Dealing with Unexpected Vet Bills: The Jasper Edition

Jasper—God love him—keeps us on our toes. New Year's weekend was no different. He decided a great way to start the new year was a food strike. His dry food and squeeze-ups are no longer good enough for him. The only way he sees fit to tell us is to stop eating, and if he does eat, just throw it back up—all over the bathroom.

We've been down the non-eating road with him before; it cost a small fortune back then and really isn't a road we want to go down ever again. Naturally, a small wave of panic sets in—are we really here again? We never got a true answer last time; can we afford this again?

Gene and I decide - let's do a trip to the vet when they open after the holidays. We get him scheduled for a Monday afternoon. We are left to ponder: is this delay too long, will he be okay, it's just over the weekend. In the meantime - we switch his dry food out with another one that the general population in our house is on. He seems to be more interested in that, but still not eating enough. That's alright - we can manage a lower food portion till Monday. We supplement him with wet food as well.

Thursday afternoon, the vet reaches out - how is he? Do I think he can last the weekend, or should she squeeze him in on Friday? He's holding steady - not eating enough, but not severe enough to warrant a true emergency visit. She asks if we have Cerenia (anti-nausea meds) and a way to test his glucose at home. Cerenia - we have; I like to keep that on hand because it's been very useful among all the cats the last few years. Testing his glucose - no - but we are pretty good at seeing when his sugar level dips too low. Seeing it go high - that's another story - we never know, but for now, higher is better than lower.

Since he's not eating his full portion, we have no way to know if he is getting too much insulin (most likely) or not. So we keep giving his usual dose and hope for the best. We thankfully make it through the weekend with no major setbacks. However, I had to change his appointment on Monday three times due to work, which I truly hate doing at the last minute, but it was out of my control. Thankfully they could still fit us in and didn't charge for the last minute reschedules!

We finally get to the vet's office, where he is cute as a button and acting like nothing is wrong. He's getting all the pets from his favorite vet techs and his favorite doctor. Since we aren't doing his annual shots this visit, he spends more time in the back getting tests done—glucose, urine sample, and blood samples—which he handles like a champ, of course.

Glucose is an immediate result—he's right where he needs to be (at least for today). They decide to take a quick look at his urine; if they see anything, we can start treatment right away. They see nothing, so they decide to send it out with the bloodwork to the lab. Meanwhile, we chat—he's down about 1 and 1/2 lbs. Not bad, not great. Keep an eye on the weight. Try to get him to eat. Depending on what the test results say, we will determine our course of action.

We go home and wait for test results. I figure he's had a rough go of it - let him explore the house (he's strictly a bathroom cat). He explores and enjoys sampling food and water from the dozen bowls that are out for the other cats, takes a snooze in Gene's computer room, and does a second sampling of food before he heads back to his domain. Now he gets "free rein" a few days a week for an hour or so... because he eats more when he's out.

We get results back a few days later from the tests. Lo and behold - everything came back normal and within normal ranges. I'd like to be baffled by this - but I can't be. Truly, I have come to accept that my cats all test my financial and emotional limits on the daily. So aside from test results being normal - he decides he's going to go back to eating dry food like there was never a problem.

So we are left with this: if he continues to lose weight, we can do one of two things - a stomach ultrasound or put a Libre monitor on him (that is a 2-week monitor of his sugar levels - it gets sent right to the vet's office). We are in a lovely holding pattern of doing nothing, hoping he holds steady or gains some weight back. So fingers crossed, he had some wacky bug and is all better now!

Just under $400 all so he could visit his friends at the vet's office. I roll my eyes at this because there are plenty of other things I could spend that money on, but honestly, I'd spend it all again to know he is doing great and is going to live another few years with us.

Till our tails cross again,

Mel and Jasper