Day at the vet, fic and music rec, & stuff :p

[beck]

I know I won't be able to cover everyone but thanx to all for the well wishes. Every yr is an accomplishment when it comes to being married especially for a certain amount of time and the first 2 yrs. was a bit rough. I always admire ppl when I hear how long they been together. It shocked me knowing how long mom and dad were together, same with my mom's parents. Thats a LONG time to spend with someone like that. Now a days, your lucky if you are even together for 6 months.

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I finally took Sam to the vet yesterday, it came in handy since we could use some of our income tax money to pay for it, though I was hoping regardless if we used the tax money or not, that bubba would've let me look into the vet soon. Sam's ears have been filthy and it irked me to see that crap in his ears that when I tried to help clean it, he always put up a fight. Then he acted weird after I did try to get some of it out. Plus he always seemed sensitive on his head near the back of his ears as if he had such a horrible inner itch that he couldn't reach. We don't have fleas and it wouldn't have surprised me if he had mites since I just got done reading a recent article about it too. And it's so weird cause when you look at Smokey's ears, they are as clean as can be.

I called to see how much a visit would be and whatever procedures they'd have to do for his ears. The prices she gave me weren't overly bad on different things in case there were other things wrong. I swear to god Sam must have good hearing or can read my body language too well. He was in the living room and I was at the other end of the house where the carrier was. I barely made any noise to get it prepared and when I went in the living room, he was acting suspicious, didn't jump on the couch like he usually does when I stand there. Then I sat down to see if he would come to me, he took one look at me and ran down the hall to hide under the bed. Thank god he didn't give me too much grief on getting him out from under the bed. Aside from having to nearly take the bed apart to reach him >___<, he didn't try bolting when I went to grab the scruff of his neck. It was only a 15 min drive to the vet and Sam just wouldn't stop meowing, wuss.

He was quiet as could be though when I was filling out the paperwork and on the way home. The vet swabbed his ears on getting the gunk out and putting it on some slides to get tests done on it. I'm grateful that Sam wasn't too squirmy when the vet was checking him over. YAY! He also trimmed Sam's back claws. It wasn't so great when he went to check Sam's teeth. He has tarter build up BAD and ya never really think about how cats teeth should be until its pointed out to you. He's missing his bottom 3 small teeth and the 3 upper small teeth are really worn. Hell, Sam isn't a spring chicken and they eat dry food, I would think that cause of eating dry food, your teeth will eventually wear out or break. The thing that kinda irks me are the attitudes doctors seem to ooze when they talk to you about things. The vet was acting a bit snippy as if its my fault Sam's teeth are bad, same with his ear problem. Not everyone has time, patience, or even money to get your fucking animals teeth in tip top shape. And he also informed me that cats ears should always be clean, he filled me in on that after I told him about Smokey.

The last time Sam saw a vet was back in '99 when we were updating his shots. But since he's an indoor cat, we decided not to worry about getting his shots. At least they aren't pushing us to do that but because of his age and since its been awhile, they gave me an estimate as to what all he should have done as well as the price. $365 O___________O. The most expensive on the list is the Chem 75,CBC, and Thyroid check. (whatever all that means) Plus the dental and shots were also in that price. Bubba was like "is Sam really worth all that?" Its not saying that we won't look into having things done, but if spacing them out would work, then perhaps in the future we can. I know one thing though is looking into the dental cleanup. I wish we did have extra money to spend on care & checkups like that. But the thing that gets me is that vets act like ppl have money to constantly take their pets in. Everything that went on yesterday cost me $80.50, any other time, we don't have cash like that to spend on.

So the outcome of the ears is he has a slight infection and something that had to do with moisture that caused it. I know they checked to see if he had a yeast infection, which that sounds weird to have an infection like that in your ear. I have to give him pills and some inner ear cream to hopefully clear the problem up. They showed me how to give him his pill *sighs* I wish it was something I could mix in the food, would be so much easier. Its going to be hard to do it myself cause I can't really hold him and open his mouth at the same time without squirming out of my grasp. He has to get them twice a day for 3 days and after that, 1 pill once a day which won't be too hard since I can give it to him when Bubba is around.

I bet Sam was thinking too "what did I do to deserve all of this punishment!? First it was the bath on Sunday and now I'm getting this cold thin device shoved in my ass." (man it took the girl forever just to get the reading of his temperature). When we got home, I was expecting him to ignore me cause of putting him through all of that but it didn't take him very long to butter up to me. He should be showering me with love, especially if this will make his inner itching stop. He always seemed so miserable when he tried to relieve himself of whatever was bothering his ears.

When the lady was asking me about a rough estimate of his age, it did make me think more about it. We've been married for 7yrs and we took him in when we were still dating. We got Sam from his parents who in turn got him from his sister Susan. Except Susan isn't too sure how long she had him around before she gave him to them. He almost has to be around 10 or so. It's so weird to think that he could be that old. Our housecat when I was a kid lived to see 14 though she didn't die of old age. Oh and Sam's weight is still about the same back in '99. He's 14.50 lbs.

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Gungrave fic pimpage:

Of Roses and Blood Stains - by nocturnesan. Characters used: Brandon and Bunji.


Music pimpage:

Even though I always liked this band, their new one is just as good as the last.

Chevelle - "This type of thinking (could do us in)"

I'll try and upload a song or two from this cd. Money worth spent considering I hardly buy music anymore. The two songs I know they played on the radio were "The Clincher" & "Vitamin R".


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I also got my Gungrave #5 dvd in the mail yesterday *dances*, what perfect timing for that being a gift to myself. Watched all of it last night and I'm all fangirly over it again, though that will have to wait till tomorrow or sometime later this week. *lurveslurves*

Comments

[shira.livejournal.com]

The Chem and CBC are all blood values that will tell you whether there are any underlying problems like infection, some cancers, and more importantly, kidney or liver failure, which is common in older cats. These days, any cat or dog over the age of 5 or 7 gets this doen BEFORE being put under anesthesia, because anesthesia is a stress to those organs. There are other anesthetics that get used in a compromised animal, but they're really expensive, so it's cheaper to just do the bloodwork and see what it says, and that way, too, you have an idea as to the cat's health. The Thyroid test is... a thyroid test, lol. Because cats frequently suffer from tyroid disease as they get older, too. As for the denistry cleaning, it's just as important to keep dogs and cats teeth clean as it is to keep our own clean. Tartar buildup can increase the chance of complications due to heart trouble as they get older... same as in people. So considering the fact that we brush our teeth every day, a dental cleaning every couple of years for the dog or cat really isn't much. And as for that price? That's a bargain, compared to the place that I used to work for, and I haven't worked there now for over 5 years. If I'm remembering my prices right, from back then? It would have been over $400. for the services you mention that they estimated to you.

[yankeerose69.livejournal.com]

Thanx for the info. Makes a bit more sense now. I might talk hubby into getting the teeth done but the other stuff is still going to have to wait.