Cat question...so Bear with Me

Most vets will accept a payment plan. THey know these are hard times. Talk to them and hopefully you can get kitty the help she needs.

how sad! I know what it is to love a pet, then circumstances change on you and you can't prioritize them like you used to. I would just do what you can to save money, like a change jar or something... also, call around and see if you can find a vet willing to make a payment plan that you could afford. If that is absolutely not an option, I would keep an eye on her. If she seems to be suffering in her daily life, you may have to consider putting her down. :'(
(that said... My mom's dog started having seizures as she aged... I can't remember what her condition was called, but all she needed was a new medication, only cost $10 a month to control it... so all hope is not lost! good luck!)

We have a plan through Banfield (the vet in most PetSmart stores) where we pay $19 per month, and our cat gets 2 free checkups per year and then any other visits we don't have to pay the office visit fee, and we get a discount on the services. (I think it's a 10% discount.) It works well for us because we do get the 2 checkups a year, where they do blood work and all kinds of other stuff - this way we are more likely to catch issues early. Granted, you do have to pay $19 per month but to me that's easier than waiting until the cat gets sick, and then trying to scrape the money together to take her in for a visit.

The other thing I wanted to suggest was that you call your local SPCA and ask for vet recommendations. You would be surprised at the wonderful advice and recommendations you can get from the SPCA. Think about it - if a dog gets hit by a car and is taken into the SPCA, they will take the dog to a local vet and have it patched up, and then wait for the owners to come claim the dog. The vets they use will generally have payment plans, low-cost options, and in general are willing to work with pet owners. There may even be a low-cost clinic in your town where they will accept payment based upon your income, on a sliding scale.

Good luck with your furry baby, and your human baby too! ;-)

I agree that you might see about vets accepting payments. Also, call your local SPCA or Humane Society and ask them if they know of any programs in the area to help those having financial trouble pay medical bills or at least can recommend low-cost vet services. Because of the economy, some cities and charities have set up programs to help people keep their pets.

Finally, as long as your cat is not in constant pain, continue to love her, to give her a home and food. Sometimes we cannot afford to give our pets the care we would give our family members. For those of us who believe our pets are family, this can be extremely difficult for us to accept, but your cat is old and happy in her home. She has people who love her, is warm and fed. You are doing the best you can. I wish you the best of luck.

Definitely ask your vet about payment options, but they should be able to give you some kind of range of what might cause her symtoms. I am a complete cat lover (Gilbert is my baby, from before kids, too, and right now is licking out my breakfast yogurt bowl as he does every morning). However, I would never be able to afford or justify extreme medical expenses for him. In the meantime, regardless of vet visit or possible conditions, you are doing a great job--keep loving on her, she sounds content, and watch for anything that could show she is declining like weight loss, ongoing vomitting/diarrhea, uncontrolled or unusual behaviors (like not using a litter box at all), and make sure she's eating/drinking well. A caution about "the tests" from me is an entire summer (and summer's income) the year before I went to college went into tests for my young kitty when she started losing weight and all bowel/stomach control. She lost more than half of her body weight and after months of tests and meds I had her put down--they never knew what was wrong with her.

Keep loving on her and doing what you're doing. As long as she is otherwise in good health and pretty content, see if you can get some possible answers from the vet and a payment plan, but I wouldn't worry too much or feel guilty if you can't afford tests at this point. I hope she's feeling better!! Cats are the best!

K.- we lost our cat Spike to seizures last year (although it was quickly diagnosed as his lymphoma invading the brain) and unfortunatly our vet said that diagnosing what is causing the seizures in cats is very much harder than in dogs, and treating can be difficult as well. That said she did say that if there was not an obvious reason for spike having seizures there were several simple blood tests that they could do to rule out a simple reason for the seizures, like diabetes and a protein imbalance (i think that was what she said- i was not really thinking clearly through this period of time), and those didn't cost very much. Short of those simple things the only other option was to do a CAT scan of the brain, which just made me giggle a bit, doing a CAT scan on a cat... but that would have run like $10,000.... which even for a cat who is very much loved is pretty much out of the question for most folks.

i would certainly echo what others have said about asking vets about payment plans and also it looks like you are in Columbus, i would try the OSU vet school. i used to take my cats there when money was more of an issue, they were a lot cheeper, and they have experts around so they don't have to farm stuff out to other places which can save money. They tend to take longer than a normal vet office so be prepared for that... i always loved the people there and felt my cats got really good care.

Good luck! these kinds of things are always hard... you just need to do what is best for you and your family the rest will fall into place.

You may want to call your local humane society to see if they can refer you to a low-cost/budget friendly vet. The humane society often offers discounted prices on healthcare and such. Because she is a senior cat, you could make the choice not to take her in to subject her to tests. As long as she's happy, social and healthy for the most part and you feel she's living a quality life, then don't feel guilty for not taking her to the vet if you can't afford it. If however you feel the quality of her life has gone down hill, then you may want to seek the advice of a vet on what the best options are...to do tests, a physical exam or to put her to sleep so she is no longer suffering.

Ask around the vets in the area... see who is willing to offer lower costs for basic tests, shots, office fees, etc and then ask if they would be willing to do a payment plan.

Check her glucose and have a Complete Metabolic Panel done on her. That will rule out diabetes and renal failure. Cats live a long time and if taken care of they have a high quality of life too.

When you adopt or buy a pet, you should do so with the understanding that you are their guardian now. You chose to have them, now you must take care of them and ensure their basic needs are met (such as shelter, food, water, health, etc). Pets are not disposable creatures to be thrown out due to hardship, your pets do not abandon you when you are sick, poor, etc - they will stay with you until they die - least us humans can do is return the favor.

I'm a single parent to a 5 year old, and I've had 6 cats her whole life (some I've had over 12 years) and have accidentally acquired 5 more cats. I looked up and applied for Care Credit (www.carecredit.com) - this can help you pay for vet bills, as well as personal medical expenses for yourself (like dental, eye, etc).

My husband and i ran into some financial trouble while i was pregnant and at the time we had 3 dogs, 3 cats, a ferret and a bearded dragon... needless to say we had to get rid of 2 of the dogs because they wernt good around the baby and we just couldnt do it any longer but we had a vet who accepted payments, we could break them down as low as we wanted to. she was a life saver! i would call around and see if theres a vet that does that in your area.

I work in the vet field. I would say that as a cat gets older and starts to have seizures, it usually is not a good answer. Epilepsy is not common in cats and is very unlikely to be diagnosed as animals get into their senior years. If at all possible, minimal bloodwork should be performed to make sure she does not have liver disease, kidney disease or hyperthyroidism. Hyperthyroidism will generally increase her appetite and make her lose weight. With diabetes and kidney disease they will be peeing more and drinking more. They will also be losing weight. With liver disease, they may be vomiting more, losing weight, having diarrhea, or also urinating more. If you are not seeing signs of these, there is a good possibility she has some kind of brain lesion or mass that is slowly growing. Unfortunately, if this is right, the seizures will increase in frequency and you will need to consider an awful choice. Please know that the only way to truly diagnose a brain lesion is with a CT scan or MRI and they really do cost around $2000. If there is a brain lesion, occasionally surgery can be performed at a specialist, but again, most people are not able to take that option. I would highly recommend bloodwork first if you can work it out at all. If she has kidney disease, liver disease, diabetes or hyperthyroidism, they can often be helped or treated. If you can't, please just try to keep her as comfortable as possible until she doesn't have a good quality of life.

Good luck to you

Hi K.,

It sounds like you are taking wonderful care of both your babies!

I would agree with checking with the local Humane Society to see if there are any programs for people who are short on cash to care for their pets, also the OSU vet clinic would be a wonderful resource. I think many vets will accept payment plans, I would definitely talk to your regular vet and see if s/he would do that--perhaps if you have been long-time customers they will trust you.

You could also ask the vet to do just one or two tests at a time (with easiest/cheapest first) and then proceed based on the results. This is what we did--turned out our Garfield is hyper-thyroid--sure wish I could have it for about 6 months, lol! Or, to save office visit costs, maybe it would be better to just do a bunch at once? --something else to ask about.

Could you credit-card the payments? I know, it stinks to pay interest.....

Borrow from a family member?

If she has gotten extremely lovey-dovey, perhaps she has had a stroke and has undergone a personality change? I don't know, since I am not a vet, but strokes and old age can cause people to have personality changes (and if Izzy is anything like our two kitties, she undoubtedly thinks she is a "people" too!)

For general money-saving suggestions (to fill that change jar someone mentioned), check out The Tightwad Gazette books by Amy Dacyzyn at your library.

You could also ask family /friends who give you b-day and Christmas presents to give you cash for vet expenses, instead of gifts.

Hope that helps a little. Hugs to you and yours!

Good luck and please let us know what happens!

K. Z.