Yesterday was awful. We got the car taken care of, fine and dandy. More than I wanted to spend total, but it needed the 30,000 mile tune up and new front brakes. Whatever. Then we took Buttons to the vet. Buttons is in Renal Failure (the vet said "Chronic", if that means anything). She's severely dehydrated, has an enlarged thyroid and probably diabetic, but they're going to try again today to get a urine sample to get more info. When they tried yesterday, she peed all over the vet tech. Oops. Sorry Vanessa the vet tech!
They wanted her to come back early this AM and spend all day on IV fluids, but on top of what was covered from her insurance, yesterday alone cost $160 and it would have cost at least another $250, and they were talking about coming back once or TWICE weekly for blood work to see how the treatments were doing. I have an oral liquid to give her 3x a day, she's on special prescription food specially for the renal system.
Its funny. They looked at her and initially said "well, she's got the enlarged thyroid, but this, this and this look fine, so for her age, she actually looks really great". When they brought the blood work back, the doctor's face was pale and sad, and she said "Well. Buttons is in renal failure. I'm so, SO sorry". I guess she hides it well, like any woman would :)
Nothing will fix her. She's 20. But they want to try and make her as comfortable as possible. I was a WRECK. I called my mom from the Petsmart bathroom SOBBING, because I didn't know what to do. If she's 20, but needs all this treatment and I can't pay for it, what do I do? I felt like I was waiting for the vet to tell me that she needed to be put down, but she's not at that point yet. I hated myself for thinking first with my wallet, and not my heart.
So this afternoon, we take her back; instead of all day IV fluids, the vet is going to teach us how to give her fluids under the skin, and hopefully, we can get that urine sample so we know more about where we stand.
On top of all of this, I'm absolutely LIVID with her previous vet. We took her in with the EXACT same concerns just last summer, and the records the vet faxed over even show our concerns, but her prognosis then was "VERY GOOD". I'm sorry, but a 20 year old cat who is missing teeth, peeing in the wrong place, clumping furn (all signs of kidney failure, according to yesterdays' vet) is not "VERY GOOD". We never even got to MEET that vet, they forced us to do a drop off appointment, and when we picked her up, they said "she looks great". I asked "what about the concerns I had? Do we need to speak to the doctor?" and the jerk said "no, she's just old". Thanks, Captain Obvious. I intend to contact Banfield Corporate and complain about THAT location, and then give absolutely GLOWING praise for yesterday, who were simply amazing, given the situation, and the fact that my cat peed on a tech...
So that's that. I'm sitting here on Buttons watch today. Matt's at work for another couple hours, then its back to Petsmart. I THINK we're still going to try and go out for a Valentine's dinner, but we'll see.
I hope you all are having a better V-Day!
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