*sighs*
Yeah that's an indicator of how things went. First, the good news. Her heart sounds fine, her lungs clear and though she's little, she's not underweight. (She came in at a whopping 7.20lbs) The bad news though is that her ears are dirty (though not infected) and her eyes have what appears to be a fungal infection. There are cloudy spots on her eyes that we noticed last night. Immediately I was worried. One of the reasons I had held off on really getting the two kitties to interact was I wanted to make sure she got a clean bill of health. I knew she had tested negative for Feline Lukemia and Feline AIDS but still, there's more problems with kitties then just those big two.
I called today to try to make an appointment. My mom ended up driving down to take me in this afternoon rather then try to manage the car situation for a 9am appointment tomorrow. I brought up the eye situation of course and there the problems began.
They immediately ruled out cataracts because they were too surface. They thought that it might be small ulcers which occur from trama or scratches to the eyes. He couldn't tell for sure though and wanted to do a test where they dye the eyes and look at them with blacklight. If it was ulcers, then they'd absorb the dye and we'd know for sure. But they didn't. Which lead him to believe it was a fungal infection. He wanted to do a fungal culture but that's $150. We most assuredly don't have that much money. So, instead, I have some eye drops I need to put in her eyes three times a day and he needs to see her again on Saturday.
Two problems with this. One is that she went absolutely insane during the eye drop process and tore a huge gash in my left wrist. It really hurts. And so trying to get drops in her eyes three times a day is going to be near impossible. The second is that today's visit - even with the free new pet adoption office visit - ended up costing $55 and we have to pay for another visit on Saturday. We don't have that kind of money. We already shelled out $50 in adoption fees for her and the very next day, another $55. This really sucks.
So, tonight I think I'm going to have to call the woman we adopted her from. She works with a company that's deals in stray adoptions. And while I know they don't give any health guarentee, there is a reasonable expectation that the cat is not ill, sick or a hazard in any way to our other cat. Had we let them interacted more, it could have easily meant Mika would get infected and sick as a result of them letting us take Gracie when she was ill. This pisses me off. It's bad enough that we're spending money we don't have for what should have been a healthy cat, but then you add insult to injury and put my other cat at risk? Hell no. That's not cool.
Oh yeah, there are three problems with this. The third being that she has to stay all week in the backroom - we can't let her around the apartment and we can't acclamate the cats together yet. Not fun for Gracie and stressful on Mika.
Needless to say I'm very frustrated with this situation and don't know exactly how to proceed with the adoption group to ensure that they take some responsibility for her medical costs and health. This isn't what we signed up for. And while I don't want to just give her back, I also don't want to endanger Mika's health either. What a miserable experience.
~ castles of sand by Memory and Dream
at 8/23/2004 05:04:13 PM ~
~
