This has not been a good year for cats. I lost Misty last June, followed by Joey just two months later. Last year, we lost Frisky, and the year before that, we lost our beloved Orange Bastard. I figured that would be it for awhile, since the cats we have left are fairly young. I may turn out to be wrong.
Some of you may remember me posting about a pair of kittens that my friends found abandoned in some fiberglass insulation, which they nursed back to health, and talked me into taking them in. This is about Radar, the little orange one.
We took a cruise last October, and when we came home, we found Radar was sick. He wasn't eating, had lost some weight, and was very congested. It was on a Sunday, so my regular vet wasn't open. My son thought he'd be OK if we waited until the next day and tried to get him to our regular vet, but I panicked and took him to the animal hospital, even though it would cost $100 just to even have him looked at. The doctor threw all kinds of scary possibilities out there, including feline leukemia or AIDS. He said he didn't usually see that sort of thing in adult cats, usually just kittens whose immune systems weren't fully developed. He also said he was dehydrated. He took him back in another room, pumped him full of fluids, and gave him an antibiotic shot that would be good for two weeks. The bill was $200, and I didn't have a lot of money to spare having just returned from a cruise. And the icing on the cake was, we hit a deer on the way home. It was a huge buck with an enormous rack, standing right in the middle of the damn highway at 2:30 in the morning. I swerved to the left to try to avoid it, but the stupid deer did the same thing. Took off my side mirror and antenna, and busted up a couple of the side panels pretty good. I remember looking up and screaming, "Shoot me now!"
Luckily, my insurance covers that sort of thing, with just a $100 deductible. The repair estimate was about $2,200. I wasn't very happy with the rental company that my insurance company hooked me up with, but that's a whole other story. The antibiotic seemed to help Radar, and he started eating again and acting like himself. But as the two weeks came to a close, he started acting sick again. This time, I called my regular vet, and told him what was going on, and said I needed him looked at as soon as possible. He set me up with a time slot that isn't even when the office is normally open. That's one of the reasons I still go to him even though I no longer live in the area and it takes a good 40 minutes to get there. He gave us three different types of medicine, two oral and one to be injected. Thankfully, my wife knows how to give injections, having had a mother who was diabetic. This visit cost about another $200.
We gave him the medication, but he still wouldn't eat or drink on his own. We resorted to syringe feeding him, which wasn't pleasant for any of us. Just when we started feeling hopeless, he started drinking water on his own. My wife looked up the medication, and one of the side effects was loss of apetite. So we figured it was from that. We finished off the medication, and hoped that his appetite would return. Around the same time, the kitten we took in last summer had appointment to be neutered. I tried to talk to the vet when I dropped him off, but he wasn't in at the time. I called him later to ask if I should be worried that he still wasn't eating on his own, and now he was worried too. Up until then, he had been pretty optimistic. Now that he was worried, so was I. He told me he'd look at him again if I wanted to bring him in. When I brought him in, he had lost even more weight, and his body temperature was low. Up until then, it had been normal. And once again, he was dehydrated. I guess the water he was drinking on his own wasn't enough. He offered to do some bloodwork, which I agreed to. Even if he wasn't going to make it, I wanted to know just what the hell was wrong, especially if it was something that could endanger the other cats. This visit cost me another $160 or so. The vet told me to call next day for the results, and to see if our kitten was ready to come home.
I took him back home, feeling really hopeless. The next day, my son told me he was acting a little more like himself, and was even purring for him, but I wasn't getting my hopes up. I called later that day, fearing the worst with the test results. The good news was, he tested negative for feline leukemia and AIDS. A few of the numbers were a little off, but nothing really bad. The only one that concerned him was the calcium. It was little high, which he said could indicate a tumor, although he didn't see any evidence of that. The bad news was, he was still concerned that Radar wasn't eating. He told us there was one more thing he could try.
A couple hours later, my wife called me with some amazing news. She got out the food and the syringe, and Radar stuck his face in the can and started eating on his own. When we brought Radar in and told the vet of this, he actually got excited, maybe even more excited than we did. He put him on another injectable antibiotic, to be given in small doses this time. Then his assistant brought our kitten in for us to take him, along with two bills, one for Radar and one for our kitten. The one for Radar was another $200, which made me cringe. But then the vet told his assistant, "No, we're not charging them for this one." That's right -- he cut us a $200 break, which was good because even without that, my credit card maxed out. But Radar was eating again and was getting better -- more active less congested, and acting a lot more like himself.
...until today. I got up for work, and found a note on the board from my wife, telling me that Radar wouldn't eat for her. I tried myself, and he wouldn't eat for me either. He hasn't eaten all day, and we had to go back to the syringe. Maybe the medicine started messing up his appetite again, I don't know. He's eyes are also pretty messed up, and we're not sure how much he can see, if at all. He made it downstairs twice over the last two days, which is a first, so I guess that's something. But we can't keep going on like this, emotionally or financially. Something's got to give.
Please keep Radar in your thoughts.
Some of you may remember me posting about a pair of kittens that my friends found abandoned in some fiberglass insulation, which they nursed back to health, and talked me into taking them in. This is about Radar, the little orange one.
We took a cruise last October, and when we came home, we found Radar was sick. He wasn't eating, had lost some weight, and was very congested. It was on a Sunday, so my regular vet wasn't open. My son thought he'd be OK if we waited until the next day and tried to get him to our regular vet, but I panicked and took him to the animal hospital, even though it would cost $100 just to even have him looked at. The doctor threw all kinds of scary possibilities out there, including feline leukemia or AIDS. He said he didn't usually see that sort of thing in adult cats, usually just kittens whose immune systems weren't fully developed. He also said he was dehydrated. He took him back in another room, pumped him full of fluids, and gave him an antibiotic shot that would be good for two weeks. The bill was $200, and I didn't have a lot of money to spare having just returned from a cruise. And the icing on the cake was, we hit a deer on the way home. It was a huge buck with an enormous rack, standing right in the middle of the damn highway at 2:30 in the morning. I swerved to the left to try to avoid it, but the stupid deer did the same thing. Took off my side mirror and antenna, and busted up a couple of the side panels pretty good. I remember looking up and screaming, "Shoot me now!"
Luckily, my insurance covers that sort of thing, with just a $100 deductible. The repair estimate was about $2,200. I wasn't very happy with the rental company that my insurance company hooked me up with, but that's a whole other story. The antibiotic seemed to help Radar, and he started eating again and acting like himself. But as the two weeks came to a close, he started acting sick again. This time, I called my regular vet, and told him what was going on, and said I needed him looked at as soon as possible. He set me up with a time slot that isn't even when the office is normally open. That's one of the reasons I still go to him even though I no longer live in the area and it takes a good 40 minutes to get there. He gave us three different types of medicine, two oral and one to be injected. Thankfully, my wife knows how to give injections, having had a mother who was diabetic. This visit cost about another $200.
We gave him the medication, but he still wouldn't eat or drink on his own. We resorted to syringe feeding him, which wasn't pleasant for any of us. Just when we started feeling hopeless, he started drinking water on his own. My wife looked up the medication, and one of the side effects was loss of apetite. So we figured it was from that. We finished off the medication, and hoped that his appetite would return. Around the same time, the kitten we took in last summer had appointment to be neutered. I tried to talk to the vet when I dropped him off, but he wasn't in at the time. I called him later to ask if I should be worried that he still wasn't eating on his own, and now he was worried too. Up until then, he had been pretty optimistic. Now that he was worried, so was I. He told me he'd look at him again if I wanted to bring him in. When I brought him in, he had lost even more weight, and his body temperature was low. Up until then, it had been normal. And once again, he was dehydrated. I guess the water he was drinking on his own wasn't enough. He offered to do some bloodwork, which I agreed to. Even if he wasn't going to make it, I wanted to know just what the hell was wrong, especially if it was something that could endanger the other cats. This visit cost me another $160 or so. The vet told me to call next day for the results, and to see if our kitten was ready to come home.
I took him back home, feeling really hopeless. The next day, my son told me he was acting a little more like himself, and was even purring for him, but I wasn't getting my hopes up. I called later that day, fearing the worst with the test results. The good news was, he tested negative for feline leukemia and AIDS. A few of the numbers were a little off, but nothing really bad. The only one that concerned him was the calcium. It was little high, which he said could indicate a tumor, although he didn't see any evidence of that. The bad news was, he was still concerned that Radar wasn't eating. He told us there was one more thing he could try.
A couple hours later, my wife called me with some amazing news. She got out the food and the syringe, and Radar stuck his face in the can and started eating on his own. When we brought Radar in and told the vet of this, he actually got excited, maybe even more excited than we did. He put him on another injectable antibiotic, to be given in small doses this time. Then his assistant brought our kitten in for us to take him, along with two bills, one for Radar and one for our kitten. The one for Radar was another $200, which made me cringe. But then the vet told his assistant, "No, we're not charging them for this one." That's right -- he cut us a $200 break, which was good because even without that, my credit card maxed out. But Radar was eating again and was getting better -- more active less congested, and acting a lot more like himself.
...until today. I got up for work, and found a note on the board from my wife, telling me that Radar wouldn't eat for her. I tried myself, and he wouldn't eat for me either. He hasn't eaten all day, and we had to go back to the syringe. Maybe the medicine started messing up his appetite again, I don't know. He's eyes are also pretty messed up, and we're not sure how much he can see, if at all. He made it downstairs twice over the last two days, which is a first, so I guess that's something. But we can't keep going on like this, emotionally or financially. Something's got to give.
Please keep Radar in your thoughts.
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