We took Angel to the vet again on Saturday, September 15, 2012 for professional cleaning of the infection on her face. She has been prescribed three different medications now–actually she has been prescribed four, but we already had a supply of one of them at our house. The three new medications are Metacam, Clindamycin, and Surolan. Then there is this pink fluid we have at home–I seem to forget the name of it though. That is to be used on her face topically before applying the Surolan ointment. This treatment will be the last one we use before Angel is rendered “incurable.” If the infection does not go away after three weeks of this treatment, then we are going to have to put her to sleep.
As for Mango, I was originally going to wait until I get paid again toward the beginning of October, but she is getting very bloated from her constipation, and she needs veterinary care too. I am going to take her in today, and if the price quote is too high, then I will just have to ask if it is non-urgent enough that I can wait another two weeks before taking her in again.
All the stresses with these vet bills are causing me to regret adopting cats. I don’t enjoy having to choose between money and love. We love our cats, but we also have our own expenses to endure such as our rent, bills, food, and even our own medications/treatments/recreational activities/dining. We have had to severely cut back on our expenses. We don’t get to enjoy as many things as we used to. I am worried about not being able to pay our bills and rent. I honestly would rather focus more on my music than on vet bills and fighting with the pet insurance company. Call me selfish, but I know that in my heart I am NOT selfish–I have spent ALL the money I could on these cats, and now it is time that I deal with myself. I don’t have all the money in the world; Nicholas and I are just regular working-class people. We don’t even own our home; we are still renting. We have a lot of debts now that these vet bills have gotten in the way.
Yesterday I spent all my time calling around various organizations to ask about how I can get help with the vet bills. The only organization that provides any financial help for veterinary care is the BC SPCA, but they will only help you if your total income combined is less than $20,o00. They suggested that if we cannot afford to take care of our cats anymore than we put them down because the SPCA will not take cats that are sick; they suggest putting the ill animals to sleep since they would be deemed “unadoptable.”
Now I know why Mango, our other sick cat, was abandoned in spring 2011; it is because she is sick and pees on everything due to her illness. No one wants to spend money on a sick cat. No one wants all their furniture pissed on. I know I don’t. I am quite upset at myself for having such a big heart for animals. It produces no rewards–it causes only stress. I could have bought a brand new guitar amp many times with the money that I have invested into vet bills. Maybe I could have even used the money toward downpayment should I ever wish to purchase a home in the future. Maybe we could have actually gone on a decent vacation this year instead of having to stay home like we did. What if all this money spending on vet bills does more harm than good–in other words, what if my cats DO NOT EVER GET BETTER?
Since July 31, 2012 the cost of our vet bills totals to 120.94 + 843.85 + 935.37 + 87.29 + 76.61 + 325.59 = $2389.65. We have received a total of $170 in donations since the launch of our donation page (that does not include the handling charges for payment processing, but I am not going to worry about that). We are also waiting for a cheque of $807.85 to arrive in the mail from our insurance company. That has not yet arrived, but hopefully soon. If that does arrive, then that means we would have only $1411.80 left to pay in vet bills since July 31, 2012. We still have thousands of dollars that we are working on before that date, but we are not going to worry about the past right now.
We would really like to thank everyone who has helped donate even the smallest amount toward our vet bills. Your generosity during our financially and emotionally stressful time is very much appreciated as we work on getting our debts down. I have learned the hard way that caring for animals, especially sick ones, is best reserved for people who have lots of money and time. Whatever happens to Angel and Mango is going to depend on whether or not we can afford their care any longer.
I also have another comment to make about the pet insurance company that we are subscribed to…for now we are going to withhold the name as we deal with the red tape that surrounds the situation, but to make a long story short, we have been trying for over a year since spring 2011 to get Angel covered by vet insurance…the insurance company kept saying that the medical records are incomplete, so we had to get the vet to keep re-faxing and re-faxing them over and over. At that time Angel was NOT sick at all…but by the time Angel was accepted for coverage, she ended up with that infected tooth problem which we are STILL dealing with right now. If it wasn’t for the insurance company being so slow, then her current infection would not have been considered a “pre-existing condition.” I found an article at http://trueler.com/2011/01/25/pet-insurance-review-complaint/ indicating how pet insurance may not be the best choice for everyone.
Also remember how earlier in this blog post I mentioned about having to choose between money and love? Well it looks like we sure aren’t the only ones dealing with the financial strain of vet bills negatively affecting our relationship. Here is an article about just how expensive vet bills can be: http://www.canadianliving.com/life/pets/what_to_do_about_expensive_vet_bills.php . We have had so many arguments because of these vet bills. It has come to the point of deciding between shelling out more money for our two sick cats and possibly damaging/destroying our relationship or putting one or more of the cats down to save our relationship. Today I am going to find out about the cost of Mango’s treatment and what is required for her to get better–will she continue to have a lifelong condition? Also I am going to see if we could postpone treatment until our next payday which is two weeks from now. Wish us luck because we are going to need it. Also even if you cannot donate, if you have any idea what to do about these enormous vet bills, please send your comments our way.
Thank you!
Linda, Nicholas, Angel, Suzie, Mango, and Scrambles
Thinking of you all today ..
Angel has brought laughter, warmth and comfort to many..
Wishing comfort and strength to those who love Angel,
dedicating their lives to the care of such special little creatures.
Thank you Angel for the love they would never have known without for your wonderful presence with them.
See u soon Linda 🙂
shows he values falmiy. good quality. she may not be able to support herself well. he would know more about his falmiy than you may think. he saw them growing up, how his dad treated her, remembers what she had to go through, she may have done a lot for him you don’t know about. let things be, unless you hear him grumbling that she is using him, don’t start something. stay on good terms. he values falmiy. one day you two might be that close, married, he won’t leave you. right now she’s closer to him than you. falmiy stays. not to say that you are not important. you may be his life and love, just, she is his mother. he appreciates her. it’s actually a good quality. but, you can note that he doesn’t think ahead and plan money matters well. start talking budget and saving emergency money like for things for bills and money aside to help for you two or his falmiy or your falmiy should the occasion arise. you have a right to worry about money matters btwn you two! just try not to point fingers and devalue his falmiy matters without knowing the whole story. it’s a different part of his life.