Veterinarian @ 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!
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.
Arwen is the white, and Rocky is the sable, don't worry, they are both breathing freely, and they woke up after I took the picture, lol, :):)
Our cat Ownie is one cantankerous cat. She likes few, and is - as I was accurately informed today - a cat for one. Oh sure, she'll let Shiny feed and pet her, and she'll occassionally curl up with him, or sleep on Av's bed, but she's set in her ways and not often friendly to strangers (to her). But hey - she's 13. She's old. (Although truth be told, she was like that when she was young too).
But she's our Ownie-cat and we love her. We've been through a lot over the years - obsessive grooming, dental issues, thyroid problems, bats, a broken elbow, and she's weathered it all. When she had an impacted tooth last year she let us know right away by "marking" new spots around the house, sometimes right in front of our eyes. Not typical cat behaviour, so we knew somethng was wrong. On Thursday evening, I noticed that she wasn't so in to eating, and was kinda laying around more than usual. Same on Friday. She didn't even bother me for dinner. Usually she starts up at 4, so by 6:30 when she was still sleeping at my feet, I figured something might be wrong. Shiny and I decided to see how she was doing for breakfast, and if her behaviour was still off, we'd call the vet.
Of course Saturday morning she was up at her usual time, and anxiously waiting by her dish for her food and her morning meds. Same for dinner. So back to normal she was, and we didn't call the vet. But that night, after dinner - I noticed her eye. Her incredibly freaky looking eye. Which is normally a beautiful shade of green. Now the center of her eye (which took up most of the visible space) was a milky blue-ish color with some green iris visible on one side. NOT NORMAL. We called the ER vet, we called my folks. Since she seemed otherwise ok, not pawing at it at all, no discharge, back to eating, we decided to wait until today to take her to her regular vet.
So this afternoon Ownie was diagnosed with some rare unique bizarro big-ass cataract. Which wasn't there or even developing in September when she had her annual. So unique and rare is the type of cataract that she has that the vet took pictures and called over her colleagues. We need to take her to a veterinary opthamologist. She will need to have eye surgery. If they can't remove the cataract, they will need to remove the eye. Ewwww.
This morning when Av and I left for school, we said goodbye to her. Av knew I was taking her to the doctor to get better, but he also asked me if she was going to come home again. Shiny explained to him that she will need eye surgery just like he had. Except this time, no pretty eye patches.
For now, the pressure in her eye has equalized, although it's still quite freaky looking. She doesn't seem to be bothered by it now. The situation seems so ridiculous that I don't know whether to laugh or cry. For now, I've got hugs from Shiny, made more muffins with Av, and got comfort food for dinner. I also now have the best excuse ever for cancelling dinner plans with my friends later this week. "Oh I'm sorry - I can't go out tonight, Ownie had her eye removed." So right now, until the vet calls back, I shall laugh.
I just got a new icon :) I like it bunches :)
I just set up a vet appointment for Gwen :) Only 35$, not bad at all :)
I just put oil in my car, the car was negative in the oil yesterday @.@
I just did a lot of crap, lol, I tried to talk to an advisor at Metro Community College, but all of them were busy, agh @.@