Boo is too wild. She has now torn out a couple of stitches and has pulled so hard on others that she has torn her skin. She's got to go back today to get looked at so that it will heal properly. And now that she's messed up the stitches, the incision is bothering her and she keeps licking it. Luckily, I won't have to pay anything unless they prescribe more meds for her. (Her initial meds finished Monday night.) A large portion of my extra paycheck last month was dedicated fixing my budget from all of the kitten vet visits I've had since August.

And I got the shock of my life when I, just out of curiosity, decided to see how much I spent on cat costs other than food/litter (i.e., expenses I don't have itemized).

Whoa!

Last year for four cats, I spent $1572 at the vet, $100 at an animal shelter and $35 for microchip registration. For a total of $1707 of which less than $200 was in my budget.

This includes yearly shots and checkups for two (Buddy and Wizard), teeth cleaning for one (Wizard), a checkup under anesthesia (Buddy), medicine for 5 upper respiratory infections (Wizard was issued meds once and didn't need them, but needed a batch later, Spook had to be treated twice and Boo once), two full kitten vaccine series (Spook and Boo), a spaying (Boo), two microchippings (Spook and Boo), and two pre-anesthesia blood work exams (Wizard and Boo) (the checkup under anesthesia didn't have this test performed first or I would have spent an additional $60.).

Ouch! And Wizard's annual checkup is due at the end of this month.