2004-11-01

New logo this month, this one created by the lovely Pinky. Adorable, no?

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Stephen King’s new book is coming out November 21st. It’s entitled Faithful : Two Diehard Boston Red Sox Fans Chronicle the 2004 Season and he wrote it with Stewart O’Nan. Now. You know I love the hell out of Stephen King. But I can’t really think of anything less interesting in this world than a book about baseball. Fuckin’ yawnsville. I’m going to break my record of buying every Stephen King book that ever comes out, I guess.
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I’m not going to tell you to vote tomorrow, because either you are or you aren’t and me telling you to vote isn’t going to make you jump up and yell “Holy crap! She’s right! I do need to vote!” and then run out of the house to do so. But, still. You know you wanna.
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Yesterday, our anniversary, how did we celebrate? Why, Fred took Spot to the emergency vet while I stayed home with the spud. Spot, who was on medication for ringworm, an antidepressant, and an antibiotic, was looking more and more like a zombie as the week went on. Toward the middle of the week, we realized that he didn’t seem to be eating very much, if at all, and Fred thought that was due to the fact that he’d twice caught Spot in by the food bowl and grabbed him up to give him his medicine. Fred started doing things like opening cans of tuna, putting a little in a dish and carrying it to wherever Spot was. Spot wasn’t interested, but as soon as Fred would walk away one of the other cats would dive in and gulp down the tuna. Spot also wasn’t interested in baby food either, but Miz Poo lost her mind when she smelled it, and howled until Fred gave her some. When I was cutting up raw chicken on Thursday, Spot came out from his hiding place under the couch and came into the kitchen, where he howled at me until I started giving him pieces of chicken. He ate more than I’ve ever seen him eat before – usually he’ll eat a piece or two of chicken and then go along his merry way, but he probably ate three ounces of raw chicken altogether this time. We worried about him a little and talked about him, and Fred got up every ten minutes to check on him, but we figured the medicine was just making him loopy. Fred skipped a dose of the antidepressant on Saturday and Spot perked up a little. But Sunday his color just didn’t look right, especially around his mouth and he was moving so slowly that it was painful to watch. He was visibly thinner, and he’s not an overweight cat to begin with. Fred finally decided to take him to the emergency vet and I offered to go with him, but he suggested I stay home since we had no idea how long it would take. An hour or so after he’d left, he called to tell me that the vet tech had told him Spot had a bad heart murmur – a 4 on a scale of 1 – 5. He said it was something he was born with, but that it could probably be treated. When the vet came in, she said that it was really a 3 on a scale of 1 – 6 and again, it was something he’d been born with. Now, I have a hard time believing that over the course of 9 years, 5 vets, and regular checkups, not one single person has said “Did anyone ever tell you he has a heart murmur?” I mean, come on. I made dinner for the spud and went out to get a salad from Sonic (dinner was spaghetti made with ground turkey and I cannot abide the idea of eating ground turkey. I used to eat it just fine and then one day my gag reflex kicked in and I could no longer even stand the thought of it. So when Fred and the spud have spaghetti, I get a salad from Sonic because Sonic salads are excellent and also that awful Ami mentioned the awesome Sonic ice in a thread over on the Smart and Sassy forum and I had to see what all the fuss was about, and now I’m addicted to the Route 44 Diet Cherry Limeade. Damn you, Ami!) for myself, and then I talked to my mother for half an hour or so, and the entire time I was waiting for the phone to ring and Fred to tell me that Spot had irreversible liver damage, was in horrible pain, and the vet had made it clear that someone who loved their cat would put it to sleep. But the phone never rang, and then I heard the garage door go up and I walked into the kitchen. Fred walked through the door with a handful of paper and an x-ray, and it looked for all the world like the carrier was empty, and my heart just sank. He just looked at me and then went upstairs and I looked through the pile of paper he’d left on the table and saw “enlarged heart” and “heart murmur”, but didn’t see the word “euthanasia”, so I considered that a good sign. I finished up the conversation with my mother and went upstairs to see what Fred was doing, and he pointed to Spot, and I could see that already Spot looked like he was about 100 times better. His color was much improved, and he didn’t look quite as skinny. Fred said they gave him quite a bit of fluid via IV. “So, did they figure out what was wrong with him?” I asked. “They think he was reacting to the medication,” Fred said. Well, hell. I could have told them that. So for now we need to keep him off the medication and keep an eye on him. Hopefully he’s going to be okay, though the vet did say that his heart murmur might get worse as he gets older so that’s something to keep an eye on. Oh, the kitties. How they do like to make us worry!
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Spot in the sun.
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21 thoughts on “2004-11-01”

  2. I hope Spot feels better soon!!
    Can you really feed a cat raw chicken? I wouldn’t even think to, cuz they are so used to NOT eating raw food.

  5. Poor Spot. Hope he feels better quickly. I, too, spent Halloween at the E-vet while my dog got a bunch of staples on a laceration. No idea how he got it but he got one in almost the same location 2 days before Halloween last year. Weird.

  6. Hey! Hope Spot is back to 100% soon. I have a kitty with a heart murmer that he developed when he was about 6 (he’s 9 now) and luckily it’s easily treatable with a very small pill which fits into a soft treat so no ugly pill shoving scenes need to occur.

  7. Hope Spot returns to the healthy side of the fence very soon. Ya know, with all the vet bills for the many illness your kitties like to drop on you–have you and Fred ever thought of animal health insurance? I hadn’t heard of it until last year when a friend of mine with 2 diabetic dogs told me that their policy had saved them a lot of money.

  8. Robyn – we’ve always fed our cats small amounts of raw meat if they ask for it while I’m making dinner. They don’t eat a whole lot, but they do like the occasional bit.
    Faye – We’ve considered it, but decided not to… for some reason I can’t recall at the moment! 🙂

  9. Robyn, I swear… VETS are here on earth to rip you off! They come up with the most idiotic, never heard of crap sometimes. They told me that my 4 year old male cat with the urination problem has a THYROID problem, for which he is destined to take medication for the rest of his life. Do I have him on the medication? HELL NO. You couldn’t PAY ME enough money to have to shove medicine down that cat’s throat for the rest of his life! The little bastard is just fine. He just has a urination/behavioral problem. But I swear to you, they WILL come up with something new every time you go… just to milk you some more. Case in point – the medication “HE NEEDED” is now the cause of him being sickly. Hope he feels better… 🙂

  10. Poor Spot! I’m glad he’s doing better. Phew!
    Can we really trust vets? (Are they like car mechanics?) I’m beginning to have my doubts about my cats’ doctor(s).

  11. Hi Robyn – My cat was diagnosed with Cardiomyopathy (enlarged heart/heart murmur) several months ago. I took her in because I noticed she lost weight and was not acting herself as well. I decided to forego formal treatment (they said it wouldn’t necessarily prolong her life)and just let her live her life as comfortably as possible. She is doing very well, seems happy and overall healthy. I know that one day I may be forced to make that difficult decision. The vet also told me she should have low sodium intake and should avoid stress. Hmm, what DOES stress a cat out? Worrying about their next meal? 🙂 Anyway, just thought I’d share. I wish the best for you and Spot.

  12. I know what you are going through. Cats are very good at hiding their illnesses before you even notice anything amiss. My 16 yr old cat was also diagonosed w/ cardiomyopathy but not until he was in congestive heart failure. They can take the same meds that people take for heart disease, but the diagnostic tests can get pretty expensive.

  13. Poor Spot. Hope he’s on the mend soon.
    One thing in your entry made me happy, happy, happy. New Stephen King about the 2004 Red Sox season? Yay. I’ve been a Red Sox fan for my entire span of life on this earth, and Stephen King can be so very good when he’s good, and I know he’ll be passionate about the subject matter. Yay. Again.

  14. I was sure hoping this wasn’t going to be another entry like the one we got from Tubby. Lots-o-love goes out to Spot. You’re one of my fav’s, buddy.

  15. Glad to hear that Spot is doing better.
    I had to put 3 (yes 3) cats down in the past month, so I totally understand the heart in the throat feeling that you must have experienced.
    Hugs and love to Spot!

  16. My twelve year old cat was losing weight despite what I considered excellent vet care. I took her to a different vet and he cleaned her teeth (it had never been done.) Since that office visit her fur looks whiter and she regained the lost weight. She seems like a much younger kitty now. That was the only thing wrong with her. Have Spot’s teeth been looked at?

  17. Hope your Spot is soon on the med.
    Just in response to Robin (the other one in comments), I think vets are the best people on earth, and worth every cent. They require more training than your GP, and why? Cause our beloved pets can’t tell them where it hurts or how they feel.
    I for one would spend whatever was neccesary to help my little furry four on the floors to be healthy & happy. They are members of our family, and deserve the best care we can provide! You wouldn’t begrudge spending money on your children’s health……..why on your other family member.
    This is not an attack, just another point of view:)
    Have you check into a homepathic vet?
    Jayne

  18. I know a while back Sonic sold bags of their ice. I haven’t noticed the sign advertising it lately, but you could ask if they still do.

  20. Poor Spot! I hope he feels better soon!
    Oh, I do LOVE Cherry Limeades! Too bad the closest Sonic is a good 20 minutes from the house, which turns into a minimum of 45 minutes in traffic time. Or else I’d be there EVERY DAY.

  21. Glad to hear Spot is doing better. The hardest part of having pet children is deciding the right thing to do for them since they can’t talk…
    I too am an avid Stephen King fan. I have every book of his in hard cover (all 1st editions); my most prized possesion is a signed copy of Desperation. I will not be buying his new book either. I’m also not buying the pop-up edition of The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon (didn’t like that book much anyway).

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