For anyone that didn’t read last week’s blog post about my oldest cat, he was diagnosed with Glaucoma and his left eye was supposedly totally gone. I blamed myself for this vision loss, as I had not made it a big enough priority.
After relocating to a new state at Thanksgiving and all that comes with setting up life in a new area and unpacking, I’d not been quick enough to get him to the vet the month after we moved here. Then when I got him to one in February, that went horribly wrong. Then in March, I was able to get in to see the original vet we wanted to try via Angie’s List and there was the bad news I’d dreaded. No vision left in one eye.
This week marks a 3rd vet opinion from an eye care specialist for animals. I now have a glimmer of hope attached to the expensive $301 vet bill and 3 additional medications that are specifically just for his eyes. This vet does not think his eye is totally gone and there could be a slim chance for some retrieval of vision if the anti-inflammatory drugs and pressure drops get the pupil back into normalcy. Also, this specialist said that unless Punkin was put on drops he could very well develop vision loss in the other eye, whereas both of the other vets had said that was unlikely. So, I am sticking with the specialist’s opinion.
I could have hugged the man, but I restrained myself. This is the only location that has an opthamologist for animals here in El Paso and they only have the doctor here on Tuesdays. He flies in directly from Phoenix every Tuesday, if you can believe that!
So, Punkin must be given these drops every day in addition to his blood pressure medicine and his eye ointment which keeps his eye moist. It’s a real pain to try and give a cat meds ( for that matter do anything a cat doesn’t want you to do), but I hope they can help him during this late stage of life.
Special tip: Again it is worth mentioning that even though the Banfield Hospital vet was less than knowledgeable, he did give one good tip to get meds cheaper via online coupon to take to your local pharmacy. It isn’t just for pet meds, it is for all meds. Good RX is a free online service that allows you to compare costs at local pharmacies for medicine that either your vet can’t fill at their locations or are really expensive, even with insurance. I was also referred there again today by the pet opthamologist when I discovered one of his eye drop bottles was damaged and had leaked out. They don’t fly in until next Tuesday, so they refunded me the med cost and faxed in a script to the cheapest pharmacy once they looked at the Good RX website comparison. This cost me $44 at the eye vet yesterday, but now via Good RX it should only cost me $16.06 when I go to pick up at CVS with the coupon I printed. So, if you are challenged by expensive meds, even if you have insurance…give that site a visit and see if you can get it cheaper via their coupon once you compared pricing at local pharmacies in your list per zip code you enter.
Well, keep your fingers crossed for Punkin’s eyes. Already, the drops have made his pupil get back to a semi-normal size. I remain hopeful that a miracle can restore his vision, even if only a little bit. I’ll take what improvement I can get and I know Punkin will feel better relieving pressure from his eyes now that we know about Glaucoma. Here’s a cute pic of him today as he was resting inside his cat climber on our back porch. (Check out behind him. Mr. Blinky had apparently already been inside the box when Punkin decided to climb in, too. hahaha).
