Been dealing with a sluggish computer of late. If it doesn't improve, Zach is going to take it back to factory settings. It's getting frustrating with a lag every few minutes so yesterday I just shut down and picked up my knitting. More fun than trying to get the computer to process.
Heard back from the vet first thing this morning. Well, first thing for me, anyway. It actually was about 10:30 a.m. Most of his labs are in the perfect range except for one that has something to do with some kind of cytes. Very high. Possibilities are heartworm, parasites or inflammatory bowel disease. Because of the vomiting, she thinks it's most likely that it's the IBD and has put him on a special, high protein diet. Which of course is expensive. And which of course he's sniffed and stuck his nose up in the air over. The pet store has another brand that is good for IBD if this doesn't work. However, if it's not the heartworm (she's running another test using the serum that was stored after his labs) and he doesn't gain weight within a month, we need to take Hannibal back in for surgery...a biopsy, because it could be bowel cancer. She thinks it's unlikely but it's also one of the possibilities. I want to think only of Hannibal because he's a member of this family but my brain keeps going to the bill we're accruing on the credit card.
The other brand has such choices as rabbit and venison, both of which he likes, having killed himself a few rabbits in the back yard in his day. Venison he gets occasionally whenever we happen upon it ourselves and has eaten that as well. What it's like in a can, however, is another matter. Not as tasty are raw, for sure.
So we have to keep Professor's dry food up and not let Hannibal have any of it. No more treats, no more dry food, which I've got two unopened packages of. I'll put all the unopened treats and dry food on freecycle for anyone to take after we see how he's doing. No point hanging onto it if he can't eat it. But I'll see what the heartworm exam says first.
It's rare for cats to get heartworm but not unheard of and since his labs are perplexing to her, she's not discounting it. I'm pretty sure that's another $50 for the lab work on it. Not to mention any de-worming meds.
Zach got a call back from one of the employment agencies but we didn't get the message until today because they called Wednesday while we were outside working in the yard, at around 7:30 p.m. so I didn't think to check the voice mail until this afternoon after we got home. He'll call first thing Monday morning to see about setting up an appointment. He was ready to send in his application to McDonald's today so this is good news.
I didn't do the garden or put in the screens today. I was wiped out after shopping. I really hope I can make the changes I need to make to get my health and energy levels back. Zach and I plan to spend one day a week going for Nature walks where we're just enjoying ourselves instead of turning walking into something tedious like exercise. Lots of places around here to do that, fortunately.
The eagles have branched! They're flying from the nest to the surrounding branches and hanging out there with mom and dad. It's exciting to watch. They're particularly boisterous today and as two of them are still in the same spot they've been in for the past couple of hours, I'm wondering if they're afraid to fly back to the nest. Or if they've made multiple trips and I just haven't seen it. I think Dad has been hovering around them because he looks a lot smaller than they are. I did notice they're starting to get some white feathers on their head but they won't go white until they're sexually mature.
Well, I've made progress on both baby blankets. I had to buy another skein of blue for the pinwheel blanket because it's taking more yarn per round now. And I dug through my stash and found some more Bernat Baby Sport yarn in yellow but not white. I didn't have enough to finish it, but the extra yellow will allow that. Unfortunately I had to buy another skein of the white, which is okay since I can use white in many other projects as well. I went ahead and got a pound skein. Why not?
I also started the bathroom curtain last night. I didn't put the ruffle on it, but did use a 6 stitch repeat border on the bottom. I knit 3, yo, k2together, knit one each row which gives me a lovely border. I just knit as long as I thought I wanted the curtain, then turned and picked up stitches from the side, pick up two, skip one row, along the length of it until I got to the end. It's looking pretty good. I really will try to learn the camera this weekend so I can get pictures, but I really do have to till the garden this weekend and get my tomatoes into the ground before they bloom in the window.
Alas, I forgot I have laundry in the dryer so I'm off to take care of that and put another load in the dryer. I'll wash more clothes tomorrow. I haven't been hanging them out because what energy I have is being put to use on other tasks right now. Hopefully I'll be hanging clothes out soon.
TTFN
Heard back from the vet first thing this morning. Well, first thing for me, anyway. It actually was about 10:30 a.m. Most of his labs are in the perfect range except for one that has something to do with some kind of cytes. Very high. Possibilities are heartworm, parasites or inflammatory bowel disease. Because of the vomiting, she thinks it's most likely that it's the IBD and has put him on a special, high protein diet. Which of course is expensive. And which of course he's sniffed and stuck his nose up in the air over. The pet store has another brand that is good for IBD if this doesn't work. However, if it's not the heartworm (she's running another test using the serum that was stored after his labs) and he doesn't gain weight within a month, we need to take Hannibal back in for surgery...a biopsy, because it could be bowel cancer. She thinks it's unlikely but it's also one of the possibilities. I want to think only of Hannibal because he's a member of this family but my brain keeps going to the bill we're accruing on the credit card.
The other brand has such choices as rabbit and venison, both of which he likes, having killed himself a few rabbits in the back yard in his day. Venison he gets occasionally whenever we happen upon it ourselves and has eaten that as well. What it's like in a can, however, is another matter. Not as tasty are raw, for sure.
So we have to keep Professor's dry food up and not let Hannibal have any of it. No more treats, no more dry food, which I've got two unopened packages of. I'll put all the unopened treats and dry food on freecycle for anyone to take after we see how he's doing. No point hanging onto it if he can't eat it. But I'll see what the heartworm exam says first.
It's rare for cats to get heartworm but not unheard of and since his labs are perplexing to her, she's not discounting it. I'm pretty sure that's another $50 for the lab work on it. Not to mention any de-worming meds.
Zach got a call back from one of the employment agencies but we didn't get the message until today because they called Wednesday while we were outside working in the yard, at around 7:30 p.m. so I didn't think to check the voice mail until this afternoon after we got home. He'll call first thing Monday morning to see about setting up an appointment. He was ready to send in his application to McDonald's today so this is good news.
I didn't do the garden or put in the screens today. I was wiped out after shopping. I really hope I can make the changes I need to make to get my health and energy levels back. Zach and I plan to spend one day a week going for Nature walks where we're just enjoying ourselves instead of turning walking into something tedious like exercise. Lots of places around here to do that, fortunately.
The eagles have branched! They're flying from the nest to the surrounding branches and hanging out there with mom and dad. It's exciting to watch. They're particularly boisterous today and as two of them are still in the same spot they've been in for the past couple of hours, I'm wondering if they're afraid to fly back to the nest. Or if they've made multiple trips and I just haven't seen it. I think Dad has been hovering around them because he looks a lot smaller than they are. I did notice they're starting to get some white feathers on their head but they won't go white until they're sexually mature.
Well, I've made progress on both baby blankets. I had to buy another skein of blue for the pinwheel blanket because it's taking more yarn per round now. And I dug through my stash and found some more Bernat Baby Sport yarn in yellow but not white. I didn't have enough to finish it, but the extra yellow will allow that. Unfortunately I had to buy another skein of the white, which is okay since I can use white in many other projects as well. I went ahead and got a pound skein. Why not?
I also started the bathroom curtain last night. I didn't put the ruffle on it, but did use a 6 stitch repeat border on the bottom. I knit 3, yo, k2together, knit one each row which gives me a lovely border. I just knit as long as I thought I wanted the curtain, then turned and picked up stitches from the side, pick up two, skip one row, along the length of it until I got to the end. It's looking pretty good. I really will try to learn the camera this weekend so I can get pictures, but I really do have to till the garden this weekend and get my tomatoes into the ground before they bloom in the window.
Alas, I forgot I have laundry in the dryer so I'm off to take care of that and put another load in the dryer. I'll wash more clothes tomorrow. I haven't been hanging them out because what energy I have is being put to use on other tasks right now. Hopefully I'll be hanging clothes out soon.
TTFN
4 comments:
I hope it's nothing too serious for the Professor. It's tough as they get older. And I can totally relate to the conflict between wanting them healthy and cared for and not having money to pay for it. When Toby hurt his back (and I thought it was his paw) a few months ago, I waited far too long before taking him in because I thought (hoped) it would take care of itself. Poor guy was in pain the whole time. I felt so, SO guilty. 13 years ago when we got them, I never would have thought that our current income level wouldn't be enough to care for them AND put money in savings AND...
Hoping Zach's employment situation turns around soon. That has to be stressful.
Thanks, Tana. It's Hannibal this time though. He's never had any health issues before and Professor has been the one with broken bones, strained muscles and obesity issues which I do talk about a lot so it's easy to confuse them. He's not eating the extremely expensive cat food, darn it.
One of my cats has IBD. She has done quite well with Royal Canin Venison Formula, Royal Canin Hypoallergenic Hydrolyzed Protein (dry food) and monthly B-12 shots. I do have to vary the menu at times removing the venison.
My cats and I will keep you and yours in our prayers.
Thanks, Whiteycat for the prayers. I just picked up some Royal Canin cat food. I got four different cans of it and of course, he only nibbled a bit at the first can and then walked away. Unfortunately it also had his worming medicine in it so I'll have to pick up another dose and just feed him the medicine by hand because he won't touch any food with it in it. My biggest problem will be getting my husband to go along with all the things we have to do to get him better. He is notorious for thinking he knows more than the vet.
Post a Comment