Scooter and varmit report

[tenaya]

Scooter is that cat I don't say much about. He's elderly, spends his days figuring out how to annoy everyone else--just for the hell of it, just because it's fun and something to do. He's a tease and if you tease him back, he smiles because he knows you get it.

He went into a depression for a month or so after Reggie died and our thin ancient cat got skeletal. But, we've coaxed him back and plied him with food (he won't eat except what he's hankering for at that moment and I've literally opened 5 cans in a row to find the right flavor. Mind you, he'll eat the entire can if I hit the right one but if I don't, he'll go to bed hungry. Cats really will die of starvation rather than eat something they don't want to.) I figure if I want to stick around longer, spending an extra couple of bucks on his food on the days he's picky is worth it.

So, Thursday morning he wakes up and throws up, violently. He eats a bit and vomits. Later he drinks some water and vomits. He vomits seven times in about six hours. He's also constipated. By the time I go to work in the evening, he is laying there like he doesn't care if he lives or dies.

Mom takes him to the vet. Oh joy, it's Dr. A and from reports, she is still the same: not listening, repeating her instructions over conflicting observations from us, jacking up the bill. She wants to keep him over night and do nearly $900 of stuff to him. Mom tells her flat out she can't afford that. So, he gets some sub-q liquids, a hot of antibiotics and anti nausea meds and some lab tests done all for $250.

This morning when I came home, he was alert and comfortable but then he vomited up about an inch of hairball. It was pointed on one end and looked torn off on the other. My theory would be that he is being blocked by the mother of all hairballs and it's engaged in the bowels. It'll have to come out the other end.

Tonight, he drank maybe an ounce of cereal milk and later tuna juice. It stayed down, and there's a couple little hard nuggets in the litter box. I think maybe he'll make it; scary to think a hairball could have caused him to meet his maker.

So, aside from Dr. A wanting to do all sort of things to Scooter, Mom felt she was critical and somewhat accusing that Scooter was so thin. Hell, she should have seen him two months ago. We are so not happy with her. The animal hospital has many doctors and a few we quite like. The trouble is we keep needing to go there when she's on duty.

Now, also while I was at work, Mom said Brindle was next to his concrete bunny. Suddenly, she looks outside and sees him flat against the earth with four raccoons very close by. She flew outside and used a stick we keep near the door to thump the ground and yelled at them to get away from her cat. The three babies went, "oh" and hustled off. The momma gave her, "I don't know why you're acting like that!" look and followed the babies into the darkness. Brindle, with a little coaxing, finally came to her, and allowed her to rescue him. She now thinks the babies were just goofing about and stopped to see the new critter. Mom was on the other side of Brindle, and since these are really young ones (which we've never seen before) she might have been being "motherly" which means anything could have happened. It probably wouldn't have, but no need to take the risk.

Tonight, Brindle wouldn't come in until the varmit traffic got a bit thick then he lost his nerve all at once. I went out the front door and around the side and called him to me. The critters in the courtyard would have probably run all around him to flee me if I had went out the patio door. He's in now. He was "rescued" and he loves being rescued; he gets all kittenish and loving.

I'll post photos in the next post.

Comments

[moonchildetoo.livejournal.com]

Poor Scooter! I don't know what annoys me more - vets that don't listen, or doctors that don't listen. Grrr.

[tenaya.livejournal.com]

I hear ya. :(

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

We once had a vet like the one you're describing, and I really, really hated that. It's so important to have one that not only listens, but that doesn't judge everything. My current vet is a really great guy, and I feel really comfortable bringing Georgie to him. He always explains things to me without going into too many technical details, and even offers to split things up so that I don't have to pay too much all at once.

My human doctor place runs sort of like your vet clinic, and there are a few doctors I try to avoid there, but yeah, urgent things always seem to happen right when the one I dislike most is on duty. *g*

I'll be thinking good thoughts for Scooter to feel better soon.

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

Cats really will die of starvation rather than eat something they don't want to.) I figure if I want to stick around longer, spending an extra couple of bucks on his food on the days he's picky is worth it.

P.S. My son was like that when he was younger. It was really difficult to balance not catering to him too much with not letting him starve to death. To this day, I just buy a bunch of things I know he will eat, and now that lyraeinne is gone most of the time, I don't even bother to cook a whole meal unless it's something I know MW will eat. *g* He cooks his own stuff, and he learned to make himself a peanut butter sandwich at a relatively early age. *g*

(I learned that from another mom who had her son in counseling for this! lol It was the counselor's idea to let the kid make his own food if he didn't want to eat what everyone else was eating, so this is what I did, so that I didn't have to fuss at my son or use the "children are starving in China" tactic. *g* I never let it become an issue, and I'm glad now. *g* )

I know you can't expect a cat to do that, though, but it's funny how much our pets can be like children to us. I sometimes call MW by Georgie's name and Georgie by MW's name, too. *g*

[tenaya.livejournal.com]

Yep, I can see where that would be the best thing to do. Good for you son to take responsibility and it sure don't hurt to have him get familiar with the kitchen (I've a friend that had cardiac bypass surgery and when she came home from the hospital, her 14 year old son demanded that she quit being lazy and get up and make him something to eat. I was speechless.)

How old is your son now?

[aizjanika.livejournal.com]

My son is 18. He can cook and bake as well as his sister, anyway. *g* He will bake biscuits from scratch, and he can make homemade pizza dough and our weird vegan cheese, but he also cooks a lot of easy foods (frozen raviole, fake hot dogs, etc.). Both kids know how to bake cookies. Big surprise there. *g* Because of our weird diet, we have to cook most things like that from scratch. We can't buy frozen dough and bake it. *g*

My son would never demand anything! lol He's such a sweetheart and very easy-going. When he cooks raviole or something sharable, he always asks me if I want some. :-) When we make pizza, we usually cook together, unless one or the other of us is more busy than the other or something.

When my kids were really little, I used to do things to make it easier for them to be independent. I put water or juice or milk into small containers so they could pour their own drinks, and things like that. They still spilled things and made messes, but that's kids. *g*

Anyway, I thought that was a good idea about having the kids make their own food if they didn't want to eat what the family was eating, but not to make a big deal about it. My kids were just babies when she was going through that with her son, but I remembered it, and it worked well for us. I know too many families where it would become a big thing whether the kid would eat or not. Whatever the reasons for it starting (maybe the kid really didn't like mushrooms or whatever *g*), it would become a way for the kid to get attention and manipulate everyone, and it would cause stress and strife for everyone. I worried just as much, probably, but I did it silently and my son never actually died, so I'm guessing it worked out okay. hehe

[tenaya.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[geminia905.livejournal.com]

Hairballs are definitely nothing to be taken lightly.

Have you filed any complaints against that "vet"?

[tenaya.livejournal.com]

I'm seriously thinking about it. Trouble is, if I make an official fuss, what if I need to come back because I've no choice and it's her again? How do I know she's not vindictive? She certainly has no problem ordering painful and expensive procedures on pets now. Maybe the front office likes her profit margin.

I need to find another 24/7 vet first.