To the Vet Again

Well, I'm afraid that's exactly where I went, and all because the human heard something she shouldn't have done. She's a physio, as I've told you before, and she keeps something called a stethoscope at home. This is used to listen to the breathing and hearts of babies and other peoples that she treats, but she got to thinking. Why couldn't she use it on me? As long as she cleaned it well, there should be no problem. And it had a paediatric diaphragm on one side, so it should fit on my ribs quite nicely. Out it came and she got to listening. What she heard wasn't reassuring.



The left lung was very clear and sounded great, but the right lung was noisy and wheezy. This is particularly not good cuz if you breathe something in, it's much more likely to go into the right lung because of the formation of the bronchi (the tubes that run down from your wind pipe into your lungs). The fact that the left was clear and the right wasn't was worry enough that she put me in the PTU to take me to the vet. She said it was better to prevent infection now so as to avoid aspiration pneumonia than to wait and see if I got worse or better. Pneumonia is so serious that she didn't want to risk it.


Have I mentioned that I hate vet peoples? It seems as though I'm forever there over these last few months, and the human says she's at her wit's end. This was made no better yesterday when the man people who drove the taxi that took us there asked why she didn't just have me put to sleep cuz I was costing so much. The very idea of it! The human told him, very politely too, that when you take on a pet, you take on the responsibility of owning one. Resources providing, if you'd do it for a human child, you should do it for your pet too. Now, the human doesn't actually have the resources, so she wasn't totally truthful to the man people, but I was so shocked that I didn't bother to correct her on it. Friends, have you ever come across this peoples attitude towards us? It's one thing them thinking they own us, but quite another when they consider ending our lives just because we cost too much to keep. Do they think they're God? What gives them the right to believe they have the power to do this? My human says it's a mark of today's throw away society. These days, peoples would rather buy something new to replace a broken thing than to take it to the shop to have it fixed. It's cheaper too. Isn't that sad? Cheaper to buy a new thing than to keep the old one working. Seems that it's the same with cats in the minds of some peoples. True, the human could have had two or three kitten breeding cats for what she's paid in the vet peoples for me, but that's immaterial. When she decided she'd like to be owned by me, she took on all of the responsibility that goes with it. She doesn't want a new me. She'd very much like to keep this model going regardless of the cost, and I'm very grateful for it. It means penny pinching again this month, and she now has no savings in the bank, so she says I'd better not get sick again, but at least I'm still going for now. At least she won't throw me away, end my life for her convenience so that she can get a newer, better functioning model.


So, to get back to my story, the vet lady people had a listen to my chest and a look at me. She took my temperature which was normal, but she too was worried about the possibility of whatever I have developing into an infection. She gave me antibiotic tablets to take, and something called a mucolytic. These are drugs which go in my food and thin out the gunk I have in my lungs and nose. That should, in theory, make it easier to cough up. Problem is though that I've only sneezed once or twice today, so not much is coming up. Still, I don't care as long as I don't get infection and pneumonia, cuz that would be nasty, nasty, nasty.


Thank you for all of your get better messages. They mean such a lot to me. I hope you'll keep your paws crossed that things get better instead of worse, and your purr motors on. I'm struggling. When I purr I blow snot bubbles and then I have to stop and clean my nose and then I forget that I was purring. When I put my head down to eat, my nose gets all blocked, and I don't know about you, but food's the last thing on my mind when I can't breathe. The human has been hand feeding me sometimes, which helps a little, but I just wish I could eat normally. So does the human, cuz if I don't eat what's down, I won't get all of the mucolytic. It's taken me all day to eat a quarter of a pouch of foods and that's not like me. Hopefully the antibiotics are starting their work! I'll keep you posted.