Heya Aspiring Gurus!
Yep, I went another week without buying anything for myself beauty or otherwise. I want to talk about something personal that just happened today. As I type this, tears are flowing freely out of my eyes and my throat hurts with the grief that time is not on my side. I took my cat Shadow to the vet. Cue picture montage.
The very first picture on my blog was in fact Shadow herself. I love her. She has been with me for 13 years so far. Ever since I was ten years old. Since two years ago, she has dropped from 9 to 6.25 pounds. She is so underweight that she has no body fat AT ALL. She has a heart murmur because of how skinny she is. She is at the risk of having a stroke and dying or worse, being paralyzed for the rest of her life. I repeat, I LOVE my cat. It’s the reason why I brought her to the vet. I didn’t THINK she was that bad though. She has always been skinny her whole life, but never this much and she is throwing up every day. I spent 62 dollars at the vet today to get her seen and to have her rabies shot (the only shot she was do for since her distemper lasts for three years and the rabies had just expired). The vet thinks that she has hyperthyroidism or diabetes. Her weight loss isn’t my fault, yet I feel so responsible. She’s my BABY, for crying out loud. I’m supposed to protect her! I’m supposed to KNOW when something is wrong and yet, I didn’t until now.
She is still crazy and running around. I have to make her take it slow. Her condition makes her much more wild than normal. It actually increases activity in cats. Her blood work to confirm in 160 USD. I don’t have that kind of money right now. I spent the money I saved on visits for all three animals. I should have done Shadow first, but I didn’t know. I thought that it was just a diet thing and that they would recommend better food for her, maybe some supplements. I have to wait the couple of weeks for my tax money to come in and she will get that blood work done and the medication that she needs to survive. I’m just worried about her. She could have a stroke at any time. I need this money to come in faster. The vet says that she will put a rush on the results, because time is critical. I just love her so much. I cannot imagine life without her.
With Love,
Home Sweet Phoenix Cove 
I’m so, so incredibly sorry for your cat. It must be truly horrifying, I could never imagine how I would feel if it was my cat it that position!! I really hope everything goes well, and that your cat gets well soon!
Thank you so much! It feels good to get some support back. It’s tough to care for your animals when things get SO expensive. I wish the place would have an installment plan where I could pay half and pay the other half when I pick up her meds or something. You would think that they would want to help you help your pet, but it all comes down to dollars and cents. Thank you again for your kind words. It’s truly heart breaking to be helpless. I’m trying to stay strong and at least, she does not seem to be OBVIOUSLY suffering. I think that would hurt me a lot more. She is still a happy kitty eating extra doses of tuna. She has to eat three times of what is supposed to be normal or her. Her body burns through the food so fast because it isn’t working right. To get a little bit of weight back on. She would have to eat I think two to three pounds of food a day. I’m praying with all of my heart that I see my tax money soon to help her. I still will be able to afford a new car, but right now, that isn’t a priority. Her health and wellbeing is.
I totally understand that, your animals always comes first, they are the ones you (pretty much) love the most! Vets should definitely have a sort of installment plan as you said, because that would really ease the “pain” for both the animal and the owner. It will get better, you both will get through this!!
Thanks again. I’m trying to stay positive. She is now refusing to eat dry food. She will only eat tuna. Poor thing.
Oh no! 😦 hopefully you will get your tax return soon, or find financial aid. It’s stupid that you cannot do a payment plan though, as that is expensive. I’m sure it will work out though 🙂
Thanks, Dani. You know she means the world to me…and she misses your purses.
Aw 🙂 she DOES love my purses, and my coat. lol.
Can you include her in your prayers until she gets better? That would mean a lot to me. I’ve been praying like crazy today and I like four candles at the Church for her.
Sure! I will say a few prayers for her before I go to sleep, which is when I usually pray if I don’t pass out first.
Lol. Thanks. I’m just so worried. She didn’t vomit today and ate a can of these tuna. She didn’t eat any of her hard food tho.
At least she didn’t vomit! That is a good thing. 🙂
It is. ❤
Doesn’t tuna have good fats in it too? I think it does, I really can’t remember.
Oh, and the organization that provides assistance is called companion animal foundation
I will look that up now! Thanks!
I’m so sorry Selena. Pets r our babies & I feel ur pain. I hope the best for u & Shadow. That is such a difficult situation to be in.
It really is. I’m looking into that organization that Dani told me about. Hopefully, I can get some help to take care of her.
hey, so sorry to hear this. My older cat recently passed away but was older than your Shadow. She had the thyroid thing. There were two options basically that I was offered: pills or some kinda special food. I opted for the pills and they did help her for that condition. Then, this may be unrelated, its all unclear but she basically got congestive heart failure. Well, I will agree the vet stuff costs a bunch. Anyways, sorry this is going on. Its really tough, we love our pets so much.
Thank you so much! This truly means a lot to me. I’m so sorry for your loss. You are right. We love our pets so much. They are a part of our family and sometimes, I forget that they are not human. I have conversations with my pets all the time. What nonpet owners don’t know is that each pet has their own distinct personality, just like people. They are our babies and we love them and take car of them as such. My vet only offered pills, syrups, or shots for her condition. I am going to try the pills. I got my federal tax refund back!!!!! I got it yesterday and I got Shadow in for her blood draw on Tuesday @ 6:40pm. I am so happy! I should have the results by the end of the week. They are going to weigh her again to see if feeding her a can of wet food along with how much dry food she wants to eat, has had any effect on her weight. I’m feeding her everything she want to eat. At this point, obesity is not even in my mind, not when she has dropped 3 pounds in a short amount of time. Some one is finally taking Shadow’s problems seriously. How long after she started medication did she pass, if I may ask? Vets do cost a lot, but many of them will work with you to reduce the cost. My vet took off ten dollars for the visit and I won’t have to pay 45 dollars for her to see a tech to get her blood drawn. The 160 is just the blood test itself. My vet really cares about animals and she’ll do anything she can to help, but it isn’t her practice. She can only help so much.
Yes, our pets are part of our families. It is sad when a pet passes on. Oh yes, all my cats and dogs (and even my guinea pig, rats, etc) have or had unique and distinct personalities. They are really amazing though, since one thing is they seem to just love, love, love. Also, well this is just me getting jealous since I do get the blues, but my pets pretty much always seem happy (only time not is if they are actually sick). Now, one fact about cats though is they are REALLY good at hiding the fact that they are not feeling well. My sister is a vet, she said its pretty much from back when they were wild, and they needed to not act “weak”.
Ok, well yes my older cat, here’s how it went with her thyroid condition. She was throwing up. I was not sure if it was a lot or not as I’m not a vet. Also I know cats do throw up a little bit just generally from hairballs (my younger cat does this but its not that often maybe once every 2 weeks). But my older kitty, it was getting to be daily, sometimes twice a day, so knew this can’t be right, so took her to the vet. The vet noticed her weight had dropped. This was odd as she was actually quite chubby when younger, so much so that one vet called her “obese” (vet was also obese so I found that whole thing ironic). Well, back then, I tried playing more with her, feed her some kinda diet cat food, but actually none of that worked, she remained chubby. My sister did tell me to not feel too bad as it can be very difficult to get a cat to lose weight. Well ok, getting off topic here. Once the vet did the bloodwork, it came back showing the thyroid thing. The vet said that can cause all that barfing and also the weight loss. So, I was given 3 options actually (forgot about that 3rd one): the pills, the special food, or irradiation of her thyroid. That irradiation would cost A LOT like $1000 or $2000 or more so that was definitely out. The special food, well I guess I was skeptical that would work. So, the pills she was given were called Methimazole. They are not too big. Its a little tricky to pill a cat but not impossible. I did sometimes use those pill pockets but actually not often as kitty cat just would eat around, and the pill falls to the floor! Ok. So you want to know how long she lived with this. I’m going to guess. My vet would know exactly though. I think about 3 years? She was around 11 or 12 when the thyroid thing started. Then her death was at about 15 years. 15 years is somewhat average. However, don’t panic! I’ve had other cats live to 20.
If your kitty is prescribed that same pill, well I have extras still. could send. One bottle sealed of 100 tabs, 5 mg. they can be cut in half. I have lots of extra pill splitters too (my HMO gives them free).
Really, I do think the thyroid issue will get better for Shadow once treatment starts. They may want to do more bloodwork once she’s been on thyroid pills awhile as I seem to recall they said the thyroid thing can mask any kidney thing in bloodwork. Though typically they want to recheck blood every 6 mos.
After my older kitty started the pills, she then was barfing way less, eating more, her weight went up a bit to a normal type level. I’d feed her wet and dry. Towards the end of her life though it was mostly wet. She didn’t seem to want to eat the dry, and really I figured she could eat whatever she wanted since she’s older now, deserves whatever.
I am not sure, but I do not think her cause of death really had to do with the thyroid thing. Though I was rather upset so possibly did not absorb all that the vet said to me. All I know is the vet said, she cannot breathe, its like she’s drowning, and well, I don’t feel like getting into the rest of it as its all just too upsetting still. about 2 months ago she passed away.
Oh and those costs are normal, maybe a bit on the low side. the blood work was always the most expensive part for my kitty.