I'm talking to a friend in IM right now about the whole Ditto situation (see my previous post if you have no idea what I'm talking about). Because it's basically a straight copy/paste from an IM conversation, it might not flow as good as you're used to when I ramble... ok, it's exactly what you're used to when I ramble. But here is the end of the tale. (see what I did there? Tale/tail... nevermind)
The vet wanted to charge us $840. In addition to the $333 I already paid, it'd be $1173, which we're definitely not willing to pay.
We went in the back to talk to the dr & we told him that we felt like he basically held Ditto for ransom because we kept asking how much it was and they never would tell us. That hurt the doc's feelings so he said he'd knock an additional $250 off (he already gave us a 25% discount, which was $300 off - that's how much work they did on him). PK SAID NO!
He told Doc that he knew a lot of time & work was put in, so how about $125 instead. Doc said no, he fucked up, so he'd meet in the middle & $175 has been knocked off. It's now $665, which is more manageable since we're splitting it, but still. If they would've given us regular financial updates, he would've been put down $600 ago.
PK added everything up (including the $333 I paid last week), divided it in half and subtracted what I already paid. My "half" is $166, but that leaves him with $499 and that's an awful big ass chunk out of the money he's saved for Italy. I'm going to go ahead & pay half of the current total because I'm a good wife.
He didn't want the doc to think that we're all about the money (sorry, but in this instance, we are - we're trying to save money for Italy & he's WAY BEHIND ON SAVING) We can actually afford to pay the entire thing without any money being knocked off. I just don't want to. Like I said. Saving for Italy. I'd like to have AT LEAST $1000 saved up, but I'd prefer to have $2000.
The doctor knew he'd fucked up by not keeping us in the loop even though we asked every day about the current price on Ditto's treatment. That's why he knocked off 25% and then offered to knock off the additional $250.
PK wasn't pissed because it cost so much. He knew that having a cat in the hospital for 7 days wasn't going to be cheap. He was pissed off about the fact that they didn't tell us when they were doing something or let us know every day when we asked them what the total was.
Wednesday, when I talked to the chick dr, I was of the understanding that it'd be around $300 if Ditto came home on Friday. They kept him over the weekend and suddenly it's over a grand? Seriously?! I get that they saved his life, but $1173? SERIOUSLY??
They saved his life because he had a severe bacterial infection in his bladder. He had "sand" (crystals) in his bladder that ended up stopping him up completely. He couldn't pee at all, his bladder filled up and nearly burst (which is why he was screaming, couldn't get comfortable, & threw up - he was in that much pain). After they put a catheter in and drained his bladder, they did blood work and noticed that his kidneys were failing. if they hadn't done everything they did, he would have died.
Supposedly he's not going to pee everywhere anymore. We have to keep an eye on him to make sure he's actually peeing because there's a chance he'll stop up again. We have to change his diet (wet food only now - dry food isn't actually good for cats because there's so many carbs in it & they need protein, not carbs) & medicate him... although that's for an entirely different reason.
Ditto chases/attacks his tail. Seriously. He attacks that thing like it slapped his Momma. He growls at it & bites it and all sorts of other weirdness. We used to just laugh at him, but when we brought it up with the doc, she said it might he hyper sensitivity or hallucinations. The other doc (the owner of the clinic) checked him out and apparently Ditto suffers from mild seizures. He'll be on liquid phenobarbitol for the rest of his life.
He's now resting comfortably in my closet and I imagine when I go lay down he'll end up laying down with me (he's all cuddly now that I'm being nice to him). It's nice not having an insane cat who pees everywhere. Hopefully it lasts.
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