I haven’t posted an update on Brandy’s condition so far. I tried, but I got so frustrated all over again thinking about the two receptionists at the vet, Lorraine and Sheila, as well as Dr C, who happens to be Lorraine’s son, that I jumbled the words and stuttered badly on the keyboard, so I deleted the post. Now several days later, I’ve calmed down a bit, although still upset, I think I can get this update published.
The short version is that Brandy has vitamin B12 deficiency and bacterial overgrowth, which has been causing the diarrhea. She’s put on amoxicillin and B12 supplement. If you are bored and want to read the long version, the rest of this entry is me ranting in painstakingly minute detail about certain people, mentioned above, at the vet’s office.
Last Friday, I received a phone call from Dr. C, instead of my vet Dr. L, about the blood test results. He said Dr. L asked him to give me a call, and said Brandy’s pancreatic level was normal as with everything else except her B12 level, which was low; the course of her treatment would be to give her B12 supplement and treat her with amoxicillin twice a day for 30 days; I could pick up amoxicillin and Pet-tabs, which is a multivitamin for dogs. I asked if I couldn’t just buy B12 supplement at a drug store, and he replied that I could certainly do that. Now my mistake at that point was to assume that he would have offered to call in the prescription for me at my local pharmacy IF amoxicillin was NOT a medication only available at veterinary facilities. Because Dr. L had offered to call in prescriptions for me twice already this year, I assumed amoxicillin was something not available at pharmacies.
The next day, SATURDAY mind you, I left home around 9:45am to pick up amoxicillin at the vet, which is usually about 40-45 minute drive. But after driving for 15 minutes or so on Long Island Expressway, the traffic came to a complete halt. Fortunately, I was right next to an exit, and I took the exit along with everybody else who was lucky enough to not have passed this exit. I drove on the service road at 0.00314 mile per hour and found out LIE was closed for 3 subsequent exits because of a tractor trailer crash. I finally got back on the LIE and flew to the vet’s office.
I told Sheila that I was there to pick up amoxicillin. For whom? she asked. Brandy, I answered. Last name? she asked. Kimn, K-I-M-N, I answered. Sheila opened a cabinet and started looking for it. Then she said quite contemptuously, Did you call it in? You HAVE to call it in first. It’s not here. You can’t just walk in and… I interrupted quite irritably, No, I didn’t call it in. Dr. C called ME yesterday. Flustered, Sheila proceeded to take out a basket from the cabinet and went through it. She took another basket out and went through it. She typed in my name on the computer apparently looking to verify my story. She went through the baskets again. She got up and walked to the back room, came back out, started the search again. She went to the back room again, came back out, searched for it again. Lorraine interfered and she walked to the back room, came back out, typed my information again on the computer. Lorraine and Sheila whispered this and that to each other. And Lorraine started going through the baskets again, when she grabbed a pill bottle and handed it to Sheila. Sheila said, Oh, I was looking for an envelope, not a bottle! Lorraine answered, Clavamox is in the envelope, not amoxicillin.
Increasingly irritated and impatient, yet relieved that I was getting the thing I drove all the way there for, I proceeded to pay and asked, so amoxicillin is not something that can be called in to a pharmacy? Lorraine answered sheepishly, We can call it in. But they look different. If you get it from a pharmacy, they don’t look the same.
(WARNING! The following paragraph not appropriate for children. Parental guidance strongly advised.)
With that, I turned around very quickly and got the fuck out of that place before I start yelling obscenities and end up getting banned from there. I mean, IT LOOKS DIFFERENT? FOR REAL? BIG! FUCKING! DEAL! WHY THE FUCK WOULD I GIVE A FUCKING SHIT ABOUT WHAT THE FUCK IT FUCKING LOOKS LIKE?!?! WHY THE FUCK DID I FUCKING HAVE TO DRIVE ALL THE FUCKING WAY THERE???? I WASTED THREE FUCKING HOURS THAT FUCKING DAY BECAUSE THE FUCKING CRASH WAS STILL BEING INVESTIGATED WHICH CAUSED THE FUCKING RUBBERNECKERS SO BREAK-FUCKING-HAPPY THAT MADE THE FUCKING TRAFFIC TO SLOW THE FUCK DOWN ON MY WAY BACK HOME AS WELL. AND HAVE YOU BEEN PAYING ATTENTION TO THE FUCKING PRICE OF FUCKING GAS THESE FUCKING DAYS? IT FUCKING COST ME TWENTY FUCKING BUCKS ROUND FUCKING TRIP! AND I COULD HAVE PICKED THIS FUCKING THING UP AT MY PHARMACY HALF A FUCKING MILE AWAY FROM ME?
This is the fourth time somebody came to my blog by searching “peeing mania.com”!!! WTF? I’m telling you, there are some sick, SICK people out there.
Not only there are sick people visiting my site, there are some other strange people ending up here by searching some strange stuff. Somebody came here searching for “cat puncture wound smells like poop”. Uh… HELLO THERE! IF YOUR CAT HAS A PUNCTURE WOUND, TAKE THE CAT TO THE EMERGENCY VET!!! WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING GOOGLING THE “SYMPTOM” OF A PUNCTURE WOUND???? And by the way, if it does smell like poop, common sense should tell you the cat’s gastrointestinal tract is punctured somewhere!
Do you know what kind of strange search people do to get to your site? Here are some other examples of what people searched to arrive here:
- fear of baby poop
- licking herself
- poop talk
- my bowel movement smells like bleach
So I’m thinking my blog is not hitting the target audience… oh wait… What kind of people ARE my target audience…?
Today concluded this spring’s round of heartworm tests and wellness checkups for my beasts at last with Brooklyn’s visit to the vet. Brooklyn being Brooklyn, I had to ask numerous times to contain the two resident Rotties and the resident cats, all of whom tried their very best to escape the back room every chance they got. I have to admit it must have been a sight to behold whenever I saw any of them approaching since I turned to face Brooklyn to block her, bending my knees and back in preparation to body block and bear hug her in time if and when she decides to lunge. Picturing myself in that posture would have been funny if I looked fit and slim active type, but it’s absolutely hysterical to picture me the way I am – fat and short couch potato type.
I asked Dr. L to check if Brooklyn broke her teeth, and my suspicion was confirmed. Both of her upper back premolars were broken, but fortunately not enough to expose the nerves. There is nothing we could do about it. I might actually have to start brushing her teeth! I also took home a bottle each of Rimadyl and Methocarbamol to give Brooklyn when her pinched nerve acts up. One good news. She weighed at 54.5lb, which is 1.5lb lighter than 3 months ago. Finally she’s on her way back to her lean and mean self at 47lb, as opposed to being just mean.
I have another appointment to bring Brandy in again in 2 weeks, this time to draw blood for some other tests, especially pancreatic deficiency, to determine why her poop continues to be soft after finishing 10 days of metronidazol. Adding rice and yogurt to her diet did help a tad, but nothing to write home about. I procured a bottle of apple cider vinegar as well some time ago, but yet to crack it open, the reason being that yogurt is supposed to replenish the good bacteria in her system. Adding to it apple cider vinegar, which is supposed to kill excess bacteria in her system, sounds illogical and doesn’t compute at all. So I will continue to give her yogurt for another week or so to use up the yogurt I already have in the fridge, then if her poop consistency is still not satisfactory, I’ll try the apple cider vinegar. I’m pulling my hair out to see if THAT might help to keep weight on her. She’s 15lb lighter than a year ago.
Grizzley will now be on prednisone once a day for a month or so, and we’ll see how he does. If he does well, we’ll try to reduce it to once every other day. He’s been doing great so far, back to his old self trying to steal my food right when I bring food to my mouth every single bite.
Georgia’s allergy checkup and blood panel a few weeks ago was great, and even the vet was surprised how well she’s doing on just the weekly allergy shots alone without any other medication. This was the first time she had not had any yeast infection flare up in between the checkups.
Foster, of course, is healthy… well, at least physically. If only he would stop giving himself puncture wounds that need stitching up, that would be awesome.
And I have a scratch on my right thumb around the nail bed, that looks like a razor cut, made by Grizzley’s tooth, and a scratch on my right wrist by his nails. I’ve forgotten what a pain it is to pill a cat, not to mention how to do it period. Grizzley had always been somewhat easy to pill compared to Thanta (RIP), but after getting used to the easy routines of pilling Brandy everyday (and before that pilling Georiga everyday), he presented himself to be a tough customer.
When I went to pick him up yesterday, my vet told me that prednisone is working, he ate ravenously, and even groomed himself. When he was brought out, I could see he did feel much better than the day before – he voiced his objections on having been in the hospital out loud. I should take him in 2 weeks to do a round of tests. The vet is very optimistic that it’s not cancer since Grizzley’s responding too well for it to be cancer. I’ve decided not to go for chemo on him even if it is cancer. The vet also agreed that gastrointestinal cancers are very unresponsive to chemo, which made it much easier for me to decide chemo or not. So even if his condition regresses after reducing prednisone dosage, I’d opt not to have biopsy done unless the vet gives me another compelling reason to have it done anyway.
I was kinda bummed yesterday after learning about the ultrasound result, and cried a couple of times – had to stay in the bathroom for a while because it’s not such a good thing to cry at work so much. But now, I feel better about it since Grizzley seems to be really happy about being back home and able to terrorize the dogs again.
The result of ultrasound added more concerns about intestinal lymphoma, but it could still be the inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The only way to know for sure is to do a biopsy. Because we are treating him as having the IBD, he’s on prednisone. But according to the vet, prednisone is also used for treating lymphoma as well. The ultrasound also shows an early signs of chronic renal failure, but the vet assured me it’s common for any 14 year old cat.
I don’t know what to think yet. I have to decide on what I should do IF it really is cancer before doing the biopsy since if I don’t opt for the chemo, there is no point in doing the biopsy at all, and it’s about $1,200. I’d be putting about $2,000 on my credit card for Grizzley’s treatment up to today, so if I don’t have to, I definitely don’t want to have the biopsy done.
It seems there are two different opinions on having a cat (or dog) subject to chemo therapy. One is that chemo on cats is vastly different from that on people; it’s not painful and cats don’t go through the same hardship as people on chemo since its goal is remission, not cure. The other opinion is that how do we know if it’s not painful and not hard on them, we all know they tend to hide pain (I know full well Griz hide it very well), and people with no signs of cancer after going through a chemo are said to be in remission, not cured.
I haven’t talked to “my” vet yet, I only talked to the other vet. So I still want to talk to her about it. If I decide to go ahead with biopsy, she would be the one performing the procedure.
I’ll be picking him up today anyway, and I have some time to think about it and do some research on it. Please comment with your thoughts/opinions/experiences about it. I’d really appreciate it.
Serious Stuff. Seriously
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