What Grinds my gears archive B

P. · Red Rocket Joined: 14 Feb 2008 Karma :

Unsure if gear grind or just vent, but my cats been on the same food for over a year.

2 weeks ago he refused to eat or poo, vet trip suggested he was backed up and just solid brick of shit in him. Multiple enemas, lactulose 3x a day and keep him on cat milk, really wet food and the like.

Changed his diet at recommendations of vets.

2 weeks later he's refusing to eat again and he's back in today.

Now they want to x-ray him, again, at my cost obviously which I don't care, blank cheque that shit, but it's the 2nd trip, one was emergency out of hours as he was vomiting brown mess. So the cost is just flying up and it's the same stuff over and over. Perhaps Stinkwheel can weigh in, but they know he was clogged up, vet has had his digit up the bum of the cat to help break it up, but he's still struggling.

It's just the same stuff. If it was a car or bike, you wouldn't be taking it back to the garage for the same blown bulb, you'd expect the problem to be identified.

More concerned that he might need surgery and won't have a fun time at all...

stinkwheel · Bovine Proctologist Joined: 12 Jul 2004 Karma :

Diagnostics can be expensive and invasive, they mount up quick.

If I see a constipated cat, I'd usually get them cleared out first then see what they do because they do seem to do that periodically and most of them are ok once they're emptied out again.

We see a lot of older cats with constipation in bad weather. My theory is they just sit inside on a radiator refusing to go out for a poo and cook themselves a massive loaf.

If they do it again, you need to start a workup to find out why. Sometimes they're constipated because they've been constipated and their gut's been damaged/stretched. Diagnostics can include a general blood screen to see if there's something causing them to be dehydrated, specific blood tests to look at B vitamin absorbtion in the gut, x-ray and/or ultrasound to see if there's a blockage/stricture or a megacolon. This may include a barium study to highlight the gut lining and look at motility.

Moving up it can include colonoscopy to look for issues, possibly with pinch biopsies or actual abdominal surgery to inspect the gut and collect full thickness biopsies.

Depending on what is found, it might be fixable, might be manageable with diet/drugs or it might be that there is a problem that can't be fixed. Ultimate thing can be surgery to remove damaged bits of gut.

They sometimes land up with something called a megacolon where the colon just stops moving and turns into a big distended sack. I've had two cats which I did a radical surgery called a subtotal colectomy on to deal with this. Effectively remove the entire colon. As you'd expect, this is risky. Both the ones I did it on did very well and landed up fecally continant and maintaining their hydration after 2 months.

You probably wouldn't dive in with all those tests all at once because you'd be looking at a four figure bill right off the bat. You rule things out a bit at a time. You pick your approach based on likleyhood of getting a diagnosis, clinical picture, owners wishes/ability to pay and invasiveness of tests. Like I had a dog in today with chronic gut problems. I garauntee an exploratory surgery with biopsies would give me the answer but that seems an over-reaction. Today we did some basic in-house bloods which ruled out a couple of things. We're sending off some more specific tests and checking a poo sample for infectious agents. If that draws a blank, we'll send off a more expensive poo test to rule out a specific organism and do a diet trial to see if it has a food sensetivity. If that draws a blank THEN we'll move up to more invasive surgical tests.

To further your garage analogy. If you took your car in with a blocked fuel filter, they'd probably just change the filter. If it did it again in a short time, you'd start looking into why. You wouldn't go changing out the petrol tank, ripping out the fuel lines or pulling the fuel pump at first presentation.
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Nobby the Bastard · Harley Gaydar Joined: 16 Aug 2013 Karma :

And there was me pissed off 15 years ago because I had to have the axolotl operated on because it ate the substrate in the tank and wasn't passing it.
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Easy-X · Super Spammer Joined: 08 Mar 2019 Karma :

MCN · Super Spammer Joined: 22 Jul 2015 Karma :

Easy-X · Super Spammer Joined: 08 Mar 2019 Karma :

I blame universal suffrage. If idiots are allowed to vote, idiots will be elected.
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stinkwheel · Bovine Proctologist Joined: 12 Jul 2004 Karma :

Nobby the Bastard · Harley Gaydar Joined: 16 Aug 2013 Karma :

The guy who killed my brother was done for death by dangerous driving even though he had decamped from the car before it hit my brother.
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P. · Red Rocket Joined: 14 Feb 2008 Karma :

stinkwheel · Bovine Proctologist Joined: 12 Jul 2004 Karma :

Easy-X · Super Spammer Joined: 08 Mar 2019 Karma :

The old fella had a hospital appointment today and, being the dutiful son-in-law, I offered to give him a lift. Parking's a fucking nightmare so a quick drop-off saves a lot of stress. About to park up round a side road and the phone rings. "You'll never guess what, I got the wrong day. It was Monday." ffs

He's rebooked, new appointment in...

December Shocked

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P. · Red Rocket Joined: 14 Feb 2008 Karma :

stinkwheel · Bovine Proctologist Joined: 12 Jul 2004 Karma :

MCN · Super Spammer Joined: 22 Jul 2015 Karma :

P. · Red Rocket Joined: 14 Feb 2008 Karma :

@Stinkwheel

He has intestinal lymphoma.

stinkwheel · Bovine Proctologist Joined: 12 Jul 2004 Karma :

P. · Red Rocket Joined: 14 Feb 2008 Karma :

Indeed. They've gone through loads of options, given me a load of guidance and sheets with info, told me to read over the weekend, call with questions, see them again on Monday.

He hasn't had a poo in 5 days, he looks defeated, I really do feel for him.

I've got the whole weekend to think, he's coming up to 13, which I don't think it's too old, but he's been with me since like 7 weeks when he got abandoned so it's fucking tough. Worst thing I've dealt with in my life.

hellkat · Super Spammer Joined: 12 Jul 2004 Karma :

Aw Padduccio Sad

Bruno had lymphoma and I didn't even know until the last six months.

I felt terrible that I hadn't noticed it earlier as he *had* been miserable for quite a while and I couldn't work out why.

Its totally up to you, obviously. He's had a good life with you. Thirteen years! I know you've had a run of sadness with the little sugar dudes too and its horrid to lose furry fam, grief is such a fucking horrid emotion.

But I wish I'd not dragged out Bruno's last years, if I'd known I'd have let him go sooner and not put him through stuff that made me feel better but didn't make his life any easier in the long run.

Huge major big hellkat hugs Crying or Very sad

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grr666 · Super Spammer Joined: 16 Jun 2014 Karma :

Sorry to hear this Paddy, absolutely sucky news.
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BanditsHigh · Worse than a woman Joined: 21 Mar 2005 Karma :

Crap news mate, I feel for you both.

I've lost many pet birds over the years and at the end of the day my feelings don't come into it ... if I know they are suffering and nothing can be done then there is no question in my mind what to do.

Of course, if there is something that can be done which isn't too intrusive and improves the quality of life then I'd pick that in a heartbeat.

All the best ... Barry

Nobby the Bastard · Harley Gaydar Joined: 16 Aug 2013 Karma :

What he said. You have to make the decision based on the welfare of the animal, and not what you want.

It's always awful.
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to v or not to v · World Chat Champion Joined: 24 Nov 2020 Karma :

im sorry for your situation Paddy. Crying or Very sad

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UncleFester · World Chat Champion Joined: 30 Jun 2013 Karma :

Had ours put to sleep back in November, literally killed a bit of us. I like pets far far more than I like people. Got to do what has to be done, even if it's tough Sad

Grinding my gears today is building a 10ft by 20ft poly tunnel - trying to fit plastic clips / tension the cover in the cold and damp is not filling me with joy.

Hands are fucked and I'm stiff as hell from working at odd angles. Going to get the doors on today and throw a heater in and se le if that helps with the final tensioning.
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pepperami · Super Spammer Joined: 17 Jan 2010 Karma :

Sorry to hear your bad news Paddy.

No stupid remarks from me today, we know you’ll do the right thing.
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stinkwheel · Bovine Proctologist Joined: 12 Jul 2004 Karma :

Wanted to upgrade the pathetic amount of storage capacity on Mrs stinkwheels notebook. It's a Dell, which I picked because they are generally reliable and easy to work with.

Entered the service tag on the Dell website and clicked for available upgrades. It came up with a few SSD options. Checked their online user manual and it looked like a piece of piss to fit, as such things usually are on Dells.

Not paying Dell prices though so went on Amazon and got a 256GB WD SSD with the same form factor. This duly arrived after 4 days from an amazon storefront called "London Computing".

Took the back off the notebook yesterday and for fucks sake, there's no SSD slot. All the pins are there and the PCB is labelled for an SSD but no slot fitted. Gears ground. Fuck you Dell.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw/AMWts8DJPvy8PDybgm-a-fihXvYHB3KxvHXwsWz3ap1zXg1rBKDnsIMpNQonT_qn8dXXYcj-yHvG2t3w5nwbNoMQ0Dyoad7yRGxaM2t4-NkK5y04W9K4DZUe-HTmuVIwQqbwqzNGBkxZsl7GPpgj7Ckt2cqI=w939-h694-s-no

Went to return my useless SSD, should be easy enough through amazon right? Get the label printed. "London Computing" are in fucking Singapore! Looking at the packaging, the disc itself was dispatched from California. Gears ground so much the teeth have snapped off!

I'm not going to send good money after bad on this debacle with what I estimate being a very low chance of the thing actually getting there and a refund being issued.

I'm going to put a low form factor USB drive permanantly in the notebook to suppliment the pathetic 64GB integrated MMC.

Anyone want to buy a new, unopened Western Digital 256GB SSD M.2 2230 PCIe Gen 3.0 x4 ?
____________________
“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.