We’ve been a bit crunchy the last few weeks. It ends Sunday, and in the meantime I’m going to a birthday party for a one-year-old. I really wanted to make soba noodles for lunch today, but I’d forgotten about the aforementioned birthday party until twenty minutes ago.
So Ambercat has been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, which means that after the initial treatment, she’ll be getting two pills a day for the rest of her life. Not a problem when I’m home. Kind of a problem when I’m not.
The first issue was just figuring out how to afford the drugs. $50/month was more than I felt I could afford. Walgreens has a prescription program that costs $20/year and $12/month for her pills, and yes, that means my cat now has a Walgreens prescription card, cue lawl. I’m still worried that her routine blood tests may be more than I can afford, and I’ll need to talk to the vet about that.
Next is the actual dosing. Hasn’t been hard; I’ve tried out multiple methods (dropped in the mouth, hidden in a treat, ground up and added to wet food) and she’s happily accepted the medicine every time, so that’s great. I actually think that if I get her a five-day automated pet feeder and sprinkle the ground medicine over it, she’ll get enough to satisfy me without making life hell for her catsitter. Alternately, I spring for the 8-day one, which is more expensive, but lets me add ice packs, which would allow me to use wet food and guarantee she gets her medicine.
I realize to some this all sounds kind of crazy. It’s a cat, after all. And (cover your ears Audrey and Tamma) I agree, to some extent. When the doctor told me $1100 for the 100% effective treatment, I nearly burst out in tears because I knew I couldn’t afford that. Just can’t.
But thankfully there was a second option: medication. Less effective (80%), but I immediately set my mind to work. Problem-solving is what I do in the workplace, so it makes sense that I apply it elsewhere as well.
I really gotta get ready for my party. As a final note: it has not escaped my amusement that my cat has the reverse of my own disease (hypothyroidism). It’s a cat though, so what do you expect?
2 responses so far ↓
Aw, Steph
I know what you mean…they’re our babies and yet…and yet…
Get the food dish with the cooler option. It’ll probably give you a sort of peace of mind with the wet food storage.
:: hugs ::
I have a friend whose cat lived for many years taking the medication. Plus the 100% treatment, while 100% is, like… um… they irradiate your cat. In a ‘don’t touch it for a couple days til the geiger counter stops ticking’ kind of way. And while it may be 100% effective, that kind of weirds me out.
But yeah, what Tracy said. I about keeled over when I realized how much I spent for Chet in those last 6 months. (He was smart. He went for $200 here… $300 there… over and over.) As my vet pointed out, that’s the thing with cats and dogs - incredibly inexpensive when young, but they make up for it when they get old.
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