Veterinary Adventures, chapter 692

Well.

I got up this morning thinking that today would be a good day.  I thought that because we were having our first delivery of groceries from Vons, and I was looking forward to having all the products I normally avoid (like 40 lb. bags of water softener salt), just dropped off on my doorstep.  Free delivery, no tipping—it was going to be great.  It was also going to be a good day because a repairman was finally coming to fix our dishwasher, which has been broken since July 2nd.  I’m getting dishpan hands, and frankly, I’m not enamoured with living the life of a pioneer.  We had to wait 10 days for our repair appointment, but it had finally arrived.

The good news is that the grocery delivery was flawless (except for one less-than-perfect tomato), and I’d definitely do my shopping online again.  The bad news is that our 3 year old, $800 Kenmore Elite dishwasher is dead, dead, dead.  The motor needs to be replaced, at a cost of $340 for just the part (not including labour).  The repair guy told us to just go buy a new dishwasher, but to get something in the $300 price range because he thinks they’re more durable.  I trusted his assessment, so after consulting with Nancy we just paid the $55 service call fee and set out to find a new dishwasher.  The problem is that the dishwasher industry is apparently a big ol’ scam like the mattress industry, and every store has custom model numbers from the various manufacturers.  That makes price comparison basically impossible, and if you check out a site like Epinions, you can’t find the reviewed models for sale anywhere.  I think I’ve decided on a Frigidaire model in the $320 price range, but tomorrow we’re going to run over to Lowe’s to check and see if anything is on sale.  This is exactly how we wanted to spend $400 this month. :P

I bet you’re still wondering why I titled this entry, “Veterinary Adventures”, right?  When I got up this morning I went to clean the litterboxes, which is what I always do as soon as I get out of bed (it’s not nearly as motivating as the smell of fresh coffee, which is probably why I’m usually still in bed at 10am).  In one of the boxes there was an uncovered pee clump, and it looked very pink/orange.  It looked like blood.  With four cats sharing three litterboxes, I had no idea who the blood belonged to, and I was envisioning a nightmare of taking all four cats to the vet for urine tests.  I took a guess, though, and thought it might be Derek, as he had a UTI a couple of months ago.  It was a lucky guess, because Derek turned out to definitely be the culprit.  He doesn’t have a UTI, but he does have calcium oxalate crystals in his bladder, and that’s what’s causing the bleeding.  From now on, he has to be on special dry and canned food (i.e., for the rest of his life), which will help to break up the crystals he has and will help prevent new ones.  Because all the cats eat together, we’re forced to put everyone on this new, prescription-only food.  Today’s vet bill was just a little over $300, which sadly seemed like a bargain.

So, a worthless $800 dishwasher, and a cat with an unexpected $300 medical problem.  C’est la vie!

Here’s a little video of what Derek thought of today.  Keep in mind that he can keep this sound up for hours—we’re told he did it during the entire 4 hour drive to Las Vegas from Utah, and he definitely kept it up for about an hour today:  http://www.theblogpound.com/images/uploads/cranky_derek.MPG

If you’d rather not download the video, I think this photo just about says it all:

image

Update from May 2009:  I was browsing this page today (because I could see that it was pretty popular with a couple of site visitors), and I found this entry about Derek and bladder crystals.  I don’t know why I never updated it, but we never did have to switch Derek (or any of the cats) to the prescription Urinary S/O food.  I’ve learned so much in the four years since I wrote this, including that I think dry cat food is akin to poison and causes bladder problems, kidney problems, dry skin and coat, foul stools, etc.  Since switching the cats to an all-wet food diet (either canned or homemade), we haven’t had any bladder infections.  We briefly put all the cats on dry food in early 2009 because the vet wanted to see how we felt about the new prescription dental food, T/D, and then we ended up with three cats with UTIs again.  Long story short, we don’t feed dry food.  We get about a dozen cases of wet food donated every month, and then I also get a $100 donation every month that I used to buy whole chickens at 69 cents/lb., and I make raw food from those.  The cats are healthier, and it costs me nothing but time.  Sorry to have put you through this, Derek… I was still learning!

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 07/12 at 03:57 AM

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  1. And the weird thing is, Derek only drinks half a cup at home.  Er, I meant, he’s really quiet at home and doesn’t make those horrible yowling noises.

    Posted by Flippy  on  07/12  at  04:47 AM

  2. That sound is annoying.  Fortunately, Derek’s a cutie and loveable. If he was that annoying and, say, as stand-offish as Jackson or Chelsea, I’d give second thought to spending a penny on his vet needs.  Sorry, I just expect minimal return on my investment. Derek’s at least pleasing to the eye and snuggly—like his foster brother Frank:)

    As for the dishwasher, get the cheapest Kenmore you can get. Warranty’s included, they never break. I swear, my mom’s last house fell apart around her aged, but-still-functional- Kenmore.  It was even the old fashioned kind that had a chopping block on top and that we rolled over and attached to the faucet when we wanted to run it. It wasn’t a built-in, in other words. Thing lasted forever!

    Babe

    Posted by Babe  on  07/12  at  08:41 AM

  3. Wow! That’s one of the annoying sounds that Toby makes when he goes to the vet!

    Despite the hours of yowling noises, Derek is still a cutie :)

    Posted by celine  on  07/12  at  01:09 PM

  4. I was pretty pissed off at Kenmore because of the incredible dying $800 dishwasher, and was extremely tempted to buy a Bosch instead.  However, I did some research at ConsumerReports.org, and while two Bosch machines had their highest overall ratings, the third place machine, and “Best Buy”, was a Kenmore.  The Kenmore was $400 cheaper than the Bosch, so I ordered it.  Still, once you add in the delivery charge and the installation charge and the EXTENDED WARRANTY charge, the $500 bargain dishwasher cost nearly $800 once again.  I’m going to break it on purpose just to get my money’s worth out of Sears :P

    Posted by Mudpuppy  on  07/13  at  08:19 AM

  5. We were lucky this weekend when the bathtub faucet bit the dust.  It only cost us about $125 in parts and Lori got her brother to help her fix it.  Unfortunately, it required the access door be made bigger and now the bathroom closet is minus one shelf until she gets it put back up.  If we’d had to have a plumber come in, it would have cost several hundred more.

    Posted by Kate  on  07/13  at  05:06 PM
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