Category: General

Go look! Meryl’s Notes has been converted to MT! YOU GO GIRL! I am so excited – I can leave comments now! YEAH!

I still can’t believe Robyn colored her hair pink. Yes, pink. Don’t believe me? Look here. What a silly girl. *grin* (That was said with much love. I like the pink, much more then I thought I would!)

A huge THANK YOU goes out to Jennifer for sending me goodies in the mail! Feeding my need… you are so good to me! I owe you big time!

Just got back from talking to the vet people, and they said that (like the website says) it sounds like she has tapeworms, and that the other cats can’t get it. It has to go through the flea host, and since they are all flea free that’s not a problem. What I am seeing are just segments. Since this is a new problem, and she is otherwise symptom free, the first day they would even book an appointment for is Monday or Wednesday. Wednesday works better with payday and the money situation, and they reassured me (twice) that she will be just fine if we wait until then to treat her. I don’t need to quarantine her any more – which is also good news because she was driving me crazy this morning scratching at the door as I left. Poor thing – but I didn’t want the other guys to get sick. They also said that when it shows up in humans is only in “very young children” who ingest the fleas – and Jason, at 9 and nearly 100lbs (he’s a tall, big kid) is nowhere near susceptible, and I’m not either. They are all getting a dose of flea treatment on Wednesday just to be safe.

I had another cat years ago, before Jason was born. My catsitter when I moved let him go outside, and of course he got fleas. After getting fleas, he got tapeworms. Ewww. After some meds, all was well. I have actually been “watching” Bella’s poo, wondering if an illness is part of why she has been using the hall floor instead of the litterbox. That’s why I saw the stuff last night, and know that that’s the first time I have seen any symptoms of anything – and while there wasn’t much, there was something. Something that this article, “Parasites and Your Pets” describes all too accurately. “When tapeworm proglottids are passed in your pet’s feces, they are white, large enough to be seen with the naked eye, and they may actually crawl around in the feces. The proglottids of Dipylidium caninum resemble typically grains of rice.” Yep. Pretty much right on target.

On a different note, I just got back from the doctor’s office. I have had an odd pain in my side for a week … or two … and typical workaholic, I hadn’t bothered to go to the doc. Mainly because I recognize this pain – it’s just like when I had kidney stones before. The first time I had a pain like this, which wraps around my side just over my right hip. Most of the time it is worse in the front (abdomen) but sometimes it is worse on my back. Then suddenly one night I woke up in excrutiating screaming pain. Worse then labor. I have never felt a pain so bad. After a trip to the ER I was diagnosed with kidney stones that time. So when the pain returned, I knew what it was. I woke up this morning in more pain then I have had all week and thought, “I should call on Monday…” Then I realized, who am I being a martyr for? The doctor would tell me to call now. So I did. They did a urinalysis – and found blood in the urine. Yeah. Sending it off for cultures to see if there is anything else, and will call me on Monday to let me know the test results and what to do from there. I get to take antibiotics and pain meds if I need them. And drink lots of liquid, preferrably water. Have I mentioned that I hate water? Yeah, fun. She said Kool-aid would be ok, although water is better. I’ll be stocking up on the Kool-aid, thank you. Everyone else there was in for upper respiratory infections and fun stuff like that – I truly hope I didn’t catch anything! I have only washed my hands about 5 times since then though, so I should be ok I hope.