Yea spending between $2k-$5k was a lock here.

Anyone who has multiple pets in their life is gonna end up with a bill like that, or they will run extremely hot.

I don't feel that anyone needs to justify what they spend on a pet. If you have the means, great. If you don't, that's OK too. I just don't see the sense in arguing who loves their pet more, based on financial considerations.

We spent almost 3k to do a knee replacement on our dog this year. It was a lot, and ten years ago we would have had a much tougher time doing it, but I agree with whoever said that the occasional 2 to 5k vet bill is just par for the course with pets.



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It's RJs money, she can spend it as she pleases and she doesn't want to go buy 20 other cats she wants HER cat.
I hope you can work out what's wrong and treat kitty accordingly. Good luck.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/34...r-pet-1540913/

There is no tumor or lesion - he had a stroke.

He's only 8 years old, and he suddenly had a stroke, and also recently developed an unrelated cardiac...I'm not really clear on what exactly is going on there, if it's just a growth or swelling or what, but the cardiologist said that he didn't think it required medication at this time, only that it should be monitored.

While it's horrifying to me that my poor boy had a stroke, he was more alert and starting to try to stand before being sedated for the MRI, and the vet said that the type and location is such that he should recover in a few weeks. He's staying another night, but may be released tomorrow.

Jesus christ be less awful of a poster.

RJ, sounds like kinda sorta good news Fingers crossed.

I mean, it's not as good as what I was hoping, but he's recovering and there's no reason to think he won't make a substantial recovery, although with a stroke there could be residual symptoms.

There's no way to determine how or why it happened, but he survived it and should recover. I'm probably going to have to have him checked regularly for the heart thing at the very least, but as long as he recovers, that's all I can ask for. Anything going forward I'll have to take as it comes.

I'm sorry for making the LC thread just about this for a day or so, I was just really bummed last night and wanted some kind words, but I don't want to overtake the thread more than necessary. I'll let everyone know when he's home, and thanks for the support.

Glad to hear SgtCat will be recovering.

El_Cat and El_Dog wish him a speedy recovery.

RJ,

Was this guy visiting your cat?

Whoah there, calm down Fabey Fabes. you're reading way too much into what I wrote. Was only expressing surprise at how much people get gouged on pet health care relative to all other costs associated with said pets. RJ can spend as much or as little as she likes to try to help her cat recover.

El_Timon you inspired me

I had to do this with my dog. That bitch is NOT allowed to chase squirrels and rip out the other knee.

Glad SGTCat is going to be OK.

I didn't really take it the wrong way, I was surprised by the price as well, but even a crate full of kittens couldn't replace him for me so yeah I'm going to grimace and pay the bill.

In that respect I do hope he's showing enough recovery to come home tomorrow, but then I'm going to be terrified to leave him alone to go to work each night unless he's showing a pretty high degree of functioning, which seems not that likely 48 hours after a major cerebral event. I'm expecting to have to do some mess cleaning up and helping him get around for a bit while he fully recovers.

It's going to be a while before I relax leaving him alone. I didn't ask the vet this, but I have to assume that his risk of dying would have been substantially higher had I not been home when this happened. He was at the ER probably right around 30 minutes after symptoms started. Now every time I leave for work I'm going to worry, at least for a while.

Being surprised at the price is one thing, phrasing it like cs3 did strikes me as incredibly tactless and tone deaf, and I'm not getting "oh, that was more expensive than I would have guessed" from his initial post at all, that second sentence strikes me as a super awful thing to say to someone in legit distress over a loved pet possibly dying.

If you didn't take it the wrong way then maybe I overreacted though.

The "herd of brand new cats" thing was pretty bad.

I agree the yikes $2500 was ok as yeah that is a lot of money but the following statement about buying a herd of cats for that was insensitive imo.

My friend had her cat go missing recently and was quite upset by it and her mum sent her a link to a cat shelter where she could go get another one and her sister told her to get over it and go buy another cat. Both people missed the point that she wanted her cat back not just a cat.

Wow you really ARE Dids.






Normally I'm 100% lol cats, but imma make an exception for SGTCat and offer up a little prayer to Bast on his behalf.

I appreciate that chop.

The cardiologist who saw him today called. He has TWO semi serious heart defects, one of which could have been there since birth but not detected. However, his heart function and blood pressure are currently fine and the heart walls are only slightly thickened in one spot, so he won't need medication at this time. I'll just have to make sure he is seen regularly to monitor it.

So he had a stroke, and while there for that his previously unknown heart condition was diagnosed. Completely unrelated.

This has been quite the weekend.

(Edit - wrote this prior to seeing your above post )

RJ,

I wish I had opened this thread last night. I know how much pain you must be in. I had the exact same thing happen to my cat two years ago. The "good" news is that it's very likely to be vestibular disease. Here's my experience... (happy news at the very end).

Apparently this is a relatively common condition in cats and can be caused by polyps/tumors that press on their brains or it can be idiopathic.

I walked into the bathroom to see my cat thrashing around and convulsing. Picking her up and cradling her didn't help much. Her legs would get extremely stiff and then kick and shake. The worst part was that her head was shaking unnaturally. This happened around 8pm so I had to take her to the 24 hr emergency vet instead of our normal vet.

They sedated her and said they'd observe her overnight. The next day the diagnosis was idiopathic vestibular disease. I was pissed with the vet because it seemed like some half-assed diagnosis. Idiopathic basically means that there isn't a known cause. (Google reassured me later that the vet wasn't an idiot).

The next step was a $2000 MRI which I declined (don't feel great about that). My rationale was that the $2000 MRI reveals nothing, in which case I do nothing, or the MRI reveals these tumors/polyps that require surgery and I'd have her put down (the surgery was another 3.5k). At the time I'd had the cat only a few months and I couldn't pull the trigger on that big of a vet bill. I remember the success rate of the surgery being not a sure thing and the regrowth of the polyps being common. I'd feel different if it happened today after having her for a couple years.

I took her home the next day but we had a rough 48 hrs. She couldn't stand up and had a constant head wobble. The absolute worst part was that her pupils kept oscillating. I took a week off work to take care of her.

After about 48 hrs she could stand and not fall over. The shaking pupils went away. After a week she could walk around downstairs without falling over too much. The head shaking gradually got better. After a month she could go up and down the stairs and I was able to remove the obstacle course blocking them. After two months she was 'back to normal' for the most part. She still has a slight head tilt. She still doesn't have good balance for a cat.

I hope this is reassuring to you. She was 4 when I adopted her. She's 6 now. No recurrences!

Make sure the vet gives you appetite stimulation mediation. My cat tried her best to not eat/drink that first week. Make sure you are vigilant against ear infections, as they can trigger the condition.

I went through the mental checklist thinking of how she could have been poisoned the same way you did. To this day I think there is a small chance she ate a bug that had died after tracking pesticide into the house from outside. She's indoors only so trojan horse bug poison was the only scenario I could think of.

It was scary as hell going through it, but I HOPE that random poisoning or vestibular disease is whats is wrong with your cat and it's not his heart.

Wish you the best.

I was in a really bad mental state when I made that thread and feel bad about it. I was definitely trying to justify to myself that not spending 5k+ for the MRI/surgery combo was reasonable.

My pony is too slow it seems. Sorry that my essay won't be able to cheer you up. That is good news that they know the cause at least. You'd think they'd put him on meds as a precaution though.

I hope he makes a full recovery RJ.

Well, the recovery for vestibular syndrome and a stroke aren't that different, although recovery from vestibular syndrome should be faster, so the story still had some value. I am wondering if I'm going to need to call out part of this week to take care of him, especially since that'll cut into my income for the month (which I now need a bit more urgently, what with the vet bills), but if it's necessary then of course I'll do it. I've spent several K on the cat, a few days off work if he needs it will just mean it's a bit longer to finish off the credit card debt. I won't be taking any other non-scheduled or emergency time off work for the foreseeable future anyway. In a way it's nice that I have a bit of extra control over my income - if I'm doing well and need a break I can do that by signing the EO, but if I work my 40 hours I make more (duh).

And since his heart rate and blood pressure are fine, and the heart wall thickening is minor at this point, medication doesn't seem to be indicated. There's no way to treat either heart condition - one of which was probably congenital - with medication anyway, medication would be to manage symptoms like high blood pressure, which he doesn't have.

Also, you don't need to feel guilty about the MRI decision. If her disorder truly was vestibular, then you were basically correct, the MRI wouldn't really provide you with useful information if you couldn't afford and/or weren't inclined to pay for a surgery with a middling success rate. I'm glad your animal recovered.

I completely get that there are people who would not have been able to afford to get a cat an MRI - I don't blame them for that. Or simply would make the value judgement that in their life, the expense wasn't worth it. ****'s expensive, but while I'm by no means rich, I have enough of a savings cushion to deal with a sudden moderate expense of this nature, and I consider my boy worth it. But just because he is worth it to me, I know there are others who love their animals but would make a different value judgement, and I don't blame anyone for that.

People ITT are actually coming down on codesis3 for that? Wow. It's not like she said "what a waste of money, it's just a dumb cat". I weep for many of you. You're going to spend a lot of time offended.