long story... (aren't the all?)

1 month ago i took her in for her shots and because her ear allergies
were bothering her again so i wanted the vet to look at them.

they gave me otomax which i applied in very small doese (which seemed
to work most of the time).

after i stopped a week later i noticed her head tremoring for a minute
or so when she was in bed with me, then it calmed down.  i went to work
the next day and when i got home at 6pm i saw it happning again, so i
called the vet at 6:10 and asked them what time they closed.

they said 6pm, so i asked if i could bring her in. they said they
stopped intakes at 6, and i said i only lived 10 mins from there, but
they still wouldn't do it, soi called the next vet that i knew would be
open (40 miles away) and asked if i could bring her in. they said if i
could get there by 7:15 they could see her.  so i drove about 80-90 mph
to get there in time, and i had my regular vet fax her records down
there.

according to the 2nd vet she had lost over 1/4 pound in a week (from
the other vet's fax) and said just looking at her (she had stopped
eating her dry food a month or so ago) and hadn't had a bm in a few
days now. she suspected (without doing any tests) that it could be
hyperthyroidism because of her weight loss, a heart murmur she heard,
and she was shaking a little (she always shook at the vet's - she's a
nervous cat..) and also said possible kidney failure.

i was devastated to hear all that. she was always skinny, and i just
thought she was being finicky about her food.

i asked her how long she might live if i got her treatment right away
and she told me 6 months.

i was crushed.   she asked me if i wanted her to do blood tests and i
said no, that i would schedule them with my vet the next day (which i
did). she also upped the dosage on the otomax to 3-4 drops 2x  day in
each ear (of which i only did 2 drops instead of my usual 1 drop in
each ear which i continued for 2 days then stopped because of side
effect warnings and other warnings from people on this list.-- i.e. why
they increased the dosage in a cat that may have vestibular problems
because of the shaking and possible kidney problems??)

made an appt. for 2pm. got there, and they wouldn't admit me because
the LOST/COULDN"T FIND HER RECORDS that they faxed to vet #2 the night
before.
(i told them why don;t you call them up and have them faxed back??!!)

waited 30 mins while they got that together and finally got into a room
and did the blood and urine tests and waited another 30 mins.  she came
back smiling and said everything was in the normal range, but there was
something in the urine they wanted to check in a week.

they waived the office charges because of the fauxpas but charged me
$132 for the tests.

i showed the tests to phil (here online) and he had noticed that they
wrote that the sample was "extremely hemolyzed" (due do poor sample
handling?) and so this means that the tests coudn't be considered
accurate. he also told me to ask them why her white blood cell count
was so low (low/normal range...)

at this point i decided to get a second opinion and more tests done
(since i couldn't put any faith in these.)

so i got her home again and she seemed to perk up for a couple of days.
(i managed to get her an appointment with an internist for
monday/today..)

but i had noticed that now she hadn't had a bm in 4 days and was not
eating as much.  so i tried to make another appointment the next day
and they said couldn't give me one till next week.
i kept an eye on her and noticed she tried to go but couldn't and
jumped out of her box and layed on the floor and moaned a little bit
(not seemingly in pain, more like that she was bugged..)

i called my regular vet again the next day and told them that she
hadn't had a bm in 5 days now, and they gave me an appointment for
1:45pm.

i got there at 20 mins of, got in the room AND WAITED 45 MINS before
someone showed up.
a tech stuck their head in the door and asked if the dr. had come
though here. i said no, then 5 mins later she came back in and said
they "didn't know which room i was in/couldn't find me/looked for me in
the parking lot, etc."

wow... how feeble an excuse can people make??

the vet came in, i explained i wasn;t happy with the blood tests, she
got indignant, i said i was really concerned about her not having a bm,
she took an xray and felt her bowels and said that it didn't feel hard
and to just double up on the laxatone (that i had been giving her for a
few days) and water down her wet food.  she said that she had faith in
the tests and that i shouldn't worry, but thought that she might have
the very beginnings of kidney disease and left the room.

i asked the vet tech if they could waive the office charge for the exam
and all they would do is knock $10 off for the urine sample.

got the cat home again (did i mention i'm ready to kill someone yet??)
and took her in today to the internist.

the first thing she did (and what was more striking to her than the
rest of the stuff going on) was that she said the cat didn't seem to
know where her feet were (she demonstrated this to me..)
and suggested a neruological workup along with a battery of tests that
she wanted to do just to get a clear picture of what was going on.
(this is what i wanted..)

she gave me an estimate between $1600 - $1900 just for their tests
(including bowel evacuation/enema treatment, etc.) just to try to get
to the bottom of this problem.

needles to say i was shattered.  i had just spent about $400 on the cat
(the bulk of my mortgage money for may...)

i was already sobbing after she left the room after she told me about
hre not kknowing where her feet were, knowing that neurological stuff
was expensive and i had no idea that the cat was perhaps this bad off.
it just spelled doom for her..

so $1600 - $1900  just for tests, not including a visit/recommendation
to neurologist, not including any "treatment" or procedures...  and all
without knowing any prognosis.

is it worth doing all this testing only to uncover some hideous
incurable disease or problem that can't be treated or even with
treatment is only going to yeild a few more months of life.

the thing is . i don't know anything yet.
can't even venture there, but i'm doing what i can.
i still need to know.

just the office exam was $150 for this place, and they are keeping her
overnight to try to evacuate her bowels. (first time we've been apart
for 16 years..)

i can't stand it.

i'm on food stamps, fuel assistance, elec. assistance, etc. and i've
got my own medical problems i'm dealing with (persistant ocular
migranes that they can't figure out, etc.) and of course, i have no
medical insurance.

i've done everything for this cat. even quite a job and stayed home
with her when she got run over 11 years ago and nursed her back to
health and even saved her leg that they all told me was going to have
to be removed.

i'm so attached to her it isn't funny.

(did i stop talking yet??)

i don't know what else to say, except i'm exhausted and have a headache
from sobbing all day.

thanks for asking though...

rb

dear everybody..

i'm posting my reply to the group here because:
- i might have accidentally selected "reply to author (bulletproof)
when i sent it

or

- the moderators might have censored it because of the "strong
language".

so for anyone that cares, here it is again..

thanks to all those that were genuinely concerned and offered useful
suggestions.

ray b.

---------------------------------------
dear F*CKING bulletproof

i don't know who you are, but i don't see how you can extrapolate parts
of my story and turn them into lies and malign someone (me) the way
you've done without getting the facts straight.

i stopped responding to this when you and the other idiot turned this
into your own personal chatroom, joking it up and totally getting away
from the thread about this subject.

if i were a moderator i would have kicked both of you out.

this is like that game where someone tells a story to one person, and
that person tells it to another, and by the time it gets to the last
person the whole story has changed.

right from your very first "cavlier" post you proved yourself to be a
jerk, and you don't even sound like someone that should own a cat (or
any other animal.)

suggesting i "blow pot in my cat's face", "buy her an enama and give
her a squirt", "keep her warm and let nature take it's course (/die)",
misreading that i was giving my cat "exlax" then warning me that i
"shouldn't give her too many laxative because they dehydrate" -  (i was
giving her LAXATONE, big difference...)

apparently you can't read something without misintepreting it.

re: my "invisible cat" - she's a 16 yr/2mo old domestic short hair tort
that i got from the spca.
(do you want to see her papers?)

according to you she "doesn't exist" because i "gave no backround on
the cat"?

re: 90 mph - - ON THE HIGHWAY at times. YES. i wanted to get my cat
some help
(and yes, my car CAN go that fast safely) and they were the next
closest vet i could get to that was still open. my next choice was the
emergency vet 40 miles away. THAT was my only other option. what other
options did i have, pray tell, oh wise and wonderous cat healer? blow
some pot in her face? (who's the crack head here?)

re: welfare: no, i'm not on welfare. being low income (foodstamps and
fuel assistance)
doesn't mean someone is on welfare.

i spent the bulk of my may's mortgage money in the past 4 weeks trying
to get some help for my
(as you say "invisible") cat.

re:dry food. - no, i wasn't feeding her dry food. only wet food (and
putting water in that to keep her hydrated.)

re: "you could see the drama mounting as in "near ripped the cats leg
off with a needle?
nah! she copped that story horror story from somewhere else on the
net."

hey sherlock.. you wan to to see a picture?   you f.cking moron.

(oh, btw - i'm a GUY..) how & where did you deduce that i was a woman?
yeah. your REAL f.cking bright aren't you?

re: "a lie designed to give caring people a sense of urgency"

and, YOU are the "caring people", with all your off the cuff idiotic
home made recipies and hippie drug cures and sensitivity (let nature
take it's course and let the cat suffer and die?)

re: acting oblivious after 15 years."..

listen up magnum pi - i quit a job once and stayed home with the cat
when she got run over 11 years ago, after 3 vets i went to told me that
they were going to have to cut her leg off.

i stayed home and did a LOT of physical therapy with her and managed to
save the leg.
how f.cking DARE you say i'm not aware/tuned into the needs of my cat.

re:

i sent you a "personal" reply. so what? i've sent others a personal
reply too.
is there something wrong with that?
is that some kind of "alert" for you?

i made the mistake of thinking you were sincere.

and (if i follow your "logic" here) because i sent you a "personal
preply" you think that "speaks of experience"?

what an odd conclusion. meaningless.

then you SLANDER me saying i have "no experience with anything"?
i'm 53 years old. i have experience with a lot of things, and i can
certainly spot an idiot when i see one.

what's all this extraneous, meaningless diarrhea about?:

and

and

hmmm, yeah... that's real interesting and funny stuff.
you trying to show everyone how "cool" you are?
do you you fancy yourself some kind of writer or something? (because
you're not..)

you're just trying to impress people here about something.
what, i don't know, because all you've done is misquote me, and twist
everything i've said into your own personal "conclusions" which are all
wrong.

how embarassing for you.

and... re:

this is really bad sentence construction d00d (not to mention
misspelling "wondering".)
hey.  that's ok. i've got a cure for that:

go eat a bunch of brillo pads, cigarette butts and exlax, and wash it
down with some of that chocolate milk of yours (and DON'T call me in
the morning.)

as a matter of fact, DON'T EVEN BOTHER RESPONDING TO THIS.

i swear to god, if i ever met you in person i'd twist your f.cking head
off and put it on a pike in front of my house.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
for anyone else that's interested, here's an update.

i got her home from the vet monday night.
she's pretty traumatized and exhausted from the ordeal so far.
(she doesn't do vets very well. lots of anxiety...)

been mostly sleeping, and eating a bit more (wet food only.)

i made an appointment with a vet neurologist for wednesday morning
(dr. alan pothoff in maine at the animal neurological clinic in case
anyoe wants to check up on me...)

they have some kind of fund for "low income people" as well as a
sliding scale fee, which i'm sure i can qualify for.

so far all it's going to be (all i think i can afford) is an office
exam and further (more accurate) blood tests. no way i can afford the
$1500 - $1900 quote i got for an mri.

i'm hoping that the good dr. can draw some kind of diagnosis without
having to do an mri which i can't possibly afford.

she had a tiny bowel movement lst night (hardly anything), didn't
strain, but hasn't still produced a good movement yet. i was told she
may not because they think they cleaned her out pretty good and had
fasted for a day or so because of the last exam (and wouldn't eat
during her overnight stay at the vet's.)

i also have to go back next week to have the sutures removed
(bullet"head" take note...)

that's about all i can say for now, except i'm still searching for and
have contacted a few organizations about financial help for pets. a lot
of them don't give money for diagnostic exams, they want a diagnosis
first and the animal has to have a better than 6 month prognisis (etc.)
before they would consider giving any money out.

oh yeah.  her name is Kippie.

ray b

BulletProof wrote: