Stresso
So I cleaned the hell out of the house this morning. Since Billy has been quarantined to a single room and he's a messy guy with litter, it was pretty bad. Did I explain
Well, a day or so before I was to leave for my trip I was reading some papers in the livingroom when I heard a big thunka-thunka on the basement stairs. This is usually followed by Billy bursting through the basement doorway closely followed by Tasha. She loves chasing BIlly out of the litterbox. To my surprise, Billy didn't come charging through and Tasha was sitting on the table looking outside. Since Turtle was sleeping in our bedroom, I was quite confused. I ran downstairs, but Billy was in the litter, doing his buisiness. He seemed okay, but it was quite a rumble when he fell.
A bit later he was curling up in his bed and he sort of fell over strangely. He made it over to where I was on the couch later, but again sort of fell down next to me. I set him on the ground to observe his walking and it was really shaky. I gave him fluids and showed T when he got home. We decided to give the fluids some time to soak in while we went to dinner, but when we returned Billy was even worse :( By this point he could barely walk and just fell down when he got excited about dinner-time. It was really hard to see him like that and at that point we couldn't figure if he had fallen down the stairs because of a neurological problem or if the fall is what hurt him. I was scared. I cried and called the dude. We sort of figured maybe Bill just needed a night, but then T read online that his symptoms could be a sign of a blood clot (I don't know how) and so I called my friend K who had taken his cats to the emergency vet before. He suggested calling the vet for their opinion and the vet suggested bringing Billy in immediately.
The first vet was actually concerned since Billy was so relaxed while being at the vet. I tried to explain that we'd been petting him for 40 minutes while we waited and he was usually a pretty unstressed guy. Then I too worried that he was being a little inactive. After checking his blood and doing xrays we found out that poor Billy has pretty bad arthritis all through his little body :( He was probably stiff, fell down the stairs and was hurt pretty badly. Since he has bad kidneys he can't take the usual meds, so he is getting a series of shots to help with pain. I don't even want to think about how much it will cost, but for now we can get the shots and he seems to be getting better quickly. The damn dummy still has urges to go down the basement stairs, so we can't leave him out of his room unless we're watching.
So, that's Billy's story.
I've been thinking. No matter where I move I'll need to get a car. Do I try to get one now or after I move? My current car can't make a trip to wherever we move to (leaks a lot of important fluids). I really don't have money for a car. Goodness.
Well, a day or so before I was to leave for my trip I was reading some papers in the livingroom when I heard a big thunka-thunka on the basement stairs. This is usually followed by Billy bursting through the basement doorway closely followed by Tasha. She loves chasing BIlly out of the litterbox. To my surprise, Billy didn't come charging through and Tasha was sitting on the table looking outside. Since Turtle was sleeping in our bedroom, I was quite confused. I ran downstairs, but Billy was in the litter, doing his buisiness. He seemed okay, but it was quite a rumble when he fell.
A bit later he was curling up in his bed and he sort of fell over strangely. He made it over to where I was on the couch later, but again sort of fell down next to me. I set him on the ground to observe his walking and it was really shaky. I gave him fluids and showed T when he got home. We decided to give the fluids some time to soak in while we went to dinner, but when we returned Billy was even worse :( By this point he could barely walk and just fell down when he got excited about dinner-time. It was really hard to see him like that and at that point we couldn't figure if he had fallen down the stairs because of a neurological problem or if the fall is what hurt him. I was scared. I cried and called the dude. We sort of figured maybe Bill just needed a night, but then T read online that his symptoms could be a sign of a blood clot (I don't know how) and so I called my friend K who had taken his cats to the emergency vet before. He suggested calling the vet for their opinion and the vet suggested bringing Billy in immediately.
The first vet was actually concerned since Billy was so relaxed while being at the vet. I tried to explain that we'd been petting him for 40 minutes while we waited and he was usually a pretty unstressed guy. Then I too worried that he was being a little inactive. After checking his blood and doing xrays we found out that poor Billy has pretty bad arthritis all through his little body :( He was probably stiff, fell down the stairs and was hurt pretty badly. Since he has bad kidneys he can't take the usual meds, so he is getting a series of shots to help with pain. I don't even want to think about how much it will cost, but for now we can get the shots and he seems to be getting better quickly. The damn dummy still has urges to go down the basement stairs, so we can't leave him out of his room unless we're watching.
So, that's Billy's story.
I've been thinking. No matter where I move I'll need to get a car. Do I try to get one now or after I move? My current car can't make a trip to wherever we move to (leaks a lot of important fluids). I really don't have money for a car. Goodness.