Too Busy To Count

And Another Day Passes

I left Tucker in this morning since it was SO wet. I also had a half day of school since I had a doctor's appointment for my knee. School was busy, with a parent conference during my hall duty, so I had no time to do any kind of real planning, etc. during the morning.

Then when it came time for me to leave, no substitute showed up, even though I had all the paperwork in on Monday for my half day. I had to call the main office on the intercom and then just wait for some 20 minutes before I was able to leave.

That left me a bit pressed for time, but I did manage to get Tucker out into the arena with Chance to enjoy the little bit of sunshine peeking through the cloud cover.

Then I went to the doctor and ended up there for over 2 hours waiting for my treatment. I rushed back home to feed the Boys...only to find Tucker out in the muddy paddock. Part of the fence in the arena was knocked down. This time, though, Chance was stuck inside the arena which surprised me. That means Tucker had either stepped or jumped out, and Chance had not figured out the escape route. (Tuck's shoes were still on...whew!)

Then, I gathered my black kitty, Reggie, and some items for testing and headed to the vet so he could have NAET (Namburdripad's Allergy Elimination Techniques) allergy testing and acupuncture. He has been compulsively licking himself and actually has taken off his fur on his belly and hind legs. My former vet is now just doing alternative medicine, so I connected up with him for the testing.

It is a fascinating process. An assitant holds the cat and puts her arm up to hold against a downward push from the testing vet. He holds various suspected items--food, treats, vacuum cleaner debris--and then presses on the assistant's arm (she is the surrogate for the cat who would not hold up his paw). When her arm shows weakness, then they know the substance being tested is a source of allergic reaction. (I have done this with my horses and it is really remarkable.) Anyhow, Reggie showed allergy to one of the dry cat foods I feed, two types of canned fish, and the vacuum cleaner debris. I am suspicious that since I did vacuum in the kitchen and vacuumed up some of the dry food, that might have triggered the reaction.

Once the allergens are uncovered, the vet acupunctures the cat to rechannel his energy--or perhaps affect the allergy/antigen system. Then Reggie has to be kept from the allergens for 25 hours and not eat anything as well while his body re-programs itself.

Well, Reggie is now locked in the bathroom and none to happy about it. Since I only have one bath in the house, this is an interesting inconvenience, but at least I will be visiting him during the 25 hour confinement.

In about two weeks I will be taking him back to be retested and also to be tested for anything else I might suspect--including fur from each of the other cats in the house. My vet said one woman had nine cats and one cat was allergic to just one of the other cats. He said it took a while but they finally got the problem under control.

Alternative medicines fascinate me. When my knee doctor heard I was taking my cat to my former vet, he was very interested. He knows my vet, so that's a plus but he had forgotten that he did the NAET treatments. He started asking questions because his cat has some allergy problems and now he wants to make an appointment too. Apparently he lives near the vet hospital.

So, that took up the bulk of the day. Tomorrow it is supposed to be pretty nice weather. I will have to get up early to fix the fence so Tucker and the other Boys can go out in the arena/pasture again for the day. Rain is coming back on Friday, so I don't hold out too much hope to get a lot of riding in.

The almost winter jinx continues.