Doctor.WILL.LOSE.LICENSE.

[AccountingDrone]

We expect that my husband will be on metformin for a very long time, but he still has to be checked out annually.

AD, your kitty is adorable. Please give her an extra snuggle from me.

Will do.

I generally get blood work and a short meeting every 3 months, we are juggling a bunch of different meds and they have varying effects on different crap that can go wrong. What helps is being willing to play around with your meds and understand what they do and how they do it. All of my diabetic meds do different things ranging from tweaking how my platelets gather glucose and distribute it around to preventing my liver from processing glucose, to making my kidneys filter out the glucose instead of let it recirculate back into the bloodstream.

[MoonCat]

I hate that man.

I want the cat taken away from him. Alternatively, maybe after he rants about it to his wife, she will give him the Death Glare and tell him to remake the appt. and this time to do as the vet says, or maybe she will take the cat to the vet herself. Because otherwise I don't see that poor cat living a lot longer.

[Slave to the Phone]

I also hate that man. Poor kitty, its not his fault he's old and sick! And, yes, kids are more important than pets, but to stress the poor kitty out by bringing it to the vet and then walking out? Unbelievable! Does he take his kids to the doctor and then just walk out when they want to examine them? What a jerk!

[Ted_The_IT_Guy]

While a dog person myself, that doesn't change the fact that I feel this guy deserves something that violates a rule of the forums.

All 3 dogs of mine have wellness plans from Banfield, that group that has vet clinics inside of Petsmarts. $38 a month per dog, and worth every penny. That includes two comprehensive exams (bloodwork and everything) per year, plus one knock them out dental cleaning. It also includes the every 6 months heartworm shot, and no charges for office visits - just charges for any tests, or meds, etc.

It has saved us thousands...we have a rescue pup who has had several teeth removed and has pancreatitis flareups (and requires a special liver health prescribed dog food that is about $6/lb), along with another dog of ours that has the canine version of irritable bowel disease. That neccesitated for about 3 weeks 2 years ago, taking him in about every 2nd or 3rd day because he was very sick. Just not having to pay for the office visit charge saved us at least $400 there.

We had to make budgetary sacrifices there, but dammit, it's worth it when the dogs in question snuggle up to you like they are toddlers.

[notalwaysright]

People spend their money on what they want. Don't give me the "I have kids" excuse. If he WANTED to take care of his cat, he would. If he doesn't have one penny extra, then give the cat away. That's not something I normally say, but I see people who claim to be broke spend money on everything from nice craft beer to designer handbags so I have become cynical.

At the place I took my cat twice I begged the vet to do the intake, and not have a tech do it, but they wouldn't. I don't mean to be critical of vet techs in general. It's just that my cat gets so terrified, and having a tech come in, bang around in shelves, talk loudly, and wave her hands around while gesturing was just awful. Then the vet came, and she was quieter, but after she gave my cat the shot he hissed at her, and she said the stupidest thing. "Wow, orange cats are usually friendly." Um, has no cat ever hissed at you before? Anyway, I realize it was just a sucky place but when I chose a new vet I was relieved that the vet is the only one who handles the cat during a normal exam.

[raudf]

In rats, it's harder to catch a sick one in time to get them to the vet. And often times, the rat won't survive the car trip to my favorite closest one. I've learned a lot of basic animal first aid trying to stabilize a rattie for transport. In fact just this last week, I lost one due to a very rapid weight loss, refusal to eat (even his favorite mashed bananas and giving him pedialyte via dropper) and realized he had all the classic symptoms of pituitary cancer. He was two years old, already declining, so I called the vet for a euthanasia, took him in and he'd crossed the Rainbow Bridge before we got there.

The rest of his mischief are fine, though one is under supervision for a tumor on the side. Right now, the vet is concerned that, given his age, he would have trouble with surgery (I suspect he's over two given his size when I bought him with the rest) and it doesn't interfere with anything. I just make sure he's eating, drinking, grooming, etc. This is the last of them though. I can't handle the short life spans for such loving little buggers. I get too attached.

[Shalom]

Point of data: In New York State, "Refill as needed" is specifically defined to mean "refill once".

Assuming it's not for a controlled substance, there's no limit to the number of refills a prescriber can specify, as long as it is a number, not "as needed". Regardless of how many are written or used, any unused refills expire one year from date written. And try explaining that to a SC who is yelling "But it says three refills!!1!" on a bottle that has a date in the last century.

(edit to add: Medicaid has tighter restrictions: no more than five refills, and expires in 180 days. Controlled substances are similar.)

[DGoddessChardonnay]

With prescriptions for humans, I believe glasses prescriptions don't expire.

The cat in this story definitely deserves a better home.

My RX was written to expire in 1 year (had my last exam back in October) - with any luck I'll get my lenses this week (and they are EXPENSIVE even w/vision insurance, but I digress.)

I guess it was written that way b/c I'm supposed to have an eye exam yearly, and my vision could change enough in 12 months' time to warrant an updated prescription.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

...and having a tech come in, bang around in shelves, talk loudly, and wave her hands around while gesturing was just awful. Then the vet came, and she was quieter, but after she gave my cat the shot he hissed at her, and she said the stupidest thing. "Wow, orange cats are usually friendly."

We actually just had a staff meeting about how we plan to assist owners who have vet-nervous pets. All of our vet techs approach animals quietly to see how they react, and only if they react positively do they become more animated and friendly to "praise" the animal for being happy and feel secure.

We're starting to implement what we call "Happy visits" where it's just an appointment with the tech, the animal is brought in hungry, so the tech takes a slow time getting them comfortable (with lots of treats.)

First visit is just get weight, go into the exam room, technician pets them and gives them treats. The following visits slowly bring the animal being comfortable with a mock physical exam (temperature, heart rate, checking teeth, etc.)

That tech at that hospital you went to is a nimrod. Even with happy animals, we don't go banging around and slamming things.

[Jay 2K Winger]

"Wow, orange cats are usually friendly."

No cat is friendly.

A cat is either in a state of open hostility or temporary docility while it plots your demise.

(This message has been brought to you by Jay 2K Winger, unabashed subscriber to the theory that All Cats Are Evil. His views are not endorsed by CS.com)

[EricKei]

Even my husband's meds, some of which are definitely "he will be on them for life" type meds aren't refill forever.

I have at least one "will be on for life" pill (for hypothyroidism), but I still need to get blood tests done yearly to continue them, along with the every-6-months general checkups ~~ no controlled-sub scrips, tho, thank goodness. That would be a nightmare, especially when driving out-of-state O_O

A cat is either in a state of open hostility or temporary docility while it plots your demise.

Pretty much, yeah. Keep in mind that the cat may switch between these two states without warning, nor apparent provocation, at any time, and without visible guilt.

I have used catnip mixed in with food to bring on the latter state, and a plug-in pheromone atomizer (Feliway I think) to keep kitty from freaking out when moving to a new home. Worked quite nicely

[sstabeler]

Pretty much, yeah. Keep in mind that the cat may switch between these two states without warning, nor apparent provocation, at any time, and without visible guilt.

Yup. Which I had the delight to experiance only a couple of weeks ago- I have an aunt that had a cat that, when you were petting it, liked to randomly swipe at your arm. Now, I wouldn't mind it batting at my arm, but it used it's claws. Yeah, the few times I petted it after that, I made sure to wear a jumper. Damn cat can get the jumper, not my arm.

[Sapphire Silk]

I've heard of people being on meds that were prescribed forever, usually it's something like insulin though.

That's because insulin is crucial to life. A lot of diabetics reuse their needles so running out is usually less of a problem but running out of insulin, especially when you travel, is life threatening.

In many places it's the needles you need a prescription for.

Then the vet came, and she was quieter, but after she gave my cat the shot he hissed at her, and she said the stupidest thing. "Wow, orange cats are usually friendly." Um, has no cat ever hissed at you before? Anyway, I realize it was just a sucky place but when I chose a new vet I was relieved that the vet is the only one who handles the cat during a normal exam.

Cats are great barometers of humanity. I learned that the hard way with a potential room mate. I'd been looking for awhile and rejected a lot of applicants who just weren't good fits: smoked, had dogs (we already had several pets and didn't want any more) or just otherwise didn't click.

Then we got this well dressed young guy, student at our school, seemed very nice. Didn't smoke, no pets. The cat I had at the time (General Lee, a little gray ball of fluff who would bare his claws and CHARGE! at anything).

General Lee took one look at him, and HISSED. It was the first time I'd ever heard him hiss.

Me: I'm really sorry about that. He's usually loving on everyone.

Guy was cool with it, and we rented him the room. What a mistake! Guy was a total jerk, and General Lee HATED him. He didn't do his house chores, had sketchy friends, and was overall cold. When he moved out he racked up a $900 phone sex bill.

General Lee disappeared. I never did find him, and I think the roomie had a hand in something nefarious.

I will never ignore the cat test again.

No cat is friendly.

A cat is either in a state of open hostility or temporary docility while it plots your demise.

(This message has been brought to you by Jay 2K Winger, unabashed subscriber to the theory that All Cats Are Evil. His views are not endorsed by CS.com)

I started to laugh at this, then noticed Taz was giving me an evil glare.

I think I'm in trouble

[Valentinian]

My SO's last cat (RIP, grumpy tortie darling) was on one particular medication for the last... eight? years of her (long!) life. She got checkups with full blood work to make sure it was working well a minimum of once a year, more often if her weight / behaviour / appearance changed, and as a result of those checkups her dosage was changed at least five times that I remember. The last three changes brought the dose down, because she'd adjusted well to it and her general health was improving. She went from three pills a day at her worst to only needing two, and she stayed on that dose for about four years.

This was not a cheap medication, and even if it had been, having a bottle of pills last three months instead of two makes a big difference in cost over several years. That twerp could be missing out on major savings; maybe that would convince him to get his poor cat the care it needs? And if he's actually found a vet who'll prescribe meds indefinitely without ever seeing his patient, they deserve each other and I hope he gets ripped off.

[Jay 2K Winger]

I started to laugh at this, then noticed Taz was giving me an evil glare.

I think I'm in trouble

See?! I WAS RIGHT!