A few photos from a walk up the lane will accompany this. My camera has been "fainting" recently and not focusing properly, and I suspect I have worn it out with all the scenic photos I take! I am going to take it to the Camera shop in Carmarthen and see if it's fixable (it still takes good close-ups), but I need to replace it with something that is spot on for scenery. It was never as good as my old Fujifilm S1000 in that respect. I am calling this my Christmas present in advance and will ask for "donations" nearer the time, instead of wrapped gifts this Xmas.
Well, I have had a VERY expensive week or so. My poor credit card doesn't know what's hit it. Firstly Theo to the vet with his sinus problems again (bill of about £70), then two days later Ghengis (ditto), who then had to be booked in to have his teefs descaled. He went in yesterday (Friday 13th!) and had to have his top fangs removed due to pus at the roots, and another back tooth, and a further back tooth came out with the tartar. He is quite elderly - at least 14 and possibly more. The removal of teeth, and being on a drip, and having a blood test first, of course added significantly to the bill, which was over £300. The pre-med and anaesthetic cost as much as the actual descaling. He goes back for a check-up on Wednesday and has to have another blood test for kidney function, so there will be another bill again. Beans on toast for the foreseeable then!
Poor chap was a bit spaced out still when I picked him up last night, but he is stoical, and the vet said he was the best-behaved cat they had ever had. They had offered him food but he'd turned his nose up. When we got indoors, he went straight to his food bowl, so I opened a sachet of the Sheba Select Slices for him (nice and soft and hardly needing chewing). I just put a mouthful out but that didn't touch the sides, so he had more and then had to be dissuaded from going to the other bowls and hoovering any leftovers up! He spent the night on the sofa - they all did I think, as doors were left open - and he's back there again now.
Glad to report that we have 3 House Martin nests in varying states of construction. That makes up for us being bereft of Swallows this year. I can see them flying over and around us, but they aren't nesting. The two males have thrown their lot in with the other stable Swallows, who nest on the slope in Barron's old stables.
Have a good weekend all. Sunshine here, so I will get out in the garden.
Glad the cats are getting looked after. Make a promise for the future - I will not bring another cat into my home. Vets are expensive and it soon mounts up. I do hope Keith will start getting better soon, it must be so worrying for both of you. But you have all that glorious countryside around you for contemplation and walking in, compensation I think when the worries become too much.
ReplyDeleteWe have never gone looking for a cat since arriving in Wales 34 years ago, when we bought a house full of mice. All the cats we have and had, came to us as strays. I cannot see an animal starve. We always seemed to have 9 at Ynyswen. If one died, darn me, another replacement stray would turn up within a month.
ReplyDeleteHoping that the latest blood test will show a positive result as that would explain a lot. If not, then praying the Neurologist has an answer. Thank heavens indeed, for living in such a beautiful place.
P.S. The four cats we have now we have had 11 plus years, so as you can see I am not adding to them at all. The two outside strays who turned up at Ynyswen more recently, stayed there with the people that bought it. Also Miffy, mum to Alfie and Little Whale, stayed behind with them. The vet bills are infrequent but a proper hammer to the exchequer when they arrive.
ReplyDeleteHope healing & wellness continues on your land and that the MRI comes out alright. The cost of things today is absolutely out of this world! ~Andrea xoxo
ReplyDeleteWell, my gut feeling says the MRI will show nothing (brain and then spine). The blood test is for the Most Likely problem and that is treatable, so we want it (feels strange to say so) to be positive. As for the Neurologist - that was suggested by the Physio . . .
DeleteCosts - well, Old Age pensions stay pretty well the same, everything else shoots up.
Well you have my sympathies over the vet bills, I know what it is like with the dogs we had, I only had one cat and when I had him put to sleep I swore I would not have another, still gutted over him. Carmarthen Cameras is quite good, I have bought stuff from the before. Here is a little story about scanners <a href=" https://spudsdailyphoto.blogspot.com/2019/07/british-engineering-stamps.html>Keyword/scaner</a>
ReplyDeleteI've told my offspring that they are in the wrong jobs! We have lost a lot of cats down the years. They all leave a big hole in the heart. Couldn't get through on your link.
DeleteHad a friend who went private for a neurologist....it was urgent and NHS couldn’t offer her anything....as soon as she was diagnosed she went into immediate surgery...and the NHS took over..they’re in Worcester and had to go to Birmingham. Best of luck!
ReplyDeleteThank you. We are getting desperate as his decline in health has been going on since the steroid treatment, and more rapidly since Christmas.
DeleteSo sorry to read of the vet bills and cats being poorly. Hope they are feel better soon. Also sorry to hear that Keith's scan has been put back.I hope you have a good weekend and enjoy some gardening. Hot and sunny here at the moment!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThis is about the most expensive month yet! Theo snufflier again now he's off the a/b's. Next move is an (expensive) X-ray apparently . . .Ghengis eating us out of house and home. We also have to wait anything up to a month on the blood test which could be conclusive. Everything seems to be being held back.
DeleteGreat close-up flower pics BB and nothing wrong with your landscapes either. Is the third flower a vetch? Tiny purple vetch and birds foot trefoil are already flowering in my wildflower meadow and I spotted the yellow flowers of yellow rattle yesterday too. I worked in the secondhand bookshop all day Friday and yesterday morning too and was busy because the posh antiques fair is on in Petworth Park. Everyone was saying how expensive it was but I may pop in at the end of the day today to see if anything catches my eye. Often thinking of you and Keith, especially since my husband’s Parkinson’s diagnosis in March this year. He is currently vacuuming (warms him up, gets him moving) and is responding well to the levodopa drug therapy. Tomorrow he is going on an all day off-road cycle ride with an old friend and we have added swimming to our exercise plan. Swimming is great for backs after too much gardening - I was gardening in lovely sunshine from 3-7 yesterday with a break for tea and cake and definitely feel it this morning. Have a lovely day BB and my love to your handsome cats too. My daughter has a black and white boy cat called Peppermint. She had to take him to be neutered last month and bless her she got an Uber to the vet, the train to work, a train to the vet in the evening and an Uber home. When I was her age I took my cat to the vet in a basket on my bicycle firmly secured with lots of bungees! Have I mentioned you share a birthday with my daughter and that my husband is also a ‘52 vintage! Sarah x
ReplyDeleteHello Sarah. Good to hear from you again. Common Vetch I think. I have them in the wilder bits of our garden - they love it on the Bank. No BF Trefoil here yet, but I've seen just about every persuasion of dead nettle. Sorry to hear about your husband. Keith has several of the Parkinsons' symptoms, but the GP swears he doesn't have it. We shall see. Your husband sounds to be doing very well. K can barely walk across the room some days.
DeleteI see we have much in common, with my sharing your daughter's birthday and husband's year of birth too. Peppermint sounds a lovely cat but what a trek to the vet's! Ours is a5 minute drive down the hill now so the cats don't get distressed.
Thank you for your kind words.
I am hope the neurologist can sort things out for your husband, and get him the proper treatment ASAP. It's been quite a long time for him to be unwell. I also hope the kitties recover soon, and don't need many more vet visits. They are never cheap. I've been owned by cats all my life, so I understand how much we care for them.
ReplyDeleteDr Google is a good and a bad thing to have at your disposal. I am off for a walk now to try and get my head around events as stress levels are high today (probably from so much necessary money spending - new specs today as I need stronger lenses for reading!)
DeleteYou will know where I am with the cats - you have to try and get them back to good health, although when they get to very end of life, we don't go for heroics. Just accept the inevitable.
Cat and vet bills, indeed! I miss our sensible Wyoming vet; although he had all modern testing and treatments at his fingertips, there were times he would say, "we can do the tests, it will cost you hundreds of dollars, but the outcome, as in recovery, will not be changed." Two of our elderly cats under his care had all teeth removed and it gave each of them several more healthy years.
ReplyDeleteRe healthcare for humans: you'd think [hope] that with so many diagnostic tools Keith's difficulties could have been named and sorted by now.
All the money spent on Theo has been a waste as now the a-b's are finished, he is back to snuffling again. A vet told me years ago it is something he will always have. This vet seems to think differently. I don't! I am more inclined to go with your vet's sage words!
DeleteYou wouldn't know that Ghengis had had teefs removed because he was eating food like there was no tomorrow the moment he got home.
As for Keith . . . I will email you later.