New Carpet and other news

Hello all. I haven't updated on Pippin for a while.  Which is always a good thing.  In May over the holiday my husband accidentally left Pippin's Prozinc (insulin) out for about 3-4 hours.  Just in that time the insulin went bad.  Of course it was a Saturday morning.  So we gave him his normal shot Saturday night and his insulin stayed high.  So we realized right away that the insulin went bad.  Well... of course it was a holiday weekend so the vet office wasn't open on Monday. I was very worried about the glucose numbers so Monday morning we went ahead and called one of the local emergency vets who said they had insulin and that we would just have to come in and pay $100 for the vet appointment and they would sell us insulin because they had a full pharmacy.  So I drove Pippin all the way out to the vet.  We got totally wrong information.  I get there and I tell them where his numbers were sitting at (which if I remember correctly was about 450). I say he is on Prozinc.  The vet tech was like... well I've never heard of that, they only have human insulin.  UGHHHH!  I didn't want to switch Pippin's insulin which I thought would be worse then having him on no insulin.  Plus, human insulin doesn't really work on cats.  I then asked if maybe they had vetsulin and she said she would check.  She was gone for a very long time.  Finally, a totally different person comes in and says they just don't think there is anything they can do for me. Annoying.  Why when we called did they act like they could help???  They didn't charge me anything and I left.

So Tuesday I called my normal vet and explained what was going on and why I needed to come pick up insulin right then and there.  They were nice.  I got up there an hour later when they told me to come and it wasn't ready, but I told them I had to wait because he really needed it.  So he got back on his insulin again and has been fine ever since.

We are about to sell our house and buy a new one, so we installed new carpet everywhere in the house.  Prior to having it installed we personally pulled up all the areas where the cats had peed. There is no better time to get under that carpet.  If your cats pee a lot in certain spots it will stink no matter how much you shampoo that carpet.  So we pulled up the carpet and put down Kilz in all these spots. The carpet installers still threw out the carpet we pulled up.  The new carpet is amazing and smells amazing! HAHAH!  Diabetic cats will pee a lot before you discover they are diabetic and will keep peeing in the spots that smell like their pee.  Also, the year before Merry passed away he couldn't make it down to the basement so having the little box in the living room pretty much stopped both cats from peeing anywhere else.

I'm nervous about selling the house with a cat.  I plan on taking him with me every time the house gets shown.  I don't want to leave him here with strangers coming in and out.  We'll see how that adventure goes and I'll update here with any advice for those of you who might also be trying to sell a house with a kitty living there.

Updates.. dental, diabetes, artwork

It's been a while since I posted.  Since Merry passed away actually.  I just never really felt up to it. I thought I'd give some updates on Pippin.  He's doing fantastic now.  At first when Merry was gone he would meow for him.  Especially when he went out to sit on the deck (they aren't outdoor cats, only in door but can go on the deck).  Even writing this post and thinking about Merry is sad.  Right after it happened I found myself getting two scoops of food, or hearing his nails tapping on the floor, every now and then I hear him meow.  I still haven't removed his picture from my Facebook's profile picture.  I just can't take it down yet.  It's like he's really gone, or I've really decided that I'm over him.  I don't know when I'll take down his picture if ever. It's been very difficult.  Actually, actress Felicia Day just posted something about this on her Facebook:

Felicia Day

April 20 at 7:28pm · 

SERIOUS QUESTION:
I have a picture of my dog Cubby on my phone lock screen. He passed away 2 years ago next month. I have a baby now and want to put her on the lock screen, but I feel INCREDIBLY GUILTY about removing his little face so I can't make myself do it. It feels disloyal, like I won't see him every day to remind me of how much I loved him and maybe I'll forget him. How do I overcome the guilt?!?! IS THERE ANOTHER SOLUTION?!?!

I know how she feels.  Though I don't have children. Anyways... Pippin was doing well till a few weeks ago.  On a Sunday I saw something by his food bowl but honestly I thought it was trash.  Like a garlic clove or something.  I got around to picking it up on Tuesday and thought it was so odd.  When I first looked at it I thought maybe one of his claws came out.  I handed it to my husband and was like... "what is this!  I think he lost his nail! "  My husband was like.. "um .. this is a tooth."  So I grabbed it and sure enough it was Pippin's FANG! Oh my God! I felt so bad.  I immediately called the vet. She put him on antibiotics and a week later he got his teeth cleaned.  It had only been 14 months since his last cleaning so I have no idea why this tooth fell out!

Tooth I found! 

And... when he went in to have his teeth cleaned (this is a new vet.. see previous posts) it was taking a long time for them to call with an update.  So I called up there and they told me there were having a tough time but everything was fine.  I come to find out that the previous vet LEFT the roots in for 3 teeth that they had pulled at his last teeth cleaning.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME.  The rear right molar was giving the new vet a hard time.  The root had rotted and slipped under his jaw bone into an area where I guess blood and tissue gather and she had to get it out of that.  I am pretty furious about this but what can I do.  He was hurting for a while and had to go on pain meds for two weeks.  He's great now and really spunky.  It's so hard to know if pet's mouth's are hurting.  I felt so bad when all this happened. 

Pippin's diabetes is really doing great.  He's on 4 units of Prozinc twice a day, his steroid at night, and after Merry passed we decided to start giving Pippin Cosequin to help with his bones.  We've also done a lot of research (of course this is after years and years of paying high prices at the vet) and now order his prescription cat food through Petsmart.  We set up auto refills and so we get an additional 15% off the food.  Needles are the same.  Insulin and the steroid cost the same from the vet so we still get those there.  

I did have one of my favorite cat artists do a portrait of my cats for me.  Apofiss does amazing artwork.. especially of cats. They rarely do commissions so I was so lucky to be able to get one.  PLUS lucky that he would do both cats.  I told him if he couldn't do Merry and Pippin then I wasn't interested in the commission.  Can't have one cat without the other.  He did a great job.  I sent him several pictures of them for him to use as a reference and this was the result:

Be sure to check out Apofiss' work!