Quote Originally Posted by Moesha View Post
I am so glad to read a more detailed post from you. You answered many questions for us! Thanks for that. Once you determine what kind of treatment Barney is going to have, can you let us know the estimate for his medicines and things like that? I'd be willing to contribute toward his care regularly now that we know what the little guy has to cope with. Go with your gut about the medical treatment you think is best for the little guy, and we'll be here to support you. You may be physically alone dealing with Barney, but he has a whole team of caregivers and support staff all over the world! How many other kitties can claim that?!? *hugs for sweet Barney*
Purr_Tender wrote:
It's a shame that Barney won't be coming in with you but I wouldn't take a chance either. I think that you have a great plan for him and I know that you are keeping him comfortable. He has been on my mind constantly since you gave us the very sad news. I still want to help you with his medical treatment. Let us know how much you think you'll need. Hopefully with your TLC and his meds he'll still have better days ahead. We'll just take it a day at a time.
Thank you so much. You all have been such a great help already and it's true, you're a team of caregivers. Barney is blessed.
Part of me feels badly for everyone who has helped that his recovery may not be possible in the way that we had hoped but at the same time, now that we know that there will be no surgery, I can focus on keeping him as healthy as I can and fed and warm. This route will hopefully still give him more time with us and it will be very affordable. He will be on insulin and I got one vial and a bag of syringes for about 20.00. He gets 2 units a day which is not much. I'm not sure how many units come in that vial but will check it out. He is no longer on Tapazole because Robin feels that he doesn't need it so that will be good. The antibiotics will probably be one more round, unless her plan is to keep him on them indefinitely. I have to ask her about that. I'm going to ask a friend of mine who has a HUGE bottle of Meloxicam for her dog if I could have some for Barney. It is the human equivalent to Metacam and alot of vets will give a prescription for a pet for Meloxicam if you ask for it. They usually don't offer it because they want you to buy the Metacam from them. She offered some previously to me for Paddy but I declined because I decided I didn't want to continue with it for him. I have a bottle's worth of Transfer Factor mixed up in a thick suspension and a half bottle of capsule of TF left. I stopped into the pharmacy a week or so ago to ask if it would still be good to use when I offered it for Sydney and Hamish and the pharmacist said it should be fine so that is good news.
I think the only upcoming things will be a repeat exam and glucose testing (not a full blood panel, just glucose which I think is under 25.00) and, when it's time, euthanasia. I hate writing that but at some point, I suppose it will happen.
Anyway, my point is that you guys have helped so much and I'm so thankful. He would have not gotten this far without you all. For now, I think he's been so well cared for by everybody that he should be okay. When I saw Katie's Andy pic with the thank you sign, I thought, what a great idea! I should do something like that with Barney but then I had a vision of him slashing and biting me while I forced him to sit with the sign! LOL He tries to bite me at least once a day. I guess that is a good sign that he's feeling up to it.

I've been thinking about it and my guess is that he was someone's barn cat. I was writing to Randi in a PM that he is friendly enough to have had human contact but wild enough to have been an outdoor, barn guy. And I'm wondering if he may have lived on that farm all his life (which is just a block and a half away from me). My coworker has rented that little cottage for 2 years now and it's on a 10 acre property with another main house and a barn. She has seen him for about a year but I wonder if he lived with the people in the house or was at least sometimes fed by them over the past decade or so. Maybe when he got so sick and matted up, they just stopped giving him anything which may be when he started hanging outside Terri's cottage. The woman who owns the main house works at the post office (I think). I might ask her the next time I see her.

My coworkers (ex)partner came in today and asked about Barney. So, I think I might be wrong about thinking he could have harmed Barney by kicking him. I shouldn't have written that. Angela told me that the dog who lives on the property chases Jack and used to chase Barney so maybe he took a tumble then.
Does anyone know how long it takes ribs to heal?