UPDATE: Benny

The vet contacted me today to schedule Benny's surgery for next Wednesday, April 16th. Thankfully, the antibiotics seem to be working. I took a look at his toe today and, although it still looks a little red, it looks like it's drying out and beginning to heal.

The estimated charges total $351.37! It includes the surgery, anesthesia, cardiac monitor, radiograph, pain meds, and overnight stay. Man, when it rains, it pours! We need to pay off our Ihilani weekend and our car insurance premiums are also due early next month! Sheesh! I wish we had pet health insurance or something. :P

Here's the "schedule":
- Tuesday, April 15th: No food after 6PM, no water after Midnight. Cats sometimes get sick if they don't have an empty stomach while under anesthesia. Since we can't really separate Benny and Chester, looks like Chester will be fasting, too. He is not going to be happy. :P

- Wednesday, April 16th: Drop Benny off at the vet at 7AM. Since Brian will be sleeping by then, I'll take Benny and go in to work a couple hours late. I wonder if "Care of a furbaby" (versus "Care of a Family Member") qualifies as sick leave? Benny will stay overnight so he can get some much-needed post-surgery rest without Chester terrorizing him. :P
(Dr. Furutani is so cool. She said they normally send declaw patients home the day of surgery, but she's going to let him stay overnight. According to our estimate, she's only charging us for "Cage Occupancy". Cage Occupancy is what they charge for the cage they keep the animals in, post-surgery, until their owners pick them up on the same day. When my dad had his stroke in 2006, it happened to coincide with the very same day we had to pick Chester up from the vet after having some procedures done for his urinary tract problems. When she called to let us know that Chester was ready to be picked up, I told her about my dad and she said not to worry about Chester and that they would keep him overnight. She didn't charge us for the stay.)

- Thursday, April 17th: Pick Benny up after 1PM.

In preparation for Benny's post-surgery recovery, we need to make some changes to their litter box situation. Benny can't use clay litter until his incisions heal. So, I need to find some Yesterday's News cat litter and replace their old litter with it. I'm going to hit up K-mart and Pet's Discount tomorrow after work. I'm not sure how they'll adjust to the new litter.

I'm wondering if we may need to lock Benny in our bedroom. The last time he had this surgery, the vet recommended he be confined so Chester doesn't bother him and also wanted to limit his physical activity, such as running and leaping, so that the incisions could heal. He was miserable being locked up in our room. :(