infected with the virus but haven't been confirmed yet, and whose infection might not be confirmed for another two days. All of these could amount to around forty cats.

The combined medical expenses for these cats would be beyond Chen Rang's means, and even animal disease control agencies specializing in this type of case might not be willing or able to come up with the money immediately.

This is a very real thing.

Chen Rang already knew one thing in his heart: the real culprit, Wang Deliang, was no longer a possibility. Even if he were killed, he couldn't afford the medical expenses for so many cats. If he could easily come up with that much money, would he still need to be in this line of work?

As for government medical institutions...

Sarawak is just a small city, and the government funding for each unit is limited each year. Putting aside all the other issues, there are actually other, simpler solutions available for dealing with these cats.

"Maybe... we should just forget about it!"

Officer Yang, who arrived a little later, quietly observed and understood the specific situation in the cat shelter before pulling Chen Rang aside.

"..."

Chen Rang lowered his head and remained silent.

He understood Officer Yang's meaning and knew that, according to common sense and relevant regulations, Officer Yang's suggestion was the most appropriate and unlikely to be criticized. A sick cat is a sick cat, and epidemic prevention is epidemic prevention; personal emotions should not be allowed to influence decisions.

But as a doctor, he still felt uneasy about having to give up on these patients.

This isn't a matter of moral fastidiousness; rather, for a professional doctor educated at a specialized university, such a choice would be tantamount to a denial of his abilities, professional ethics, and personal qualities. Of course, he could simply turn around and walk away, ignoring it, but this decision might affect his entire future medical career.

Today I chose to give up.

If another troublesome illness arises tomorrow, can we also choose to give up? After all, compared to treating an illness, persuading a cat owner is actually a very simple and worry-free thing.

"Chen Rang".

Seeing the tense atmosphere between Chen Rang and Officer Yang, Li Shiwei quickly went over. After listening to Officer Yang's whispered explanation, she also looked conflicted. But she was much more decisive than Chen Rang and quickly made the most appropriate choice.

"You don't need to worry about this. It's none of your business. Whether to treat it or give up, there are specialized organizations that will handle it. You don't need to interfere, and you have no right to make that decision, right?"

"That's certainly true."

Chen Rang gave a wry smile, knowing there was no need to elaborate on his inner turmoil.

He turned to look at the pile of sick cats in the yard, then at the other cats that hadn't yet shown symptoms and were isolated nearby. For a moment, he didn't know what to say. After all, he knew he shouldn't be stubborn; he simply couldn't bear the weight of the burden.

Officer Yang patted Chen Rang on the shoulder, offered no further advice, and turned to leave.

He was very busy, with many things to do since early morning. Knowing the situation and taking the initiative to come and offer advice was already a sign of goodwill towards Chen Rang. And since they were both adults, he wouldn't interfere too much with how Chen Rang should act or make his choices.

The same applies to Li Shiwei.

In her opinion, no matter what choice Chen Rang makes, it will not affect her liking for him.

Because Chen Rang has done his best, putting aside everything else, it is precisely because of Chen Rang's proactive, enthusiastic, and professional response that the feline panleukopenia epidemic has not spread to the entire city of Sarawak and has not caused greater losses.

"Brother Chen, one of the cats has died."

A young auxiliary police officer from the local police station came over and told Chen Rang some bad news.

Chen Rang turned his head and saw that it wasn't the same dying kitten from before, but another little creature that had seemed quite energetic just moments before. But unexpectedly, in just a short while, it had become completely still.

Although it looked like it was just asleep, the physical discomfort of witnessing death still made everyone present feel nauseous.

Chen Rang then looked at the other cats, and very few showed improvement. Although it was only because the treatment time was relatively short and the effects were not immediately apparent, Chen Rang knew in his heart that the mortality rate of feline panleukopenia never decreased significantly due to aggressive treatment.

In other words, unless expensive and effective drugs are used, no matter how unwilling he is or how hard he tries to treat them, many of these sick cats on site will still not survive.

This feeling of helplessness made Chen Rang extremely unwilling.

"Feline panleukopenia isn't a new disease. Hasn't a better treatment been developed after all these years? What are those people doing in pharmaceutical research? Do they think they can abandon research in this area just because they have a vaccine?"

Li Shiwei felt sorry for Chen Rang and cursed angrily.

"Don't say that. Actually, there is a specific medicine. But it's an imported product, not only is it expensive, but there might not even be any in stock in Sarawak. It takes time to transport it from other places, and we don't even know if other people are willing to make that trip."

Chen Rang shook his head with a wry smile.

As a small city, Sarawak certainly doesn't have as many things as big cities. Many expensive medicines and luxury goods are basically unavailable here, so naturally you can't buy them even if you want to.

At least he had already asked Boss Zhao, who said he couldn't afford that kind of stuff.

Medicines all have an expiration date. If such expensive items can't be sold and end up stuck in his hands, the losses could be devastating.

"Tsk! What are you even thinking about? Since there's no way to get the cure, just leave it to fate! You've done everything you can. Just do your job well until the animal disease control personnel arrive."

Li Shiwei quickly tried to persuade Chen Rang, and she even hoped that Chen Rang would stop treatment.

So far, no one or any organization has offered to cover the treatment costs! Once the disease control agency chooses to carry out unified harmless disposal of these cats, then all of Chen Rang's previous treatments will have been in vain.

At that point, will they be willing to pay this money that they could have avoided paying?

It's highly likely they're unwilling.

Therefore, the longer Chen Rang continues treatment, the higher the effort and money he will expend. And all of this could very well be wasted.

"Let's not think about that now."

Chen Rang shook his head, still unable to turn a blind eye. He couldn't go against his conscience, so even if the final outcome wasn't what he wanted, he decided to do his best in the present first.

Not far from Chen Rang, Ni Youlin remained silent, lost in thought.