The vet was just here to make a house call and I dragooned my neighbor into being her vet assistant while I fretted in another room. I would likely have had a heart attack in the during the lengthy process or started fighting on my cat's side. He stopped eating a couple of days ago and has been listless and withdrawn. They had in him the bathroom where this sick 14 year old cat nearly won the battle to avoid a blood draw. He actually bent a needle in his struggle. He has a tender abdomen but he is on the *fat* side so it was hard for the vet to palpate usefully. So she took blood and gave him a large dose of hairball remedy and a shot of penicillin and administered a good dose of sub-cutaneous fluids which I asked her to do and which he needed. We are worried about my boy although I was cheered that he managed to be so ornery...he's got the will to live unmolested it seems still. He is hyper-thyroid but she said his heart rate was perfect so I am hoping that tests will confirm we are doing okay with that medication.

I have five cats and we had entertained visions of vaccinating them all today and treating two but it proved to be too ambitious. Dr. Jane is heading off to the Turks and Caicos to vaccinate the island's dogs and scuba dive for two weeks (as she does every year)so we are down to essential services. Frankly it was all I could take myself. I had asked her to give another cat an injection for his neurodermatitis. After he got the shot and I let him out the back door I found out that the shot she gave him was for the house peeing he has been doing. I DID NOT KNOW THEY HAD MEDICINE FOR THAT!!! I am going to buy the company that makes it, or at least invest in it. Apparently it is conjugated in the liver into estrogen which takes the edge off the territorial marking. OMG I am blessed. After that I figured I'd never catch him for another shot but there he was peacefully sitting there so I picked him up and his skin problem should be clear in a day or two at the most.

But please, vibes for my dear Marcus...we are worried about him. I am hoping it is a GI infection but the doc said his belly very clearly hurt a lot and that she does not usually see that much pain with an ordinary GI infection. We will have test results tomorrow so I'll be praying tonight, as I have been since I saw he had a problem.