Oh dear...

One of my pair of the oldest hens is starting to look very old suddenly - much older than her friend who is still laying the occasional egg.  She wasn't even interested in the slice of bread I had for them yesterday let alone the corn.  She just stood and watched her friend gobble it up.  At this rate I'm going to have lots of henhouses/runs with just one hen in.  At least I know that she is just old and not poorly.

I have an elderly cat who is going very thin.  She is 17 now and just not getting the benefit from her food any more.  She is happy and has the same appetite as always although she drinks more than she used to.  She is my cat and I am her person and I'm really, really going to miss her when she goes.  She is such a nice natured cat.  She was a rescued cat that had obviously been used to being kicked.  Why do people do that to animals?  All these years with us gradually taught her that some humans were to be trusted but it took over two years before she asked to come on a lap.  And she always checked and asked before jumping up.  She used to sit on my bed but always on the very corner so that she could slip off quickly and get down the stairs out of harm's way.  Now she plonks herself in the middle and I have to pick her up and move her if needs be : )

My other cat is turned 14 and is being a bit expensive at the moment.  She developed a little patch on her back with a scratchy looking rash and the fur coming out around it.  So we took her to the vet who said that they had no idea what might be causing the problem.  They gave her a steroid injection and treated her for mites to see if that might help.  We took her back for a checkup a week later as requested and they said that there was no evidence of mites (phew!!). The funny patch was the size of my palm by now and was obviously bothering her.  The vet was still no wiser as to the problem let alone the cure so they had her back to do a biopsy.  They also did some blood tests.  So we've had the results now and they still have no idea what the problem is although they can say definitely some things that the problem is not. The bald and rashy patch is now the size of my hand and other smaller areas are now affected. And we've just paid £260 for them to not know any answers. 

So we're not really much further forward and don't know what to do to help my cat.  And if I wasn't such a skinflint, we would not have the £260 sitting there ready to pay the vet's bill.  But I'm not happy!