Cat is alive but the worse for wear, car is sick for stupid

[ghostjmf]

reason.

I had a nightmare visit to the vet. I knew it was going to be, but I've been worried about Tuck for about 2-1/2 months. He's been very lethargic & is drinking twice as much water as usual. And the weather has not been hot for most of that time, so I can't blame it on his hatred of hot weather. He might just be depressed since housemate moved out to go school in another state. But since my drinking tons of water was my clue to my diabetes, I decided I had to have Tuck checked. Despite that he literally climbed the walls & tore up the vet at his last visit.


1st bad news is that his vet, who was the head of the cardiology dept forever at the local animal hospital (my previous cat, Tracy, had a heart murmur), has "disappeared" in that no-one there even claims they know him. I later found a local ref to a very small other local place, but while this vet is on their roster, they have nothing about the vet in their profiles. Plus some helpful Google thing says vet's license has expired. And an on-line comments column for this other place says that while my vet made 3 mentions in their cat's chart that the cat had a heart problem so shouldn't undergo surgery, vet never told them, so their cat had surgery, died, & they're suing the place. Which doesn't sound like my vet at all; the 3 mentions in the chart sounds like them, since they're a heart specialist, but the comment reads like they were a consultant on the case, not the main vet. I'd bet their comments never got passed on, & they're being blamed for it.


So I take who the hospital will give me, & when I get there find they don't have many of Tuck's records as "we're not required to hold them for more than 5 years". Its been more than 5 years since I've been there with him. I explain over & over that he goes into a rage at vets, please don't try to clip his toenails because he won't even let me do it, I'd like this excess drinking & lethargy diagnosed.


Long story short is I get the most unfriendly vet I've ever had. I've been lucky in my vets until now. They said "oh, I've been here 18 years, I know Dr. last-vet", but wouldn't tell me where the vet was now. "I think they're doing consultations around."


Other story is that I'm going to have to look into vets that do home visits; there are a couple, only a couple locally who advertise this.


I had hoped Tuck had mellowed somewhat, but if possible this visit was even worse than last. Except that because everybody was prewarned, there were 2 people with gauntlets on holding him down while he made wild-animal noises, horrific scary noises, & attempted to gouge everybody & escape. He peed on their table. They sucked it up into a syringe & took it away for diabetes check. The result on that came back "no glucose or ketones". Thank G-d. They held him down long enough to get a blood sample. I will have results next week. Vet could palpate one kidney & say it seemed fine but couldn't reach the other from Tuck's positioning of himself. I told them that he doesn't respond with pain to me patting him anywhere, & vet completely disregarded this. Vet had earlier made snarky comment of "of course he has dental disease because you never take him to the vet". Vet says problem might be thyroid. But said they'd feel his throat for nodules except that he was behaving as he was, & they weren't going to. And they wouldn't train me, either.


They wouldn't give him any of his shots because of the panic attack he was having & because his immune system might be low if he did have something wrong with him. Said in a very snarky manner, but I did understand the reasoning here.


I had suggested at some point they sedate him, & they said "you'd have to leave him here; I have somewhere else to be & we have to hold him for a while after sedation". Believe me, I'd never have left, even though I had crucial places to be that wouldn't let me stay. But they got what they could get done without sedation.


I have since felt his throat for nodules, but all I feel is purring. I was afraid he'd light into me when he got home, but instead he's been extra friendly, not lethargic at all, not sitting on a chair immoveably for long periods as he has been for several weeks. He's spent a lot of time cuddling & sleeping with me.


I was really afraid he was going to have a heart attack & die during the visit. I have to look into home-visit vets.


Car thing is that today, just after I was thinking about how well my car was doing, a window motor broke. With window in a partially down position. I can't pull it up enough to protect from rain or thieves, & its Sunday so the fix-it place is not open. Its not the window that's been making complaining noises, either. Windup windows break too (I had that on my last car) but not at this early an age (132,000 miles). And from the previous owner's records, this is not the 1st time the windows have broken. But this car is a 2002; I don't think you can even buy a care with windup windows anymore.

[mrkelley23]

I am sorry that this is happening, ghost. At least it looks as if Tuck is okay. Good luck with the window -- maybe it will turn out that the window just got off its track -- simpler repair than replacing a motor.

I know trucks can still be purchased with wind-up windows, not so sure about passenger vehicles.

[ghostjmf]

Currently motor is not even making "I am trying" noises. There was a "crack" sound when window stopped moving, but there's no crack I can see in window. I was able to pull it up a little, but not enough. And if I am able to pull it, thieves will be able to push it down.

[a1mamacat]

Glad Tuck appears to have pulled out of his lethargy.

Hope you find a place to get the window fixed. Sundays can be tough for some emergencies

[ghostjmf]

Turns out it was the door locks that were already fixed before, not the windows. Somehow that doesn't make me feel better.


Window was lower in frame when I went back to car. I pulled it up. Stupid me. As I drove, it slipped all the way down. Now I can't even pull it up. I should have wedged something in there, a magazine, whatever. But I wasn't thinking.


Which I guess this speaks to it being "out of its track", because normally it stays up on its own, of course. And I can hear a little "whir" from motor now, but window doesn't move.


And I of course can't go anywhere.


Saucy, I didn't even think of getting it fixed today; maybe I should have, but I know from experience how hard that is, even in the city. Maybe I should have tried. My regular place is open tomorrow & I will be begging them, after I drop the car off there tonight where presumably it will be safer than on the street. Because thieves will think it doesn't run, or something. I will have to plastic-up the whole window in case of rain.

[ghostjmf]

Turns out there are some places that claim to be open until 4:00pm Sundays. Which means they're closed now. But I know the parts stores are not going to be open Sunday.

[tlynn78]

Tuck is a character! Hope the blood tests come back good.
If you lived here my son could come fix your window, even on a Sunday. Your neck of the woods is a bit too much of a commute, however.

[ghostjmf]

I am praying that the blood tests come back "Tuck's person is big hypochondriac".

Car estimate has already come in at upwards of $600.00. Sigh. The window guide is broken. It is attached to the motor, not sold seperately, whatever. My fix-it place won't do band-aid or junk-yard part repairs if the part is still available, & the part is still available. I shudder to think what happens, based on my experience with my last car in that regard, when it is not.

[tlynn78]

I am praying that the blood tests come back "Tuck's person is big hypochondriac".

Car estimate has already come in at upwards of $600.00. Sigh. The window guide is broken. It is attached to the motor, not sold seperately, whatever. My fix-it place won't do band-aid or junk-yard part repairs if the part is still available, & the part is still available. I shudder to think what happens, based on my experience with my last car in that regard, when it is not.

lol - I didn't know they had a blood test for that, but I'll hope for that, as well. Too bad about the window. Dang - that's spendy.

[ghostjmf]

It is way spendy. And while the part is available, apparently it wasn't available soon enough today for me to get my car back today. I won't know about tomorrow until, well, tomorrow. Meaning as of this afternoon they didn't have it yet.


And the sad part is this isn't even the window that had been giving me complaints. That's the other one, which is supposed to go up all the way without the button being held, but sometimes poops out midway. Still works if you hold the button, though. The one that broke is the one where you have to hold the button.