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Adventures in Cat Ownership

Flea medicine edition

Ellie Daforge
3 min readJun 16, 2020
Photo by Yerlin Matu via Unsplash

I’ve written before about my vanilla cupcake and snickerdoodle, AKA my cats. I call them various names of desserts because, well, why not?

My little floofs are an endless source of joy, but when they get sick, they can be an endless source of stress. I know a lot about healthcare for humans, but cats are another matter entirely.

For example, I thought “distemper” was just something my coworkers get. And humans don’t exactly need flea medicine.

But in the spring, I noticed that my cats were scratching, and I realized I needed to get them back on flea drops. They were on fluralaner after their winter checkups, but it only lasts for three months. And it’s only available by prescription.

Complicating things further, each of my cats goes to a different veterinary clinic. This is because when we got our second cat, the shelter gave us a coupon for a free checkup, and we’ve been taking him to that clinic ever since.

Snickerdoodle’s vet is old-fashioned, but the clinic is a pillar in our community. The staff use paper charts, but Snickerdoodle’s file includes a picture of her as a kitten. Her vet went to the same university as me. When he’s done, he says to Snickerdoodle, “All right, back to Mom,” which I love.

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Ellie Daforge
Ellie Daforge

Written by Ellie Daforge

Aspiring novelist. I write about healthcare, technology, and lifestyle.

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