The Weird Things We Do For Our Pets

With six pets in the house, it seems like fairly often there’s something going on with one of them. Sometimes as pet parents we find ourselves doing some pretty weird things all in the name of keeping our pets healthy and happy.

The latest something is that Milo seems to have developed a food allergy. We’re not sure what he’s allergic to, but something periodically causes Milo’s mouth to swell up a little, and gives him a rash on his legs. He’s clearly miserable when it happens, and has to get a steroid shot to clear it up. 

Taking Milo to the vet is an ordeal for everyone. Apparently he’s worse when I’m not there, which is hard to imagine because it’s horrible when I am there. We’ve learned to take pictures of his skin issues before we go to make it easier for the vet to get a good look. Needless to say, we want to figure out what Milo is allergic to, and find a better food choice for him as soon as possible.

Milo’s last appointment (when they determined that it’s most likely a food allergy) was with a different vet than our usual vet. They recommended a food that is prohibitively expensive, and made the suggestion that Milo be fed separately from the other cats.

Milo doesn’t like being separated from the other cats, and seems to get really upset if he thinks they’re getting special food or treatment that he’s not getting. And when Milo gets too upset or stressed out he chews on his back legs and pulls the hair out, so we try really hard not to stress him out.

We talked to our regular vet about our food options and our worries about feeding Milo separately, and she agrees that separate feeding just isn’t the best choice for us. So she told us to go to the pet store and take pictures of a lot of different foods (she told us a few basic proteins to try to avoid, as well as some to look for) and said that she’ll research the foods, and double check all of the other cats’ records to help find a food that will be a good choice for all of them.

We went to Pet Smart on Sunday and spent quite a bit of time reading cat food labels and photographing bags of cat food. We got one or two strange looks in the process, and I’m pretty sure we spent more time reading labels on cat food than we ever have reading labels for our own food.

I called the vet’s office on Monday, and they said it would be much easier if I printed the pictures and brought them in. So I went on Walgreen’s website, submitted the pictures, and scheduled to pick them up after work.

It was incredibly busy when I went to get the pictures. Apparently Monday afternoon around 5:20 is the time to go to Walgreen’s. So a manager was helping out in the photo department. He asked me to check the pictures before I paid, so I opened the envelope and pulled the first stack out. 

Before I had a chance to say anything the manager started apologizing about how they must have given me the wrong pictures because it looked like, for some reason, I had gotten a lot of pictures of labels. I then had to explain that the pictures were exactly right because I had taken them in an effort to find an appropriate food for my cat with food allergies. I think at that point he decided I was a crazy cat lady, and that sending me on my way as quickly as possible was the best choice because it was the fastest checkout experience ever.

I took the pictures to the vet’s office on Tuesday, and they had a good laugh about Walgreen’s thinking something must be wrong because surely someone wouldn’t take and print a bunch of pictures of cat food.

So what about you? Have you done anything weird because of your pets lately?