Furry Babies

I just got back from taking the cat to the vet.  He has lost a ton of weight, he has no energy, he keeps peeing all over the stairs (on every single step), and he cannot get enough to eat.  We had called a vet a few weeks ago but couldn't afford the up-front payment they wanted to even look at him.  They told us that they wouldn't even waste their time with an office visit because it wouldn't tell them anything, and that we would need to drop him off and have him boarded while they ran all of the tests they wanted to run.  Just to board him was, like, $300.  And they wouldn't accept payment plans and that didn't even include follow-up or treatment, etc.

So I was devastated, because particularly with my father's stroke and all the extra expenses that has brought, I didn't have the money to just drop the cat off and not even know how much more they would be charging me before I could have him back.  So we tried to deal with the problems and steal ourselves up for possibly having to put him down.

Then a co-worker found a new vet for her own pets and recommended this woman to me.  The office visit was only $25 and they agreed to see him ASAP.  She was very nice and took me right in to the office even though I was almost an hour early.  She looked him over, asked a few questions, drew some blood, explained the most likely problems (diabetes and hyperthyroid), and explained the most likely treatments.  All of that for half of the amount the other vet wanted to even LOOK at him.

The new vet called the cat an old man before he was even out of the carrier and that was funny.  He is an old man.  She could immediately see he is developing cataracts.  He is skinny and kind of reedy but she said that's not entirely uncommon in elder cats.  She told me he shouldn't eat wet food, but if that's all he'll eat then that's that.  I've been told by multiple vets a variety of things, from no dry food to no wet food to always mix them, so at this point I'm just going to feed him what he'll eat.  Which is, actually, a can of wet food mixed with handful of dry food.

She told me it is probably diabetes based on the description of his peeing on the carpet and the amount of pee (Lord! does he pee buckets).  She said the hyperthyroid is usually accompanied by vomiting and diarrhea, and he has neither.  It could be a mixture of his thyroid and diabetes, though.

The only time the new vet made me a little angry was when she asked me if the cat had problems with fleas.  My cat has never had fleas.  She looked doubtful, like she thought I was lying, and pointed out that he had several scabs where it looked like he had been biting himself "to death."  I told her he had always had fall allergies and that my previous vet told me the past few summers and falls had been very bad for....

And here she interrupted me to say, "Fleas, yeah."  And I was really annoyed, and said, "No, bad for allergies."  She just kind of shrugged, as if to say I was kidding myself or possibly lying to her.  She kept combing him and explaining what happens when cats get fleas and I was like, have you found any evidence of fleas yet?  And guess what?  She never did find any evidence of fleas.  Ever.

So she drew blood and that was it.  She had me leave the room while she drew the blood and when I came back she exclaimed, "When we flipped him over he was bald on his belly!  Is that recent, too?"  I told her he had been bald since he was neutered eleven years ago.  She just kind of furrowed her brow and said, "Hmmm, really?" but not in a kind of fun surprised way, but like I was lying again.  Because it would be further evidence of him scratching his fleas, you know?

But overall I'm pleased.  He will most likely need insulin shots twice a day.  She told me it would be kind of expensive each month and I told her that it wasn't the fact that I needed to pay for medication/food/etc. but that the other vet wanted a huge amount up-front and all at once.  If I have to pay $50 a month for some special medicine that's fine.  But $300-$500 minimum without knowledge of what they were going to do or when they would do it or if I could get my cat back if I couldn't pay for what they did behind my back?  That's what I couldn't afford.