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Sick Kitty; Credit Sesame

March 19th, 2018 at 12:10 am

I have the vet coming to pay a house call tomorrow morning. It's $90 for the vet + a vet tech, plus the usual exam and lab fees. But the kitty for whom I scheduled the appointment completely freaks out at the vet. I've only taken her once since I adopted her, and that time, it took 3 vet techs + the vet and me and a sedative to get her examined. It stressed her out so much I decided just to let her be until something was clearly wrong.

That time has come. She's been dropping weight and a couple of weeks ago I noticed that her fur was looking patchy too. Plus her digestion--which has never been as good as her sister kitty's--has been worse. The *best* outcome would be a diagnosis that she is hyperthyroid, but chances are it is something worse than that. She is 13.5, her "sister" (from the same home but not biologically related) turns 13 on the 30th...and the only other two cats I had lived to be 13 and 14, which makes me anxious. The first two kitties were fed on dry food and both developed kidney disease--one had to be put down immediately after diagnosis and the other I kept going with sub-q fluids for 2.5 years. I learned a lot about feline chronic renal disease over that time and these two kitties have been fed mostly with canned food to try to prevent it.

Anyways, I am quite nervous about what news tomorrow morning will bring.

The other cat gets taken to the vet regularly, and I'll be able to have the vet examine her as well as long as he is out here. I know she needs dental work, which will cost about a thousand. She's been eating well and there is no sign that the bad tooth bothers her, so I've let it go for six months since I was told she needed the work done, but spring is time.

So I transferred about $1,500 from my sinking fund account at Schwab to the bank so that costs will be covered.

Prayers for Miss Bridget are appreciated! I hope hyperthyroid is all that it is. If it is anything that needs regular intervention by me, she is too scared of a cat to adapt easily. When Teddy needed subcutaneous fluids for all that time, he fought the first few weeks, but then realized that he felt better after the fluids and stopped fighting. When Buffy was diagnosed diabetic, she hated getting the ear prick tests but there was a while there where it became easier to do. (Now that her diabetes is well controlled with diet and she needs the test only occasionally, it is much harder to do.) But Bridget was the cat who hid in a box for two months when I first adopted her, whom I've never even dared to pick up until the past month (and only extremely briefly), who spends an entire day hissing at me and at Buffy whenever I take Buffy to the vet, so I don't feel as tho anything that requires daily administrations from me is going to go over well with her.

On another front, I got an email from Credit Sesame today that I found informative, on suggested credit usage. The one thing that always dings my credit score a bit is having high balances relative to the limit. Mostly that's due to the one 0% balance transfer cardI maintain. But this time I got a link to actual balance limits and percent utilized, and discovered that the maximum you should use of any card is 10% of the your limit. After finding that out, I went and requested a credit limit increase on my Discover card, and I was granted an immediate $6,300 increase. The 0% balance transfer card is still going to knock things off, but I'm going to have to do another transfer by May, and I'll check out the limits before I do so this time. I didn't know before that 10% of your limit is the most you should use before they start counting your usage against you.

(On the other hand, they *also* ding me for not having enough TYPES of credit open--just a mortgage and the credit cards, no auto loan, student loan, or personal loan, so *that* brings my score down a bit too.

10 Responses to “Sick Kitty; Credit Sesame”

  1. creditcardfree Says:
    1521422133

    I wish for the best possible outcome for Bridget.

  2. Amber Says:
    1521426249

    Praying that your kitty's diagnosis is just hyperthyroid

  3. PatientSaver Says:
    1521458450

    Sending prayers for Bridget your way.

    When it comes to cat, I think dental work usually means pulling bad teeth, right? Just by way of comparison, when my vet pulled 3 teeth from my cat, he charged $837. He was extremely high priced and I don't think it would have been as much with my current vet.

    Seven years earlier, shortly after I adopted Waldo, a mobile vet came to the house and pulled 2 of Waldo's teeth. She only charged $350, and she was also making a house call! So I think there can be quite a range of fees involved, depending on the vet.

    Cats generally recover quickly from having a tooth pulled, from my experience.

  4. Turtle Lover Says:
    1521464334

    prayers for your kitty - within the last 2 weeks I had one kitty diagnosed with CKD .. I was reading about it and I wondered about my other kitty because of the symptoms.. so I had her tested - to find out she has hyperthyroid , liver and pancreas stuff going on. This kitty is 18 years old. Kitty with the CKD is about 12 and although I've always given her wet food and dry food with water, I am trying out new KD and Renal Support foods to see what she will eat and I hope that does it . I don't see myself giving her extra fluids. Thank you for sharing your info at a perfect time for me. :-)

  5. CB in the City Says:
    1521467009

    Hoping for the best possible outcome for Miss Bridget. You are an awesome momma!

  6. Dido Says:
    1521478088

    Turtle Lover, See https://www.felinecrf.org/ for kitties with kidney issues--tremendous resource that greatly helped me with my CKD kitties! There are listservs too, that I subscribed too. I'm not on them any more but I'm sure you can find references at the website listed above.

  7. rob62521 Says:
    1521484794

    Hope things work out well with Miss Bridget.

    Isn't it crazy how credit scores are figured. Those folks who pay their bills and are careful are often punished for being...gulp..responsible.

  8. Sallyr70 Says:
    1521490091

    I'll be thinking about Miss Bridget Smile My last kitty, a siamese named Jewel, lived to be 17. She was diagnosed with hyperthyroid AND kidney disease at 13, when she was suddenly losing weight and drinking a lot of water. We did the sub-q and a daily pill. We were amazed (and the vet, too) at how long she was with us! Medical technology for pets is great.... as long as one can afford it.

    Bridget does sound very challenging! I hope, whatever the diagnosis, that she gets the treatment needed and cooperates without too much fuss Smile

  9. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1521510180

    Praying for kitty. Hope the visit goes well.

  10. Turtle Lover Says:
    1521549868

    thank you for the info. That site must be popular because I was referred to it already and it has a LOT of information, but still I want to thank you for taking your time to post it. :-)

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