The ups and downs of elderly pets

I found out a couple of weeks ago that apparently, my cat is considered elderly.  Seriously, according to the vet documentation, cats are now considered older at the age of 4.  My cat is 12.  So apparently, he's elderly.

Who knew?

It's been a series of ups and downs with regards to pet health over the last several weeks.  The poor ancient bird continues to decline, and unfortunately, appears to have really hurt himself in one of his last falls.  I'm waiting to be able to talk to the vet and try to get an appointment for her to see him.  Exotics vets are hard to find, and good ones are even harder.

There is an exotics vet closer to my house, who has even seen my parrot once before.  And that once was once too often.  She hurt him and put him in a straightjacket and hurt him some more.  She refused to listen to me, and pooh-poohed anything I said.  But mostly, SHE HURT MY BIRD.  I wanted to kill her.  Seriously.  I wanted to hurt her as much as she had hurt him, and then a whole bunch more.

Instead, she got her comeuppance.  She was found passed out on one of her exam room floors due to drug overdose.  She lost her practice and was forced to go to rehab.  She has since gotten her license back and opened a new version of her practice.  But she'll NEVER get to lay hands on my bird ever ever again. 

So I'm trying to get in to see a new vet who is much further away, but has FABULOUS reviews from people I know and trust.

The cat, unfortunately, also hurt himself a couple of weeks ago and ended up at an expensive vet as well.  He's doing better, but is not completely healed.  However, he has to do without another vet visit for a while, because I don't have enough money for both of them to go to $100+ vet visits at the same time.

For now, I try to remember to breathe, and I try to remember that I hate the taste of alcohol.  Otherwise I might take up drinking.  (not really, but there's a HUGE ton of stress in my life right now and half of it is from pets being in pain.)

Eventually, I promise, we'll get back to happier posts.  :)