Poor Kitty

Shotzie has been shaking her head, scratching, and crying a lot. I kept telling myself, if she is still like this by Tuesday then I will call and make an appointment. Tuesday would come and go and then I would tell myself alright Friday is the new deadline. So in fear of getting the "worst mom of the year award" I made an appointment at my local friendly humane society. They were quick to remind me that her first and last visit was December '05. Whoops! I have a hard time justifying taking a healthy, normal cat to the doctor when most of the time I am not able to go.

First I am guilty of doing what all doctors hate......self diagnosing. I have been warned about people like me, people that type their symptoms in a web md, see an article or even a tv show and come up with their own diagnosis. So you can do that for cats too! I typed in itchy ears and my differential diagnosis was ear mites, yeast or a bacterial infection. I was leaning toward the mites!

So that brings me to last week........... as I was studying micro, I was cursing my teacher on what a complete waste of time it was to study parasites, helminths, fungus and arthropods......well wouldn't you know that is exactly what Shotzie has! I got to look through the animal otoscope and look at the yeast that was growing in her ear and they even let me look at the sample under the microscope.

It is amazing how much crossover there is in medicine. So the whole not taking my cat to the vet for a couple of 36 months and downplaying her signs was pushed aside when the dr says you have a really good cat. I wanted to shout from the rooftop (or the vet waiting room) that see I really am a good mom. I also thought long and hard about going into all my raising techniques and what works and what doesn't but I didn't......I just smiled and said thanks (like I really have anything to do with the temperament of a cat!). So the good mom thing only lasted momentarily...that is until they told me that it was going to be $167 dollars. I seriously contemplated sayin, "oh I left my wallet in the car" and high tailing it out of there or asking if it was a possibility to "donate" her to the actual humane society. I didn't though......I begrudely gave her my credit card, took my yeast infected cat and her 90 dollar medicine and we went home. So darn it......I am a good mom.......even if it is self proclaimed!