As many of you already know, Schmitty had some problems recently that forced us to take him to the dreaded vet. I think the problems began in December when we noticed he was pooping outside of the litter box and that there were small amounts of blood in each of his stools, red blood. After reading about the symptoms online, we guessed that it was from too much pushing.
We brought him to the vet on February 18th. (I’m trying to get all my facts straight for this post. There is a good chance I’ll be wrong on something. I’ll update as necessary.) The vet said that she didn’t see anything wrong with him (although I don’t think she took more blood as he had just been there six months earlier). She took a urine sample and ran some other tests and she noticed that several of his teeth were rotting and were infected because of it. We knew this. His breath smelled so badly you could barely stand to be near him. Plus, he had had some removed in the past. But since we’re bad parents – parents who don’t like torturing him by taking him to the doctor – we postponed it until we realized we were entering PETA death threat territory. (I swear to the animal God, people, I would do just about anything for this cat. We do not neglect him. He is just absolutely terrified of the car. It breaks my heart having to watch him go through a vet visit.)
We let the vet do her thing. We left him there overnight so he could get an ECHO because she said there was some irregularity in his heartbeat. (I guessed she would have taken blood then, but I can’t be sure. We’ll have to call her.) He checked out fine and we go the go ahead for dental surgery. He went under that Thursday.
I picked him up the very next day. He was toothless and confused. We were given antibiotics and pain medicine, both of which were downright impossible to get down. We were told he would probably be disoriented for a while and would probably drink a lot more water. We were told he could start eating right away.
Back up for a minute. We put Schmitty on a wet food diet about 9 months ago specifically due to his decaying, and lack of teeth. Usually we feed him Newman’s Own but sometimes that wet food included the stuff currently being recalled because he wasn’t always crazy about certain cans of Newman’s Own. This cat loves to eat. He lives to eat. We tried feeding him everything. We even gave him the pouched, gravy kind (currently being recalled) and I’m sure we gave him other tainted brands during that time as well. (Seriously, what wet foods are SAFE to feed cats. It seems to me this list gets longer every day.) So when I noticed he was losing weight and not eating quite as much as he once had, I got a little worried. We assumed his lack of appetite was due to his painful teeth, hence the extra push to visit the vet. Point is he visited the vet after he would have eaten the tainted food. One would assume they would have caught that, right?
Schmitty ate just fine for a few days right after we left the vet. His appetite seemed to be closer to normal. He scarfed down certain foods and left the rest. He still has an appetite. He begs for food. I feed him and then he nibbles on a few pieces, or licks the top of his wet food. and then he moves on. And he doesn’t poop much at all anymore. He stands outside the box as if convulsing from below and nothing ever comes out. He drinks water as usual and he seems perfectly happy but he’s just not eating as much as he should be and he’s still having bathroom problems.
And so I am worried. And I’m a little annoyed as well. We took him in because there was a little blood in his stool and he was going outside the box. We spent over 1500 bucks to have his teeth removed and cleaned and his heart checked. The vet said that while he was under for oral surgery she gave him a Colonoscopy and said that everything appeared to be fine. The annoying thing is the problem we originally took him in for was not at all fixed. Instead, we have a toothless cat that doesn’t really eat much anymore and can’t poop. 1500 dollars in credit card debt later and he hasn’t gotten any better. (Is there pet health insurance? Clearly, we need it.)
I know I need to take him back to the vet and that brings me heartburn for two reason: I don’t have the money right now to pay for another massive vet bill as I’m still paying off the first one. I’m also worried about what they’re going to tell me after charging me thousands of dollars. I’m a bad parent in a cheap state of denial.
Before I torture him all over again (and start hooking myself on the street corner) I’m looking to the Internet for answers. Would acute kidney failure have shown up in his urine? If he had eaten tainted cat food, wouldn’t they have caught that while he was there in February? What’s wrong with my Big Guy?
Related news: Lisa started a pool on Flickr featuring the little fuzzy people who have perished due to the Menu Foods disaster. Look at this little baby.
God dammit. I have to stop looking at this shit, it’s making me cry.
Mihow 
Leave a reply to RzDrms Cancel reply