Veterinary News

[eumelia]

The cat is alive and pissed off.

Which is a good thing.

He spent the whole day hissing at the vets and breathing in oxygen in the oxygen tank.

He's now supposed to take an extra pill for appetite and keep taking steroids to keep his lungs open.

I dunno if I can keep this up on a regular basis.

It's just too much.

Also, I have some kind of flare up in my wrist and am rubbing stinky ointment into it and wearing a brace.

Life isn't easy, but it really could be worse, so I'll complain just a little bit.

Comments

[dharma_slut]

One of the more saddening, horrible realisations in my lifetime has been that I cannot afford to give my cats complete and perfect health care. If a cat is too ill, or too injured, if the vet quotes me a bill that is past my ability to afford, I have to make a choice to let the cat go.

Since then I have never allowed my family to take on a pet without that knowledge in mind. We cannot be omnipotent.

[lilacsigil]

I've had a cat with renal failure survive for 5.5 years now (originally the vet thought she'd be dead in a year). The maintenance work of giving her pills and checking her mouth and weight is much, much less stressful than it was when we were crisis mode at the start. We settled into a pattern and that's much easier! (We also decided that if she ever got to the stage where she was in constant pain and/or couldn't eat, we'd euthanase, so having that as a back-up plan was helpful in dealing with smaller crises.)

[silveradept]

Ow. I'm hopeful that the pills will be all that's necessary. I'm still hoping yours pulls through, since mine never had a chance at that point. That yours is hissing and fighting is a good sign.

And once you get the routine down, it becomes easier. Until the next flare-up.