Flippy - I Rant, You Read
Wednesday, December 05, 2007
On The Second Night of Hanukkah My Pets Gave To Themselves…
Some stomach cramps, a little constipation, a whole lot of whimpering and panting...and what basically amounted to a belly full o’ gas. Cricket went to the vet today after acting like she was in dire distress. She has some bad gas. She got a prescription for Ultram, Sucralfate, and Pepcid. Our poor baby is being treated with the meds for stress and an ulcer. To be honest, I think she just wanted to go visit Marge and the girls, plus get hooked up with some pain meds, and to get her way, she was willing to suffer the indignity of an, uh, digital exam, if necessary. It was. When we got home, I gave her a pain pill and some Sucralfate, and then waited around for a little bit while they took effect. I think she had a lovely nap while we braved the Xmas crowds at Target. And, how did she get this illness that existed purely of air? We ran out of her fancy schmancy raw food and fed her some Newman’s Own and some Spot’s Stew for a few days. Her belly rebelled. She’s such a sensitive girl. Phoenix was fine. She wondered what all the fuss was about. She was embarrassed for poor Cricket.
We decided to treat ourselves to the special Hanukkah buffet at the Santa Fe Station hotel/casino as a reward for being good pet parents. Blech. Their brisket tasted like rubber tires (it was so nasty that neither of us could eat more that a tiny bite of each of our big chunks of meat), their potato latkes were some weird combination of potato shreds and cinnamon & nutmeg (?? - I’m not sure of the exact spices, just that it wasn’t what it should’ve been), their matzo ball soup that wasn’t nearly as good as Leigh-Ann’s, and it was just all-around unpleasant. We rarely go out lately, so it was a big disappointment and a waste of money, although we did get $4 off by having our Stations card with us. That’s the first lousy meal we’ve had at the Santa Fe since the new buffet opened and it’s sad because we were just wanting some simple Jew-y food items. You know, all they needed to do was buy a matzo ball soup mix (both Streit & Manischewitz make a fine matzo ball mix), some frozen potato pancakes, and your average brisket. I don’t cook and I could’ve done a better job. Heck, Cricket could’ve done a better job.
And for you, because you’ve been so good, here’s another song by The LeeVees!
Next entry: Some questions, a little American Idol talk, some dog food tips and the always enjoyable coprophagia Previous entry: On The First Night of Hanukkah My Pets Gave to Me
-
Ultram/tramadol is one of the $4 prescriptions at Wally World/Sam’s Club. It’s one of Kenya’s medications.
on 12/06 at 07:02 AM -
I’m sorry, I feel badly that you know so much more about me/us than I know about you. (Leigh-Ann and I don’t generally read the same blogs, although we have a tiny bit of overlap with people we’ve met in person) You never sign your entries with a blog url, so I thought you really didn’t blog much, except for your work blog. But, before I asked questions that I felt like I should already know the answer to, I did a search for your name and Kenya’s name and found a comment from you on the wildrun blog, which led me to two blogs...one that didn’t exist anymore and “Dear Diary”. And now I know about Kenya and the crappy test results. That sucks, and I’m so sorry. I sadly know exactly how you feel.
I’m glad that Kenya likes Merrick - crappy people (cheapskates and not overly friendly at SuperZoo), but great food. Phoenix & Cricket really love it, but it’s too bad the cans are so small & pricey. One of their favorites is Wingaling with the whole chicken wings in it. There’s a pretty big difference in the number of calories for the different flavors, so if you’re looking for higher calories (I was looking for lower when we were feeding our chubbies Merrick), Wingaling isn’t a good one. I just checked them out on the site and it looks like Thanksgiving Day Dinner has the most calories. Our kids really liked that one too. In fact, we had birthday coupons for some free cans that we picked up last month, and I saved Thanksgiving Day Dinner for Thanksgiving for them, as if they’d know the difference. Heh.
As for pill wrapping - the cheese that works the best for us are the ones called cheese food or cheese spread (Lucerne Cheese Food slices from Von’s and Nice ‘n Cheesy Cheese Spread from Smith’s/Kroger) because they’re soft & mushy and roll into a good ball around the pills. Have you tried Pill Pockets (we can’t use them because Phoenix is allergic to the corn in them) - our friends have had great luck with their cat taking pills in them, which is impressive. Also, Flavor Dough has been a hit for us too, although the dogs like it so much that I think they savor it a bit too long and don’t swallow the pill fast enough and sometimes find it. But, your mileage may vary. Anyway, you may not need any pill hiding hints, but just in case (and it’ll be searchable if someone else needs cheese or things that are good for dog or cat pilling), I thought I’d write it out.
Oh, and the Ultram - if she needs a refill, we definitely need to have them write out a prescription, not fill it there. Sheesh, the price we paid for 7 pills, would’ve paid for at least 30, if not 60 or more. Luckily, it was still pretty cheap considering the rest of the visit. She did horribly on the powerful Fentanyl patches after her knee surgery (she looked dopey & nauseated), but the Ultram seems perfect for her. It looks like it’s relieving the pain *and* making her sleepy. She could probably use the extra sleep. Heck, sometimes I’d pay $9 for her to stop yapping so we could watch tv in peace.
I hope that something can be done to keep Kenya with you longer, maybe a miraculous new technique or drug. We’ll keep our fingers crossed that you don’t have to make any impossibly difficult decisions.
on 12/06 at 08:13 AM -
We are having 19 people to our house on Saturday night for Hannukah dinner. Brisket, latkes...wish you could join us.
laurie on 12/06 at 08:18 AM -
Cool song. Who are the LeeVees?
Nancy on 12/09 at 06:09 AM
