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Lola is ill. Please ease my mind.

post #1 of 17
7/8/10 at 7:44pm
Thread Starter 
Lola is almost 4 months old and is suddenly ill. This suddenly stuck this AM. She is UTD on all shots.

She has awful nasal discharge and her right eye will barely open, and it also has discharge.

I have called every vet in the area and the ones that are open (emergency clinics) charge a minimum of $100 for the office visit alone. We do not have enough money for that -- rent hasn't even cleared yet. It is kinda self-defeating if we go somewhere we cannot afford. Getting care credit is not an option or otherwise. We have to fund this with what we have in the bank account -- which isn't much. It's been a difficult month through no fault or our own or Lola's.

Lola has an appointment tomorrow in the AM and they are not charging for the visit. We are really worried but cannot afford a $100 visit alone at an ER clinic. We are so incredibly scared, we do not know what to do until 9am tomorrow.

I don't know what to do. She is eating well as far as I know.

Oh god, I want to cry. I don't know what I am going to do, or even how I am going to sleep tonight knowing my precious Lola is ill.

I feel like I am going to hyperventilate.
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post #2 of 17
7/8/10 at 9:02pm
Has she been exposed to any other cats? Sounds like it could be a URI.
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post #3 of 17
7/8/10 at 9:05pm
Cannot offer any advice on her symptoms but have been in your same position. I know that fear and please take a deep breath and know you are doing everything you can within your means to help her. At least you have a vet visit in the morning, so try to calm yourself in that and I will be praying for her
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post #4 of 17
7/8/10 at 9:32pm
Is she lethargic? Make sure she eats and most importantly drinks - try feeding her some wet food. If she doesn't seem to interested, try warming it up a little, to make it stinkier.

A steam bath will also help her breathing- if you don't have a vaporizer at home, you can run the hot shower until the bathroom is full with steam - hang out in there with her for a while; it will help to clear her nasal passages.
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post #5 of 17
7/8/10 at 11:06pm
Thread Starter 
Yes, we have another 4 month old kitten here. And yes, she is lethargic.

I did warm up some wet food and she ate it! She also drank some water.

Now she's sleeping. I am tempted to stay up all night with her, but I'm not sure if I can make it through the next 10 hours awake and sane I will probably just set my alarm clock for throughout the night to check on her. Hopefully I will actually crawl out of bed.

She's our baby and we love her so much. I hate so much seeing her struggle. She seems to be doing a tad better now and hopefully it's prime time to power nap.

Thank you so much everyone for your encouragement. I just feel like an awful kitty mommy for not being able to afford taking her to an emergency vet. But the rent has to be paid or we won't have a roof over our head and I am cofident Lola won't look too kindly on that.
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post #6 of 17
7/9/10 at 1:46am
Still steam out your bathroom like Carolina's just mentioned, because you know yourself when you do something like that it opens up the nasal passages and you breath better
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post #7 of 17
7/9/10 at 5:54am
Please let us know asap. for Lola and poor you guys!!
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post #8 of 17
7/9/10 at 6:26am
Absolutely sounds like a URI to me hun, and if that is the case it can be cleared up pretty easily with some antibiotics which shouldn't be too expensive. URI's are usually viral, and usually end up going away on their own (kind of like a human cold) but the vets usually perscribe antibiotics in case of any potential bacterial infection. Sending vibes for a speedy recovery for Lola!
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post #9 of 17
7/9/10 at 7:03am
Lola

by now you are at the vet. both kittens may need to be treated. Keep us posted.

For the future:

Get a big jar and superglue the lid closed after cutting a slot in it. Put money in this jar. Not just spare change, but a dollar bill a day, even. You won't feel that dollar, but it will accumulate in the jar. Do not use the money in that jar for anything but emergency vet bills. It is not for routine stuff, routine vet care should be part of your budget.

Don't touch that money until a true CAT emergency arises. If you never have another emergency until your cats are 10 years old at $5 a week you will have almost $3000 saved.

If you do have an emergency before then, you will have the money for it and be spared last night's type of anxiety and agony.
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post #10 of 17
7/9/10 at 7:33am
Sounds like a URI to me too. What I don't like the sound of is her eye is stuck shut. Hopefully, by now, that will be being treated as if it isn't, there is always the danger of corneal ulcers developing and they are nasty (understatement).

Given that her vaccinations are up-to-date, I'm quite surprised she's got this but I know it can happen.

Sending healing for the little love
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post #11 of 17
7/9/10 at 7:52am
Thread Starter 
Just to let everyone know, we will be headed to the vet in about 30 minutes. We have had some things happen that has pretty much drained every ounce of money, but usually we do much better than this.

I did do this shower thing for as long as Lola would tolerate it. Right now she seems to like being on the top of the couch, sleeping. I keep an eye on her and remove goobers as I see them, but she seems overall more happy when I let her be.

She ate a bit more food last night. I ended up falling asleep about 2a, but it wasn't regular. Woke about 6. I am beyond tired but our Lola girl is worth it. Just thankful I have no other obligations today.

I will drop by when we get back and I know more.

Again, thanks for all the amazing support - it is beyond appreciated.
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post #12 of 17
7/9/10 at 10:40am
Thread Starter 
The verdict is: URI

They originally wanted to charge $210 -- which included things like the kitty equivalent to ensure and a "extra physical restraint" charge because our kitty is not nice at the vet*.

We did the absolute neccessities -- antibiotics and eye drops. I wish I were rich, I would have done more. But since our office visits are free at that location, if anything changes, we can return easily.

As a side note -- anyone know how to make medication time easier? We just gave her the eye drops & she peed on me :-( I hate making her so sad like that...

*This frustrates me because every time we go, I give full disclosure. In addition, we have been there 5 x previously and were not charged this.
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post #13 of 17
7/9/10 at 11:07am
I have seen this and another similar-not up to date rabies 10. I have long stopped going there for other reasons but I asked once about it and they told me something like if your cat is scheduled long in advance let them know and a vac tech will "assigned" to your appt for either the aggressive/unvac pet.
Good luck with the kittys For the most part my gangs not gotten uri(ones who got sick were all treated at home as never got serious enough. If eating/drinking stops or it gets worse call back asap. Otherwise you should be fine
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post #14 of 17
7/9/10 at 11:15am
Thread Starter 
She seems to be doing a tad better. She's mildly responding to our other kitten in her attempts to play with Lola.

Lola has had all her vaccines, including rabies, which is why I do not fully understand the "extra physical restraint" charge they were going to charge me. As I said, I give full disclosure and the entire staff knows that Lola is rather fiesty/mean there -- despite her being a massive cuddle bug at home.

Hopefully I will nap now. We are under an excessive heat advisory today so doing anything outside of the house is not on the agenda.
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post #15 of 17
7/9/10 at 2:31pm
I would be angry if shes been there a few times then at 4 months her rabies shot was probably JUST done(haven't seen any vet give it before then) so how bad did she get in a few weeks. I trap ferals and thats only time I might understand this charge but even then just advertise No ferals. I would discuss it with whos in charge of that policy to find out what the criteria is. If happy at vet you may not want to make waves. I am just thinking about other day I had cat on exam table growling and struggling and about half my cats would have that applied to them if they were examined and sick.
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post #16 of 17
7/9/10 at 3:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by SubconsciousMe View Post
The verdict is: URI

They originally wanted to charge $210 -- which included things like the kitty equivalent to ensure and a "extra physical restraint" charge because our kitty is not nice at the vet*.

We did the absolute neccessities -- antibiotics and eye drops. I wish I were rich, I would have done more. But since our office visits are free at that location, if anything changes, we can return easily.

As a side note -- anyone know how to make medication time easier? We just gave her the eye drops & she peed on me :-( I hate making her so sad like that...

*This frustrates me because every time we go, I give full disclosure. In addition, we have been there 5 x previously and were not charged this.
I've never heard of an "extra physical restraint" fee, but I'm glad my vet doesn't charge for it. She admits that Swanie scares her, and usually we have to have a couple of vet techs with the big heavy gloves when we bring him in. I guess because they don't charge for the visit, they have to make up the money from somewhere.

I hope your baby is feeling better. I don't have any advice on how to make medicine time easier, but I will say that when we had to put drops in Swanie's eyes, at first he growled and hissed and had a major fit, then growling and minor fit, then finally acceptance. Hopefully she will see its not really hurting her and get used to it.
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post #17 of 17
7/9/10 at 4:33pm
Make sure she eats and drinks well. She may continue to be a bit "off" for the next day or two until the meds get in her system and start fighting off the infection. Continue the steam treatments or run a vaporizer near where she's spending most of her time. You can also put a big pot of water on the stove and let it simmer to get some steam in your house, which I know you don't really want with all the heat, but it will help your little Lola.

To encourage her to eat if you're feeding canned food, warm it up for a bit in the microwave for just a few seconds. The warmth will help make the aroma stronger and will hopefully entice her to eat.
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