Poor Hain seems to have been on the losing end of a battle this time. It looks like his right-front paw dewclaw was ripped out. There's a lot of swelling, so I'm not sure. Possibly a broken bone in there.
I hate that we can't afford to take him to a vet. I hate that there are no options for someone in our situation, except for DIY doctoring, or surrender him to a shelter, who would probably euthanize him anyway.
I refuse to give up. I've gone to such lengths to save animals, even when it was hopeless. I tried to nurse an abandoned baby mouse, to the point of getting up every 2 hours or so to feed it animal formula, built a makeshift incubator, and in the end, even tried mouth to mouth resuscitation. I stopped in the middle of the road to catch a wild rabbit who's fur had been torn, hunted for a wildlife rescue center in the middle of the night for it, even thought about trying to stitch it myself it need be. I paid a vet to surgically remove a guinea pig's damaged eye, when we had the money. I nursed a puppy dying of parvo, including giving her medicated enemas in the hopes of rehydrating her, after vet visits didn't help.
But recent experiences have shown me that the vets in my area just don't care as much about animals as they do for their wallets. When Lulu had what appeared to be a UTI, I had to hunt down freakin' antibiotics for her, basically buying them black market, because no vet would help us. We couldn't pay for all of the extensive tests they swore were necessary. I know that some medical procedures can be very expensive for a vet's office, but the fact that not one would even just take 5 minutes to sell us a broad spectrum antibiotic tells me it's pointless to ask for help with an x-ray. I was willing to pay for the medication. I knew that there was a possibility that the antibiotic wouldn't help, but we couldn't afford $100+ for all these tests they said had to be done to rule out other causes. I had no other choices. Better to do SOMETHING than nothing, right? But I guess all of the vets I called felt it was better to let my cat die than to settle for less than a full office visit. And you know what? Thanks to one kind soul, who managed to find someone who could get me the antibiotic, that cat is fine. She's alive. One of those vets could have saved my cat days of misery, and us tons of worry, if they had had as much heart as that Good Samaritan did.
I may not be able to do as good a job as a vet could, but damn-it I can do the best for Hain I can, from here. I wish we could have him x-rayed. For the amount of swelling, and his complete refusal to put weight on it, I'm pretty sure something is broken. But, evidently, there are no vets around who care more for animals than they do for their wallets. It I can sacrifice sleep to nurse a baby mouse, or give a dying puppy enemas, I can at least attempt to set, splint and bandage my cat. It probably won't heal as well as well as it would if a vet did it, but it's better than nothing.
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