A lot to comment on on this one...
First off, wasn't this about a Corvette too..
I can relate to that because 40 years ago my new wife pressured me
into letting my 1957 vette go as an unpractical car... That hurt too..
An still does a bit when I see one sell at an auction for about 200
times what I sold mine for...
And 40 years later here I am caring for a dozen pos. kitties and as many
more seniors that were out of time at the shelter...
I think Wendy mentioned "Waiting a few more days before going to the
vet"..
This sounds like my vet who is probably the most reasonable priced but I
seem to have to bug him to try something.. These guys can be so normal
one day and be gone the next...
I now have a middle aged boy who I have had for a year and eats like a
horse
and his mouth looks good but in the past week he has started licking
through
my newspaper.. I have been loading his food up with vitamins and he
gobbles
it all up.. but he still licks the newspaper if I leave it around....
Makes me wonder if I should try the IR before he develops other
problems...
My vet read the report that says its no better than interferon but is
that because
its not given early enough ???
There...I covered the whole thread and didn't answer anything...
Tad
Barb Moermond wrote:
but even with the nice normal kittens, there can be a lot
of things that cost!! When my boys came to me, we were at the vet once
a week - various parasites and viruses etc - and I was still paying on
Ninja's vet bills too - and then there was about a month where things
were OK, then Smoky started getting the bloody diarrhea and here we go
again - all sorts of fecal tests and special diets etc and then
medicine twice a day for MONTHS and voila! his poop was fine - then a
few months later, we moved and voila! back to soft and bloody - then
Bandit - a 2 dimensional cat - LOST 2 POUNDS - this is a very slender
kitty at 10 pounds... so tests and an ultrasound etc etc and then Smoky
started with the interstitial cystitis....... it seems like it's
always something and my mom has asked me what I would do if I had a
normal healthy kitty.... I wouldn't know what to do!!!
"Rosenfeldt, Diane" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
This
is really a hard one. My housemate, Gail, and I are both the
biggest softies in the world -- someone tells us a sob story about a
feral in a trailer park with autumn approaching, or another trailer park
guy who doesn't seem as adaptable as the other strays there, and we're
making room at the inn! And then there was Patches, who found us. Gail
tends to be a little more practical than I am. We both say we can't
handle another cat, but she's the one who believes it -- even while
buying a toy for the new arrival. Unfortunately, and I hate this as I
know everyone here does, there IS a financial bottom line to think of,
and a time commitment bottom line to think of, and a sheer logistics
bottom line to think of. We've nursed our share of sick kitties, and
the demands have been utterly draining in every respect. Missy and the
late Phoebe somehow ingested some unknown neurotoxin 2 months after we
moved to this house and zapped their livers royally, and the two of us
sat in their sickroom (ironically, the move that resulted in them
getting sick also provided a spare room to be a sickroom), squirting
A/D, subQ fluids and various meds down them for nearly 2 months, and it
nearly drove us nuts. It wasn't a one-person job, so we each had to get
up considerably earlier in the morning to do a session before work, and
interrupt our evening for another, and although we had the satisfaction
of having pulled them through, we were exhausted by the time we were
done. Similarly, a co-worker of Gail's had a cat, spayed female she
said, that she couldn't take with her when she moved. Beautiful cat,
but turned out to be male, and diabetic. We spent a lot of time and
money getting him regulated on his insulin, only to lose him one hurried
morning when we didn't think to make sure he got some food after his
shot. Gail bears the scars of this because she was the one who decided
to close the upstairs door (this used to be a duplex) so that the big
guys wouldn't trample her old Kitty, who had gone blind and who stayed
up there where Gail sleeps and computes. The upstairs bowl was Wesley's
food source when the more dominant guys commandeered the other one, and
suddenly he couldn't get to it. Something like this just never occurred
to us, it was just freakishly bad luck. You all know how Patches came
to us, and how he stopped eating. This time, Gail was working 2nd shift
and I'm 1st, so the two of us weren't home at the same time to feed him
more than twice a day, and he needed more, and better. And then there
was Luc, our heart-kitty, and his hepatic lipidosis and the intubation
and overnight stay at the emergency vet that pretty much demolished my
savings, which was proceeds from my mom's life insurance and which we
had allocated to build a deck in her memory (this sounds like a
no-brainer, but she never got to see our place but wanted to get us
stuff to make it nice). We decided that since she had loved Luc, she
would be happy that her money helped save his life. But we also knew,
and hated ourselves for knowing, that if it had been any of the others
besides Luc, or if it was something less treatable than the lipidosis,
we might have had to make a hard decision about spending the money.
What it boils down to is, I don't think, given a choice, that either of
us would knowingly take in a cat like Wes, or Patches, with the
financial, emotional and physical burden that they inevitably bring,
simply because we don't have enough of any of those resources. But
having taken them in, neither of us will desert them. Frankly, I don't
know how we would have been able to do right by Patches, if he had lived
longer, with the high-end food, the supplements, the meds, the vet
bills. If we were richer, less frazzled and busy, had more resources,
we would probably take in another unadoptable; as it is, once our
numbers dwindle a bit, I would be willing to take an otherwise healthy
HIV+ kitty and could probably talk Gail into it as well. But I think we
can be pardoned for wishing, just once, in the back of our minds, for a
perfect, healthy, beautiful, snuggly, bouncy little kitten with NO
baggage. (Oh, and Gail wants a dachshund...) ;-)
Diane
--- Leslie wrote:
> Michelle brings up a good point that I have been
> wondering about lately.
> My boyfriend has gone through two FeLV+ losses with
> me. We do not live
> together and these are definitely MY cats, but he is
> supportive and
> comforting and mourns himself when the time has come
> to say goodbye.
> However, after the kitten, Azrael, passed (I had her
> for four days and many
> tears, and vet bills) and I was debating getting
> Beatrix, I could tell that
> his ability to empathize was waning. We have
> "discussions" about the sanity
> of adopting leukemia positive cats versus
> maintaining his 1979 Corvette. In
> my opinion, one of those things is ridiculous and
> the other worthy. He has
> the same opinion, but I suppose you can guess that
> what we select for each
> category is not the same.
>
> Anyway, our bottom line is that if I want to, it's
> my decision and he will
> support me, but it is hard to not have enthusiastic
> support. I was
> wondering what the other people in your life feel
> about the positive cats in
> their homes. As Nina's husband can attest, just
> because you may not have
> been the one to open your doors to them, doesn't
> mean that you won't have to
> personally adjust to the consequences thereof - and
> to be fair, those
> consequences can just as easily be good.
>
> Speaking of Nina, how is Spencer? I hope that your
> silence is not
> indicative of anything.
>
> Leslie
>
>
>
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Subject: Re: Minnion has gone to the Bridge
> >
> > I am so sorry. As someone who has watched 4
> positive cats die, I think
> > that
> > adopting multiple positives is a really hard thing
> to do. My partner has
> > made me promise I will not do it anymore. So I
> understand your decision
> > regarding your son.
> > Michelle
> >
>
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