Coaxing the cat to eat

Our cat has stopped eating, so I took her to the vet, where I discovered she's only about 4.1 lbs even though she'd been eating well until Thursday. I turned down the expensive tests to find out why (she's 16), and asked for subcutaneous fluid and a few appetite stimulants. That has worked in the past when this happened (late summer, always at the lake house). Vet said give her anything to eat you normally wouldn't just to get some calories in her. So, this morning in addition to baby food she got some Häagen-Dazs ice cream and salmon meant for people. She'll get a little freshly cooked chicken and steak later--after she wakes up.

Pet health care costs will go up

Many veterinarians are self-employed or in small group practices, and have in the past bought health insurance through their professional organization, the American Veterinary Medical Association. No more. That's just one association that has covered the self-insured that Obamacare has put out of business. The American Veterinary Medical Association’s Group Health and Life Insurance Trust will no longer provide medical insurance to its members after 2013. The approximately 17,500 AVMA-member veterinarians who carry the medical coverage through GHLIT will have to seek medical individual plans effective Jan. 1, 2014. Despite lobbying efforts on behalf of GHLIT, the trust will no longer be treated as a “group” arrangement, which means that advantages of the current nationwide coverage and premium ratings will not be available, the trust said in a statement.

Most veterinary practices are small--the law is extremely complex and loaded with bureaucratic fat, making the tax laws almost impossible for the little guy. She’ll have to hire more staff for accounting, inventory, IT, etc.  If you've lost your doctor, your vet may be next.

Veterinarians are in many communities first line of defense in HUMAN health--they are public health officers. The medical device tax also affects the health of your pets. A "device" is just about anything that isn't a medication, needles, catheters, and consumables--they will affect veterinarians, too. The price will be passed on to the animal owner. Most pet owners pay real prices, and don't have the cushion of pet insurance.

If pet care gets more expensive, expect to see more abandoned animals, or pets going without health care. Just another Obamacare fall out.

http://www.veterinarypracticenews.com/vet-breaking-news/2012/12/19/avma-forced-to-discontinue-medical-insurance-for-members

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The unwanted horse

You probably saw the article in your paper, because it was AP (was in the Dispatch today.) Horsetalk says there were gross inaccuracies and that the reporter misquoted its editor (Surprise! The MSM misquotes). The pro-lifer (for horses) folks still don't explain how or who will take care of the 100,000 horses currently slaughtered each year in the United States. It's not exactly like cats and dogs where they wander the streets and are breeding--people buy them, maybe for pleasure or 4-H or show, and then move on to something else. What are they to do with an unwanted 1500 lb. pet that needs food, pasture, housing and veterinary care? I use to own a horse. They are not particularly expensive to buy, but aren't cheap to keep. And I was a typical kid. When I got to high school, I lost interest in my horse and I'm sure my parents were relieved, because they were the ones who had to drive me to the farm where he roamed. Once there I had to catch the bugger, who got wilder each time I rode him. One time I was attacked by his pasture mate, a former police horse who was twice his size. Maybe the AP reporter did misquote them, but I've also heard people from the USDA debating this on agricultural talk radio. And folks, they are worried.

Pet lovers/horse lovers need to be very cautious about joining forces on this issue with animal rightists who I suspect are funding it in part. Their goal is to have NO HUMAN owning an animal for any reason--not as a pet, not as a food source, not for pleasure, and not for labor. Not a bird, not a kitten, not a snake, not a fish. Why? Because we are all equal and they are sentient beings in the thinking of animal rightists (not the same as animal welfare advocates although they cooperate on many issues). They say the problem will work out eventually as the supply of horses drops off when the slaughter houses (all three of them for the entire United States) close down. In the meanwhile, would you shoot your sick horse (it's legal), or a healthy one if you couldn't find a home for it; if you did, how would you bury him, and is it even allowed in your township? If you paid the vet to do what you couldn't, what should she do with the carcass?