For the past several days, my cat Salem, has been hiding from us and I figured she just wanted a bit of peace from the chaos. She is an elderly cat of 15 years old.
Unfortunately, she has a history of constipation issues…I know yuck! But I love her and found out that she got into the dog food the other day, which is not ideal since we have her on special dietary food. Then as the days went on, I started to notice her usual signs: hiding, lethargic, drinking but not eating the last two days and I knew it was time to contact the vets office.
Now, I didn’t expect to get in the same day, but they were able to squeeze me in yesterday thankfully. Except it was an emergency fee cost, so higher then a normal appointment, but to be honest that wasn’t my concern at the moment. Called at 9 AM and her appointment was at 10:30 AM. Luckily, Valeria had been up for a bit already, and she was about to go down for a nap after the phone call. Nap time completed, and my mom was gracious enough to watch her as we took Salem to her appointment.
Now, to coax her out from her hiding place under the bed. Cruelly, I had to shake a bag of treats to get her out, knowing very well that I wasn’t going to give her any. I know! It’s terribly mean, but trust me, her little belly couldn’t handle it. She slowly crawled out from under the bed; we had the carrier ready to go and my husband swooped her up and got her inside. She was not a happy camper because she knows exactly where she is going when we put her in there.
A five minute drive later, a bit of a wait in the waiting room and then finally got into our appointment. The nurse and veterinarian were both very kind and gentle with my poor fur baby and very understanding. They gave us an estimate as to the cost, if we went with ALL the treatments suggested. That was very kind and considerate. However, when we received the estimate my heart nearly dropped. I asked that we have some privacy for my husband and I to discuss the cost. If we went with everything suggested for treatment, it would have been $1,390! Isn’t that insane!!!???
We both immediately couldn’t believe it and this was for constipation. Could you imagine for a seriously sick kitty or pup? We opted out of the X-rays and blood work. She had some about a year and a half ago. Plus both of those were the highest cost: X-rays at $440 and blood work at $322. Knocking those off the treatment plan dropped the cost quite significantly. I know what your probably thinking, but with a baby at home we had to choose what was best. I know my cat Salem, she really just needed an enema to clear her out. We left her there for the day and headed home.
Valeria was a little chatter box today, babbling away nonstop and it is absolutely precious. I think my favourite is when she talks to my crystals or the leopard print couch cover that I have. She just laughs and babbles. It was a bright spot to this hectic day.
I then got a phone call from the veterinary office, informing of the progress they made with Salem. She did fabulous! They got quite a bit out of her, and that she would be a little tender for a few days, so pain medication and stool softener were key. Not to mention lots of wet food and water. We were able to come pick her up at 4:30 PM.
She was very out of it when we picked her up. They needed to sedate her through an IV, so she was pretty quiet on the ride home. She seemed happy to be home though, she sauntered out of that carrier, okay it was stumbled out! She immediately went to drink water and then wanted some affection from mama, which I happily gave. I set up a pillow by my desk so that she could sit on something nice and comfy, but to also be close to me. I started her pain medication last night and this morning I give her the pain medication and put the stool softener in her food (which she refused to touch after she ran from me), she was not a fan of having the pain medication squirted into her mouth.
She hid under the bed for most of the day, finally coming out around lunch time to eat and drink a little bit, then back to her hidey-hole. It’s going to be very scheduled with her medications and food. I just can’t watch her suffer, I love and adore her so much. Plus I want her to be a little fur friend for Valeria when she is older.
What we do for our fur babies huh?
Ciao!
Mama on the Move 
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