Someone tell me if I'm being a horrible pet owner? (also content warning for this being about gross medical stuff)
My cat seemed a bit off yesterday. This morning I noticed a swollen lump under his tail. Booked an appointment at the vet because I thought it looked like an abscess, and the receptionist said it could be an anal gland abscess.
This afternoon when I checked on him the swollen lump is gone and there's a neat hole, like it's popped (god knows where because I checked where he sleeps and haven't found any gross mess).
Thing is there's no pus and it doesn't look red or inflamed, and it doesn't smell, and I know proper abscesses reek. He's eating and moving around okay just seems a bit uncomfortable.
Wanted to speak to the vets about it but their phone is just permanently engaged, so I left a message to cancel the appointment. I figure if it's emptied and not infected there's nothing they'll really do and he's been to the vet loads recently so I don't want to take him unless it's really necessary. If he isn't any better tomorrow I'll book him in again.
Am I being reasonable or terrible?
I think this is fine as long as you're keeping an eye on him. There's an instinct as a pet owner to get every little thing checked out but we don't do that with our human bodies, sometimes bodies just do weird gross shit that's ultimately benign.
Sounds like a swollen anal gland smof. Our cat gets them time to time, only difference is dear lord did it eject some smelly stuff when "expelled" . You seem reasonable to me! Not like you aren't continuing to monitor the cat.
0
Options
Tynnanseldom correct, never unsureRegistered Userregular
Yeah you’re being reasonable. Just keep paying attention for a bit as it closes up. Keep an eye on how much kitty is eating and drinking and whether he’s a normal level of sociable.
+2
Options
ani_game_bumOptimistic, Rule-Breaking Nice GuyThe Final World/DestinationRegistered Userregular
You could always send an email to the vet and see if they have any recommendations based on the picture? Then you'd have a little more peace of mind, at least
My poor old cat got a few big surface level cysts in her last year or two, and the vet would basically just remove them quickly and give us a disinfectant to clean the area with. So they might be able to provide you with the same, if you need it.
The NPR Map shows my county (Worcester, MA) as high transmission so I have been masking. I took my first PTO week this year this week, on my weekly grocery shop only like 1/10 people were masked. he Market Basket I go to is in my hometown which is shittily conservative so its not that surprising. The Wal*Mart in the town i reside in at least requires masks now or no entry.
My partner and I took a baby break this past weekend and went to MassMoCA which encourages but does not require masks and there were 0 unmasked people in addition to everyone observing exhibit occupancy limits.
Its so weird that largely conservative areas of even a liberal state like Massachusetts suck shit and liberal strongholds are public health conscious. Very strange. How fucking odd.
Got our second jabs. And we've both got today and tomorrow as annual leave so if we feel crap we can just veg out on the sofa.
So far so good. A bit groggy but not too bad. Other half has a sore arm around the jab site and I've got that and a sore armpit as well. Glad to have a day chilling anyway even if work would have been okay.
Sleeping in late was pretty sweet.
+2
Options
sponoMining for Nose DiamondsBooger CoveRegistered Userregular
Two positive cases at my kid's daycare this week! God dammit, you idiots, what the fuck?
What the fuck?!
Why is this so hard?
Fuck!
+3
Options
StraightziHere we may reign secure, and in my choice,To reign is worth ambition though in HellRegistered Userregular
Based solely on anecdotal experience
Parents stopped wearing masks, likely because they were vaccinated, and then immediately slacked off on their kids wearing masks as a result and/or started doing more things and going more places
My partner's preschool just had a child test positive as well, we're definitely going to be seeing an upswing in this among children
+12
Options
sponoMining for Nose DiamondsBooger CoveRegistered Userregular
Oh definitely. It's not a surprise, but it is infuriating.
I think I'm going to have to move back home for a while. I love where I live and that's where I have friends but my rent is too fucking expensive. I'm going to need a new car soon and I straight up cannot afford the cost right now. I'm also extremely tired of the drive and having to get up so early on the days I work.
I absolutely do not want to be 28 and moving back home but I kinda feel like I need a reset. I've been stressed about money for a while, running myself ragged and not really getting to actually enjoy where I live. Rent isn't any cheaper closer to where I work either, which doesn't really make it worth it to try and find a new apartment.
So I think my long term plan needs to be to just sit tight for a year, buy a car, and then save as much as I can and start looking at houses back in the town I live in currently. Maybe by then prices will have come down a bit, I can find something nice and cozy and I won't be paying as much. I could also have moved into a better/higher paid position by then, too. Plus it'll let me give my mom a hand getting her house back in shape, which I haven't had the time or energy to do and my lazy fuck sibling won't bother with.
I mean, I'm still single, moving to a metro area did nothing for my love life, so it's not like I'm gonna be missing out on having a place to take somebody back to. I will absolutely be miserable though, living back out in the sticks, miles from anything and anybody, and with fucking dial-up internet. But I'll at least have money to buy things again, which I basically do not, now.
Yeah, I've know the smart thing financially was to move back to town for a while, I just do not want to do it because I hate that area. I've managed to make it work for about two years now but I don't think I can do it much longer.
I'm just pissed off the rent for the one or two decent apartments in shit ass garbage town is only like, $200-300 a month cheaper than the frequently top of travel lists and places to move city I live in right now. Like, what?
I had to move back to my parents house after I got divorced
I managed to save some money, it did help me get started at my own apartment
+3
Options
OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
I've had to move back home because I couldn't make it on my own. My mother gave me the room to reset, go back to school, and try again.
If you have the opportunity, don't feel like a failure to take it--I found it life-changing.
+6
Options
Zonugal(He/Him) The Holiday ArmadilloI'm Santa's representative for all the southern states. And Mexico!Registered Userregular
edited August 2021
Hey Juggs, I happily welcome you to the club!
I moved back home last March right before everything shut-down here due to COVID. I have since had three of my friends have to move in with their parents because the renting costs in our region are too high. We've basically been forced to instead squirrel away money as to hopefully one day buy a house/condo.
Its rough but I will say that living with your parents as an older adult is different than when you were a teenager. It has a different energy and is far less antagonist than I initially imagined.
Zonugal on
+7
Options
Brovid Hasselsmof[Growling historic on the fury road]Registered Userregular
I'm 36 and still living with family.
Not that I'm suggesting anyone should live life the way I do, mind.
+3
Options
DepressperadoI just wanted to see you laughingin the pizza rainRegistered Userregular
my sister and her fiancée moved in with us, he's cool and all but whenever he comes downstairs to like, go smoke a cigarette or get some tea or whatever I'm just like
I moved back in with my parents for a time when I got my current job. Was a couple months while I searched for a place closer to work. But yeah the relation dynamic is very different when you're returning as a way to regroup and try again compared to returning and making no effort to leave. Don't worry about it.
0
Options
WeaverWho are you?What do you want?Registered Userregular
Had to move home at one point as well, it happens.
It shit ever got to hard for me I wouldn't have anywhere to go.
0
Options
MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
Unfortunately, that is becoming fairly normal circumstances with the way cost of living has so vastly outpaced wages.
I'm lucky because I'm both getting cheap rent from an uncle and also splitting rent with my brother, otherwise I wouldn't be able to afford to live in even the relatively fuckoff corner of nowhere I live in Mass.
I have moved out three times and moved back all three, too, most recently when I was I guess 29 (love being part of the cultural moment where more young folks are living with their parents than the Great Depression)
It helps if you can stand your family, but quality of life is really important. Each time I moved out it was fun for the first bit until I ran out of money to buy shoes or nicer food than poverty chili, either because my own bills were too high or my parents needed financial support that cut my paycheques to the bone, and then it was just absolutely exhausting
Learning to get past the need to hit milestones of previous generations/that my more privileged cohort from uni landed with parents who could help with mortgages was pretty freeing, and to be honest with myself I hate living alone anyway, so
I moved home initially to save money at 28, and then when I was laid off I lived there rent free for two Goddamned years while I tried to find a job.
Now I have a place with my fiancée and we pay a mortgage. Took like eight years to go from A to B in that one, but I made it. It feels like dickbutts right now, but if it helps you stabilize to get to the next step, do it and remember that if you had been alive when your parents were your age you more than likely would have been able to buy a damn house with the equivalent of what your job paid three-to-four decades ago.
+1
Options
MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
edited August 2021
I probably could have afforded to continue living by myself in Atlanta if I really wanted, but I was quickly being priced out by increasing rent and would have had to start moving around the city in a more drastic fashion to try and find something, or get a roommate again which I didn't necessarily want to do.
So moving "back home" was a compromise option on a lot of levels.
Though, not having any parents meant moving in with a sibling for a roommate.
Yeah, the other aspect that's kind of starting to rear its head again is this second (well, like fifth but you know) covid spike. We went from 1 active quarantine case on site to 9 in like, 2 days.
If things start getting squirrely and we have to start shutting down due to low demand/covid quarantines depleting our workforce/fucking up supply chains I can guarantee there won't be anymore safety nets this time. I can't afford to lose two weeks pay if that starts happening. If my only expense is a car/phone payment I'll be in better shape to ride it out.
WeaverWho are you?What do you want?Registered Userregular
It took a long time but the move in with parents, get out thing was helpful.
Granted, my parents are horrible right-wing assholes who to this day still don't think I am capable of things like owning property or having opinions.
Also, now that my partner & I have this big new place together and are splitting the rent 50/50 I'm saving a few hundred a month now just on not paying for a one-bedroom in a rich part of the city that my ex abandoned me with.
Not that I'm suggesting anyone should live life the way I do, mind.
instructions unclear, now 36 and living with family
0
Options
FishmanPut your goddamned hand in the goddamned Box of Pain.Registered Userregular
My wife and I have definitely been helped by our parents, but fortunately are also financially secure in stable jobs that aren't threatened by Covid (public sector).
However we also had Jen's best friend from the UK move into our guest room for financial and mental health reasons about a year before Covid and for some reason she's not real keen to move from NZ back to the UK while it's ravaged by a pandemic so she's basically been rent free unemployed for 3 years... Actually we even pay her Au pair rates for helping with the kids and keep her with an employment record, so, you know it's not 'living with the parents' but cohabitation where we're basically entirely supporting another adult of our own cohort and our kids at a time when we're supposed to be building our own financial stability, so that's something that totally hasn't been happening.
Still, at least this way we always have a third player for boardgames.
Posts
I am beyond relief
I think this is fine as long as you're keeping an eye on him. There's an instinct as a pet owner to get every little thing checked out but we don't do that with our human bodies, sometimes bodies just do weird gross shit that's ultimately benign.
Found it!
https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/10/22
EDIT: missed a bunch of replies that didn't show up, so yes, I agree with the cat consensus.
My poor old cat got a few big surface level cysts in her last year or two, and the vet would basically just remove them quickly and give us a disinfectant to clean the area with. So they might be able to provide you with the same, if you need it.
3DS Friend Code: 0216-0898-6512
Switch Friend Code: SW-7437-1538-7786
You're an abscesses!
Here’s hoping for a negative result this Sunday.
If not, it would be the one time I let my guard down that I get fucked so I can’t say I don’t deserve it.
god damn it. why can't we have nice things
My partner and I took a baby break this past weekend and went to MassMoCA which encourages but does not require masks and there were 0 unmasked people in addition to everyone observing exhibit occupancy limits.
Its so weird that largely conservative areas of even a liberal state like Massachusetts suck shit and liberal strongholds are public health conscious. Very strange. How fucking odd.
So far so good. A bit groggy but not too bad. Other half has a sore arm around the jab site and I've got that and a sore armpit as well. Glad to have a day chilling anyway even if work would have been okay.
Sleeping in late was pretty sweet.
What the fuck?!
Why is this so hard?
Fuck!
Parents stopped wearing masks, likely because they were vaccinated, and then immediately slacked off on their kids wearing masks as a result and/or started doing more things and going more places
My partner's preschool just had a child test positive as well, we're definitely going to be seeing an upswing in this among children
I absolutely do not want to be 28 and moving back home but I kinda feel like I need a reset. I've been stressed about money for a while, running myself ragged and not really getting to actually enjoy where I live. Rent isn't any cheaper closer to where I work either, which doesn't really make it worth it to try and find a new apartment.
So I think my long term plan needs to be to just sit tight for a year, buy a car, and then save as much as I can and start looking at houses back in the town I live in currently. Maybe by then prices will have come down a bit, I can find something nice and cozy and I won't be paying as much. I could also have moved into a better/higher paid position by then, too. Plus it'll let me give my mom a hand getting her house back in shape, which I haven't had the time or energy to do and my lazy fuck sibling won't bother with.
I mean, I'm still single, moving to a metro area did nothing for my love life, so it's not like I'm gonna be missing out on having a place to take somebody back to. I will absolutely be miserable though, living back out in the sticks, miles from anything and anybody, and with fucking dial-up internet. But I'll at least have money to buy things again, which I basically do not, now.
:bro:
I'm just pissed off the rent for the one or two decent apartments in shit ass garbage town is only like, $200-300 a month cheaper than the frequently top of travel lists and places to move city I live in right now. Like, what?
I had to move back to my parents house after I got divorced
I managed to save some money, it did help me get started at my own apartment
If you have the opportunity, don't feel like a failure to take it--I found it life-changing.
I moved back home last March right before everything shut-down here due to COVID. I have since had three of my friends have to move in with their parents because the renting costs in our region are too high. We've basically been forced to instead squirrel away money as to hopefully one day buy a house/condo.
Its rough but I will say that living with your parents as an older adult is different than when you were a teenager. It has a different energy and is far less antagonist than I initially imagined.
Not that I'm suggesting anyone should live life the way I do, mind.
I'm lucky because I'm both getting cheap rent from an uncle and also splitting rent with my brother, otherwise I wouldn't be able to afford to live in even the relatively fuckoff corner of nowhere I live in Mass.
It helps if you can stand your family, but quality of life is really important. Each time I moved out it was fun for the first bit until I ran out of money to buy shoes or nicer food than poverty chili, either because my own bills were too high or my parents needed financial support that cut my paycheques to the bone, and then it was just absolutely exhausting
Learning to get past the need to hit milestones of previous generations/that my more privileged cohort from uni landed with parents who could help with mortgages was pretty freeing, and to be honest with myself I hate living alone anyway, so
3DS Friend Code: 0216-0898-6512
Switch Friend Code: SW-7437-1538-7786
Now I have a place with my fiancée and we pay a mortgage. Took like eight years to go from A to B in that one, but I made it. It feels like dickbutts right now, but if it helps you stabilize to get to the next step, do it and remember that if you had been alive when your parents were your age you more than likely would have been able to buy a damn house with the equivalent of what your job paid three-to-four decades ago.
So moving "back home" was a compromise option on a lot of levels.
Though, not having any parents meant moving in with a sibling for a roommate.
If things start getting squirrely and we have to start shutting down due to low demand/covid quarantines depleting our workforce/fucking up supply chains I can guarantee there won't be anymore safety nets this time. I can't afford to lose two weeks pay if that starts happening. If my only expense is a car/phone payment I'll be in better shape to ride it out.
Love to live through history, I tell you hhwat
Granted, my parents are horrible right-wing assholes who to this day still don't think I am capable of things like owning property or having opinions.
Also, now that my partner & I have this big new place together and are splitting the rent 50/50 I'm saving a few hundred a month now just on not paying for a one-bedroom in a rich part of the city that my ex abandoned me with.
instructions unclear, now 36 and living with family
However we also had Jen's best friend from the UK move into our guest room for financial and mental health reasons about a year before Covid and for some reason she's not real keen to move from NZ back to the UK while it's ravaged by a pandemic so she's basically been rent free unemployed for 3 years... Actually we even pay her Au pair rates for helping with the kids and keep her with an employment record, so, you know it's not 'living with the parents' but cohabitation where we're basically entirely supporting another adult of our own cohort and our kids at a time when we're supposed to be building our own financial stability, so that's something that totally hasn't been happening.
Still, at least this way we always have a third player for boardgames.