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2:40pm June 9, 2015

Fey health update.

We found out why she’s throwing up and losing weight and everything.

Here’s what the paperwork says:

CATS VERMONT - Veterinary clinic for cats

Fey Baggs

Lab work –> Hyperthyroidism –

common older age cat problem.

Treatment options:

* Medication – pills or ear gel – once or twice daily – lifetime

* I131 – @ BEVS – curative procedure

Plan – start medication; while deciding ultimate plan.

L. Moore, DVM

So I’m probably going to go for the ear gel in the meantime, because Fey can deliberately cough up any pill I get her to swallow, and then bite me without holding back, making  me  have to go on antibiotics.  Ear gel lets it go in through the skin on their ears, and she doesn’t like having her ears messed with but she will like it better than daily power struggles with pills or even liquid meds.

I’m glad it’s something treatable.  I’m not sure if I will be able to afford the radioactive iodine treatment even though it’s supposed to cure it. They sent me a brochure just in case.  I’d have to go to a new vet for this, since Cats Vermont doesn’t do the procedure, and come up with money somehow, and I’m not sure whether the money is a little out of my price range or way out of my price range.  (I’m comfortable asking for money from a friend if it’s a little out of my price range, but if it’s $1000 or something I’d either have to formally set up some kind of fund system for her, or I’d have to just resign myself to her being on thyroid meds the rest of her life just like I’ll be on steroids the rest of my life.  I’d love to cure her though.  But I’m sure the cure is not without risks, especially in a 16-year-old cat, and I’d want to talk to the vet about this.)

I’m actually surprised the bloodwork came back with something so obvious and easy though.

Here’s what the brochure says:

FELINE HYPERTHYROID TREATMENT WITH RADIOIODINE

Radioiodine Therapy (131I) is the preferred treatment for feline hyperthyoidism.  The treatment is safe, highly effective and permanent.  Radioiodine is given as one injection under the skin similar to a routine feline vaccine.

If it’s one injection I’m wondering why it’s so expensive?

Oh wow I think I’ve actually been to this other vet before.  Not with Fey, but with a friend’s parrots, including the night her last parrot died.  (It was horrible, my friend was screaming and crying and wailing and everyone in the waiting room felt horrible for her but didn’t know what to do to make anything better.  We knew he was dying when we took him in but we had to try.  He made it as far as the exam, stood up, tried to talk, and water poured out his beak and he died.  Fortunately this happened away from my friend, she just got to hold the body afterwards, which seemed to calm her down a bit.  This place is also the local 24/7 emergency vet, so I’m very familiar with them from lots of parrot emergencies.  They’re pretty good, especially with the range of animals they have to deal with in a range of situations.  I’m sure they’d handle Fey’s treatment well if I could find a way to pay them.  I’ll have to get a quote on the amount, and see whether I can afford it, or whether I’d have to ask for help, or set up online fundraising, or just forget about it entirely and plan on giving her meds the rest of her life.  Which is hardly the end of the world – I’m on steroids the rest of my life after all.  And the rest of her life could be anything from a month to years, cats are unpredictable when they get old.  She’s sixteen right now, which is over the average feline lifespan but only by a little.  Many cats live to 18-20, and a few even live older.  And she’s definitely a tough old lady.  I think if Death came to her and she didn’t think she was ready she could scare the crap out of Death and send it running… for awhile.  :-P)

6:26am April 8, 2015

I hate my internal jukebox sometimes.

It either plays back songs that have lyrics that reflect how I’m feeling (often I’ve “listened” to half the song, or even the whole one repeated over and over five or six times, before I realize how it pertains to what I’m feeling right then). Or else completely original, very complex, instrumental cello music for some reason.

Really long post dealing with death (my father’s actual death, and fear of my cat dying, mostly, with fear of human friends and relatives dying thrown in for good measure), under the cut.

Keep reading

2:26pm October 7, 2014
Birb bloggin’. So I couldn’t stay anywhere near as long as I wanted to when babysitting Peri today.  I’m going to have to see if I can go back again later for another short period.  The amount of heat that bird needs in order to survive is an amount of heat that can turn me into a puddle on the floor.  But the bird’s needs trump mine, so if one of us has to leave, it’s me. When I first came in, she put on an act like she was doing really well.  About 30 seconds later, this completely disintegrated and she went into the posture you see in the picture above, leaning forward, fluffed up, and shaking, positioning herself as close to the heat lamp as birdily possible.  She stayed that way the entire time. I told her about her mommy.  I told her about God, since they believe in God.  I told her about the flock of birds waiting to take her to Eternity, if she needs them, and that they’re her friends.   She’s apparently been improving a bit today, but none of us are at all sure she’s going to last very much longer.  Laura is trying to feed her things that don’t matter anymore as far as whether they’re good for her, as long as they’re not salty (because salt would cause actual pain, not just long-term liver damage.. we’re not worried about the long term anymore, we just want her to enjoy eating for as long as she’s willing to eat). I hate having to leave her.  I wish I could stay there all day long with her.  I have to go back later on and check on her.  Last night I talked to her thinking I was saying goodbye for the last time, but today she seems better than last night.  Last night her skin was this really weird color, like way too dark orange and with big blue blotches all over it, instead of pink like it normally is.   Anyway… I just hope that if she dies, she dies well, that’s all you can wish at this point.

Birb bloggin’.

So I couldn’t stay anywhere near as long as I wanted to when babysitting Peri today.  I’m going to have to see if I can go back again later for another short period.  The amount of heat that bird needs in order to survive is an amount of heat that can turn me into a puddle on the floor.  But the bird’s needs trump mine, so if one of us has to leave, it’s me.

When I first came in, she put on an act like she was doing really well.  About 30 seconds later, this completely disintegrated and she went into the posture you see in the picture above, leaning forward, fluffed up, and shaking, positioning herself as close to the heat lamp as birdily possible.  She stayed that way the entire time.

I told her about her mommy.  I told her about God, since they believe in God.  I told her about the flock of birds waiting to take her to Eternity, if she needs them, and that they’re her friends.  

She’s apparently been improving a bit today, but none of us are at all sure she’s going to last very much longer.  Laura is trying to feed her things that don’t matter anymore as far as whether they’re good for her, as long as they’re not salty (because salt would cause actual pain, not just long-term liver damage.. we’re not worried about the long term anymore, we just want her to enjoy eating for as long as she’s willing to eat).

I hate having to leave her.  I wish I could stay there all day long with her.  I have to go back later on and check on her.  Last night I talked to her thinking I was saying goodbye for the last time, but today she seems better than last night.  Last night her skin was this really weird color, like way too dark orange and with big blue blotches all over it, instead of pink like it normally is.  

Anyway… I just hope that if she dies, she dies well, that’s all you can wish at this point.

7:53pm October 6, 2014

Flying Home

[Background: My friend’s Quaker parrot probably won’t make it through the next day, certainly not the next week, unless she’s much tougher than she seems.  She’s stopped eating, and with a bird metabolism that’s bad.  I wrote this poem from things I saw in my head thinking about her death.  It’s also on my main poetry blog, which has a comments section.]

Peri with her back to the camera, looking fluffed up.

[Image description: Peri, a green Quaker parrot standing with her back to the camera, fluffed up and leaning a bit on a feather toy hanging from her small hospital cage.]

I never knew you well
But I know enough to see
You are as perfect as a bird can be

And right now
Over the trees
I see
A flock of birds
Made out of nothing but light
A flock of birds
Waiting for your final flight

So don’t be afraid
Don’t be afraid when they come
They’re only coming
To welcome you home

When it’s time to fly away
Then fly away
Don’t hold out too long
Trying to stay

You have the whole of eternity
To fly into
And everyone there
Will join with you

So when you know it’s time
And you’ll know
Fly away
Leave us behind
Our love will ensure
We won’t be long behind you now
We won’t be long behind
Behind you now

6:30am November 22, 2013
samhainnight: On Aug 28, 2012, United Airlines killed my 2.5 year old Mastiff BamBam. After making every promise to guarantee his safety with United’s Pet Safe program, from the website to the booking agents to the ground personnel, guaranteeing air conditioned vans to and from the plane and air conditioned cargo areas at all times, United did none of it. On our layover in Houston, for over three hours, he was kept in temperatures in the 90’s. First placed on the tarmac, then in open luggage containers, then in a “holding area” with no a/c. At the height of summer during a heat wave in Texas. Never once was he placed in the air conditioning as promised, the cornerstone of the Pet Safe program. He was dead on arrival in San Francisco. Although we saw with our own eyes the condition he was in when being boarded, and United’s own admission of NO a/c, and the later admission that NO pet is put in the air conditioned cargo area for layovers of less than 4 hours, they denied any wrong doing. After reviewing the autopsy report, our vet was 100% convinced the cause of death was heatstroke. United’s conclusion was; inconclusive. We were offered travel vouchers and weeks of corporate cover up and then lies to the media of his “special” care while in their hands. There needs to be an enormous lobby for the airline industry fights any and all expansion of federal oversight in animal transportation. Every 9 days a pet dies on a commercial airline, and hundreds, or thousands, of other animals die each year with zero accountability as to the actual numbers or causes of death. If you accidentally leave a pet in a car in the heat you can be criminally charge with animal cruelty, yet the airlines take our money, sell us their “expertise,” then kill our family pets, deny responsibility and wash their hands by offering traveling vouchers like they are a lost suitcase. OUR PETS ARE NOT BAGGAGE. The airline lobby may be huge, but the American pet owners “lobby” is worth 45 billion dollars a year and we demand change. We can make change if we stand together with our family members who cannot stand up for themselves. THE CHANGE WE WANT: Fully disclose the number of total animal deaths that occur to the Department of Transportation, not just pets. The airlines to be held liable for wrongful deaths of our pets as living creatures and not as “baggage.” An independent third party, not the airline, be in charge of the autopsy and the investigation into cause of a pets death. Links covering this story: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/candi-randy/2012/10/22/united-kills-beloved-pet http://www.nbcnews.com/travel/second-dog-death-prompts-concerns-about-safety-pets-planes-6169027 http://www.lifewithdogs.tv/2012/09/second-dog-dies-on-united-airlines-flight/ http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/flying-deadly-skies-florida-man-140-pound-mastiff-bam-bam-died-cross-country-united-flight-article-1.1169505 http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/21008631253197/#.UGPkxKMh7sA.facebook It is criminal the way pets are treated by airlines. They should either be required to treat them humanely or be barred from transporting them altogether!

samhainnight:

On Aug 28, 2012, United Airlines killed my 2.5 year old Mastiff BamBam. After making every promise to guarantee his safety with United’s Pet Safe program, from the website to the booking agents to the ground personnel, guaranteeing air conditioned vans to and from the plane and air conditioned cargo areas at all times, United did none of it. On our layover in Houston, for over three hours, he was kept in temperatures in the 90’s. First placed on the tarmac, then in open luggage containers, then in a “holding area” with no a/c. At the height of summer during a heat wave in Texas. Never once was he placed in the air conditioning as promised, the cornerstone of the Pet Safe program.

He was dead on arrival in San Francisco. Although we saw with our own eyes the condition he was in when being boarded, and United’s own admission of NO a/c, and the later admission that NO pet is put in the air conditioned cargo area for layovers of less than 4 hours, they denied any wrong doing. After reviewing the autopsy report, our vet was 100% convinced the cause of death was heatstroke. United’s conclusion was; inconclusive. We were offered travel vouchers and weeks of corporate cover up and then lies to the media of his “special” care while in their hands.

There needs to be an enormous lobby for the airline industry fights any and all expansion of federal oversight in animal transportation. Every 9 days a pet dies on a commercial airline, and hundreds, or thousands, of other animals die each year with zero accountability as to the actual numbers or causes of death. If you accidentally leave a pet in a car in the heat you can be criminally charge with animal cruelty, yet the airlines take our money, sell us their “expertise,” then kill our family pets, deny responsibility and wash their hands by offering traveling vouchers like they are a lost suitcase.

OUR PETS ARE NOT BAGGAGE. The airline lobby may be huge, but the American pet owners “lobby” is worth 45 billion dollars a year and we demand change. We can make change if we stand together with our family members who cannot stand up for themselves.

THE CHANGE WE WANT:

Fully disclose the number of total animal deaths that occur to the Department of Transportation, not just pets.

The airlines to be held liable for wrongful deaths of our pets as living creatures and not as “baggage.”

An independent third party, not the airline, be in charge of the autopsy and the investigation into cause of a pets death.

Links covering this story:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/candi-randy/2012/10/22/united-kills-beloved-pet

http://www.nbcnews.com/travel/second-dog-death-prompts-concerns-about-safety-pets-planes-6169027

http://www.lifewithdogs.tv/2012/09/second-dog-dies-on-united-airlines-flight/

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/flying-deadly-skies-florida-man-140-pound-mastiff-bam-bam-died-cross-country-united-flight-article-1.1169505

http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/21008631253197/#.UGPkxKMh7sA.facebook

It is criminal the way pets are treated by airlines. They should either be required to treat them humanely or be barred from transporting them altogether!

2:48pm November 18, 2013

➸ How My Cat Saved My Life

kittymudface:

No, this isn’t about my cat jumping in front of a bullet, and it’s not about her biting some robber in the balls so I could get away. Her heroism wasn’t as dramatic, but it was still just as important.

To fully understand my story, you have to know some stuff about Mud Face. First of all, her…