I thought he was doing okay after the 2nd floor Leap to Freedom, but he is favoring one front paw, and he is definitely having trouble doing very low jumps up now, in the house.

So I took him to the new emergency vet center right in town. No appointment necessary. The good news is, vet said obviously no broken bones, since he's walking, though he could have a sprain or pulled tendon. Hard to know which, but he didn't think x-ray were necessary, lucky for me since they run $300. He said rest is best, though easier said than done. He gave me some pain meds for 4 days.

He declined to try to remove the 4 or 5 tiny ticks on the cat's outer eyelid. Yes, gross. I removed 2 tiny ticks from his ears. He said if I give him the over the counter stuff I got at Wal-Mart (a cheaper version of Frontline), they should drop off. I'm afraid I'll jab him in the eye if he struggles if I try to remove them with tweezers.

It cost me $140 for the exam/meds, plus another $22 for the Pet Armor. I gave him his pain med in a treat and he ate it fine. Then I applied the Pet Armor and was determined to sit with Luther in one room for an hour to make sure he didn't try to lick it off his shoulders, something that Waldo did once and had a horrible reaction with frothing at the mouth. Luther did fine, and didn't seem to know I'd applied it.

They always say on the directions to make sure you get it on the skin, not the fur, but of course his fur is so thick around his neck and this liquid stuff doesn't really seem to be absorbed by the skin alone. You're supposed to apply it all on the same spot. I did the best I could; I hope it works as those ticks around his eyes are gross.

I finished my own meds for the lyme disease a few days and have noticed a few headaches returning since I stopped them. They would probably have me do a 2nd round of 3 weeks of antibiotics if I wanted to, but thing is, I can't see the doc again until next Thursday, Aug. 1, since I am not effective on my new health plan til then. Til then, I will have to tough it out and continue my herbs which I've been doing with the meds all along.

I would really like to move away from here to a place where I don't have to think so much about ticks and disease.

PS I managed to pull off 2 of the tiny ticks from around his eyes with blunt tweezers. He really didn't struggle, but after that, he started protesting, so will let him be for a while. There are at least 2 more there that I see.