Fleas @ MindSay 
My kitty Trixy had a vet visit yesterday due to some erratic behaviour he's been displaying. Trixy had been jumping on our beds and urinating on them instead of using his litter box like a nice kitty. He first did it on my bed which I excused as I had just upset him a bit by putting some strong smelling natural oils on him intended to repel fleas. The second time he had been miaowing outside our bedroom door for a while as I did not feel like getting up that early in the morning (like 4:30 am). I finally got up at ~5am to get him some food and checked his water then his litter box just in case. When I returned to my room I decided to hang out a bit as I was now wide awake and noticed that he jumped on Rahi's bed and proceeded to scratch just below her feet over the blankets. I watched him with an awful feeling in my stomach squat and start to urinate on her bed. I was so astounded that I moved him a bit just to be sure I wasn't imagining what I was seeing then picked him up off the bed and placed him on the floor. As quietly as I could I chastised him "no Trixy, no thank you kitty" but the deed was done. I had to put all my daughter's bedding in the washer and she had to bunk in my bed for the rest of the evening.
The straw that broke the camel's back came when Trixy had the audacity to sneak into my house mate's room while she was in the bathroom and jump on her bed to leave her a sloppy wet present. Ohhh, she was furious (it was 6am) and stormed into the kitchen as I was preparing lunch for that day and stuffed the comforter into the washer. The comforter was too big for the washer and the kitchen floor was quickly covered in water. It took 30 minutes to soak up all that water with bath towels by wringing them over the kitchen sink and getting down on our hands and knees to wipe. I was quiet the whole time. I could no longer make up excuses for Trixy. The line had been crossed and I was too embarrassed to even apologize for his behaviour.
What's absolutely funny about this whole situation is that my house mate and I had spent the night before practicing "loving-kindness" (meta) meditation. Somehow at 6am while cleaning a completely flooded kitchen seemed like the best time and place to experience the effects of our efforts. Instead, aversions were being fostered and deep sankaras were cutting into our lovingly cultivated equanimity.
Later, when our "karma cleaning" (as my house mate put it) had been finished, she suggested that sometimes cats do this when they have an infection. When I arrived at work I was able to call Trixy's vet and made an appointment. The tech suggested that I also try pheromones at some point to see if his behaviour is curbed by "chemically" tricking him into believing he is "happy" and therefore not needing to share his discontent with the rest of us.
Trixy's appointment was yesterday. When I took him in, his bladder was not full enough to produce a specimen so his vet asked me to leave him over night. I left the office feeling 15lb. and 8oz lighter but with a heavier weight on my shoulders. The vet had discovered Trixy was carrying around a few friends of the intestinal kind and this was due to his last flea infection I tried to get rid of by treating him naturally. I felt absolutely awful, like I've been neglecting him somewhat. The vet was very gracious in reassuring me that the worst thing about tapeworms was that they were "just gross", however, I was disgusted!
I called around 10:30 am this morning to find out how Trixy was faring. They asked me to call after 12 noon because they had finally been able to get a specimen but they had not yet sent it to the lab.
Well, I just got off the phone from speaking with Trixy's vet. It appears Trixy was trying to tell me something. He does have a bacterial infection along with "crystals" that are produced through not having enough meat in his diet. Trixy's vet is surprised to hear the his current food is causing him this as this is not usually a problem with this brand. However, a diet change has been prescribed. I'm relieved in a way as I was really hoping this would not be behavioural.
Awwwwhhh. I get to pick him up after work and I will be relieved to have him back with me again!
The dog needs more frontline. She sleeps on the foot of my bed and she was wriggly last night. Makes me want to kick her off. So I am going by the vets today to get a new supply and put it on her.
Pine needles and leaves are falling thick right now. We are raking them up and putting them around the fence for mulch. The regular leaves will go in the flower beds. It still hasn't rained here so it's very dry. It is not as hot though which helps a lot. I have put hummingbird vine seeds most of the way around the fence. Hopefully we will have a lot of them next year. The hummingbirds love them and they are pretty too. I am planning to have a lot more flowers. Will have to build some beds for some...the ground it too much gravel or just too hard in many places here.
I took the cats to the see the new vet today after work. Although they hate getting into the cat carriers and riding in the car, they were perfect gentlemen during the visit. The doctor and the vet tech said what well behaved cats they were.
They got a general checkup, a de-worming, flea treatment, and shots for feline leukemia and distemper. They're both up to date on their rabies shots, so they didn't need that.
This was the first visit to the new vet since I moved to Northern New York in February. This particular doctor has his office in a customized RV, so there's less overhead for office space and so forth. The bill came to $138.00 for all of those services for two cats. That's less than half the cost of the same services at my old vet. So needless to say, I am very impressed.
The doctor said the cats were healthy and had nice looking teeth. He said Whitebelly was at his optimum weight of 11 lbs, but Blackbelly, who weighed in at 13 lbs, needs to lose some weight. One thing surprised me though. He said the current recommendations are three litter boxes for a house with two cats!!! I've got two litter boxes and that seems to be plenty. I'd be curious to know what cat to litter box ratio other cat owners use. Let me know.
HE’S AN “IT” NOW!
Sandy got his little nuts neutered yesterday! Yeah! Yippee! I’m so looking forward to him NOT peeing on everything - and already things seem to be looking up! The surgery went well and Sandy is one happy little guy today, the day after. We’ve been out in the yard and he only peed on about half as many trees! AND his once gigantic weenie seems to be returning to normal proportions!
As par for the course, things did not start off smoothly. His appointment was supposed to be Thursday, the 8th, but that was not to be! Monument Road Animal Hospital, Dr. Michael Shumer, is the vet that helped Sandy through his miserable bout with heartworms - remember? The whole thing cost me around $2000! MRAH has been my vet of choice ever since I moved into my house way back in 1988. I have taken probably 5 or 6 of my cats and 6 or 7 of my dogs there and had been very happy, even though there had been several different vets in charge.
Notice I said ’had been happy’? When I took Sandy over at 8am Thursday, I was given an estimate for the days’ services. Those people had the unmitigated gall to utter $361.90 to me! I had an absolute cow! You have got to be freakin’ kidding me! What the hell were they going to do - replace them with solid gold ones or what?! The clerk attempted to break the charges down for me - the actual surgery was around $220, then several “biohazard” charges and about $120 for that stupid thing they put around dogs’ heads to keep them from bothering the area.
I tell you, people, I lost my mind! Shoot, I’ll cut the damn things myself! How the hell can they make such a big deal out of the “importance of spaying or neutering our pets” and then charge these ridiculous prices? Why make such an effort to promote adopting from shelters to prevent cities from being overrun with strays? How can a vet profess to have such concern for our pets’ health and then not want to be reasonable in their costs for care? Seems awfully hypocritical!
Now, don’t get me wrong - I am not so naïve as to think vets don’t need to make a living. I mean, after all, they have put in the hours, costs, and study efforts to become an animal doctor and deserve proper compensation. Yes, but reasonable realistic costs! It would seem they would do a market analysis to see where they stand in terms of other vets in the area and the various charges. I did! I found prices ranging from $133 to $175 regarding the cost for neutering a dog in my dog’s weight and age bracket. None were close to the $360 my vet proposed!
I called several animal hospitals in my area - got them straight out of the phone book. I chatted with each one briefly and I decided on one called Ft. Caroline Animal Hospital, an additional 5 or 6 extra miles away. Just so happened that this one was the one with the $133 neutering charge. Sandy’s new appointment was the next day, Friday, yesterday. They gave me their fax number and I had MRAH fax Sandy’s records over. I’m sure they were none too pleased, but oh well. (I wonder if they will follow up and try to contact me - we’ll see)
So, I took Sandy in at about 8:30am - naturally, despite shaking like a leaf in a tornado, he immediately took a sh** on their reception area floor. (I wonder if that’s in protest or to purposely embarrass me & teach me a lesson! He did the same thing when I took him to be groomed!) I fell in love with the support staff right away.
I checked in around 1:30pm and all was well. The doctor, Dr. Charles Athey, a wonderful man with over 20 years experience, called me around 3pm to give me his evaluation. He spent a good 30 minutes explaining all sorts of things and answering all my questions! Normally I complain when I have to talk a long time on my prepaid cell phone, but this time I didn’t.
Dr. Athey informed me that Sandy was still inundated with fleas. I was kinda ticked off about that seeing as how the week before I had just wasted $45 to have all of his beautiful coat cut off and thoroughly groomed at Petsmart. AND I spent about $25 on some anti-flea products there! Dr. Athey gave me a long thorough explanation of today’s flea treatments. He convinced me that, contrary to the high cost, Advantage (and Frontline) are the only products available that are both extremely effective at killing the fleas and the eggs, but they also are not dangerous to our pets. The stuff you get over-the-counter is detrimental to your pets and really, to you too. MRAH quoted me $80 for a 4 months’ supply for EACH of my 3 pets! $240! Online it costs about $55 for 4 months + shipping and handling, but there is a growing epidemic of fraudulent product. Very “iffy”
Ft. Caroline charges $65.90 for 7 months! And guess what, that will actually cover ALL THREE of my pets, but for 4 months! The doctor and staff showed me how to use syringes marked with the appropriate dosages to split the product up. Since it is not harmful to the animals, it can be used on my cat too, although the amount necessary to cover her is less because she’s only about 12or 13 pounds compared to Sandy at 32 pounds and Baby at around 45 pounds.
Tell me I’m not newly in love with my new vet! They just called to check up on him and I couldn’t be more thrilled with it all! Sandy is now virtually hairless (not really, but his long beautiful locks are gone - for the time being ) but he’s also “ball-less” and we’re all a very happy, flea-less, barren, “spayed and neutered” little family! Oh, and his used-to-be gigantic weenie is no longer dragging the dern floor!
Hey everyone. Maybe I haven't been blogging because I've been busy. Or not in the mood. Or, here's a good one, things have been pretty boring around here, so I haven't really had anything to blog about. LOL
Really though, how can things be boring with a 20 month old little boy running around? Explains why I haven't had much time. Between him, housework, Sweetie, and my friend staying with us, I've been neglecting my Mindsay friends. I miss you all. I'm in the mood though, to go visit blogs, so be expecting some comments from me!
We FINALLY treated our backyard for fleas today. Before we sprayed, we raked up about 35 big bags of leaves and crap. I'm embarressed when I look at all of the bags on our curb, ready for the trash men tomorrow! :O hehe Oh well, I'm tired, but we needed to do that desparetly.
Moby is in the kitchen now, so the flea poison can dry in the yard. He's chillin on the floor. I'm sure he's enjoying it. I can't wait to be able to put Chuy and Gretta back in the back yard, and Moby in the front, so I can take Noah out in the front yard to play.
See, isn't this a really boring post? I'm sorry. LOL I'm silly aren't I? I did get a new book called Self Matters, Creating your life from the inside out, by Dr. Phil. I know a lot of people don't like him, but I do, and I need all the inspiration I can get! I'll try to post more poems and pics, if I don't do personal blogs. Love to all...
Jen
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