Maybe my cat doesn't have to be put down?

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EmmaKitty
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Maybe my cat doesn't have to be put down?

Post by EmmaKitty »

OK.. I have had the craziest week with my 15 year old feline (check post history) a week ago i had a normal happy girl. First she went of her food and water and was hiding and seemed in pain. Vet said pancretitis so we started giving her meds and syringe feeding her. Then we noticed she was unsteady on her feet within a few days she went from jumping walking running to only being able to drag her back legs. Vet thought it could be a small blood clot in her left leg. So we started giving her meds for that. We was so worried about her not weeing since Thursday and not pooing since Monday. She went back to the vet today and had her bladder expressed today and the vet said she's got white blood cells in her urine that's she very poorly.. see she has been laying in the litter tray non stop past few days I thought her bladder and bowels were slightly paralysed along with her legs and I thought this is temporary she will take the meds the small clot will go and she will regain use of her legs and bladder. The vet said she defiantly would of had a wee by now and he said she may have a tumour on her bladder and that's there's not much they can do.. they gave us some meds that will either make her vomit or have diarreah which I haven't gave her and he suggested she be euthanized on Wednesday. I was absolutely distraught. I could not stop crying and she would just stare at me confused. How can this little girl who has just regained her appetite and is now drinking shes grooming again shes perked right up shes improved so much but at the same time had this new bigger problem. Anyway, after having my partners mum tell me there's no hope and I'm prolonging her suffering as much as it was killing me inside I started to realise we may be facing the end here. I gave her lick e lix, dreamies and loads of fuss and kisses and talked to her for ages then finally fell asleep for a bit.. well I jolted up to check on my little babe and took her to the bathroom with me (she always use to be around my legs when I went to the toilet) now I've been holding onto her a lot past few days to help with her balance, I let go and she walked! First time in days yeah she swayed and was a bit wobbly but it was such a massive improvement to just being able to drag herself around hours earlier! Oh and she pooped it wasnt easy as I was holding on to her and she fell on her side but she did it! It gives me hope that she's slowly regaining use of her legs and bowels hopefully she will wee soon if not I will attempt to express her until she can do it. OK I know this was long and if you read all this thank you SO much for caring! I want people to be honest here what do you think? Is there something else going on should I just see how she goes? Am I jumping the gun? What else other than a tumour on the bladder could cause a cat to suddenly be unsteady their feet and not be able to go? I hope people can see why I might be thinking its not her time yet she certainly does not seem to be suffering.. so.. any advice or thoughts appreciated. Thanks. 😊
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Ruth B
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Re: Maybe my cat doesn't have to be put down?

Post by Ruth B »

What is wrong with your cat I really can't say, and it is quite possible the vet can't either without a load of blood tests and scans, all they can do is look at the symptoms they can see and that you tell them about and make a best guess.

In my mind there are 6 things a cat needs to be able to do by themselves, eat, drink, pee, poop, walk and groom by themselves or with minimum assistance, if they can't do those things then you have to start to consider whether just what their quality of life is. While i have never have had a cat with Pancreatitis I do know how serious an illness it is, but as others have said in other threads it is something that some cats can recover from.
My suggestion is to make a diary, working from what you can remember and what you wrote in your threads about what was happening, and then anything that she manages to do over the next 24 hours so you have a written account of her improvement, you might even want to take a video or two of her moving by herself, eating, using the litter tray etc, so you can actually show the vet that she seems to be getting better, videos can also be great to help you see what is happening day to day. While I'm not one to prolong suffering in any animal I also would hate to call it a day too soon if one of mine had a chance to recover and can understand you feel the same.

You also need to think of yourself and your family, this is one of the hardest decisions to make, and not knowing what to do can be a greater stress on someone than accepting the worst possible outcome. I had one cat that quickly became unwell and the vet found a tumour in her abdomen, he gave her some medication to see if she might improve, those 24 hours were some of the worst i have gone through, wondering if the meds were really working, whether she could improve, whether i was imagining it when she seemed to perk up a bit but then went back to how she was. It actually effected me so much that the stress started triggering multiple asthma attacks. In the end I had to sit back, look at her with my emotions in check and realise that while the meds made her want to eat and drink and drag herself to and from the food and water bowls they had not made her want to live. At that point I made the decision that when she went back for the follow up, she wasn't coming home. It lifted a weight off me, and even in hindsight, I still don't doubt it was the right decision, both for her, and for me.

My best wishes go to your girl and I hope she will improve bit by bit, but at 15 she has had a good life with you and I know you will do the best for her in the end, whenever that might come.
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fjm
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Re: Maybe my cat doesn't have to be put down?

Post by fjm »

If she is not in pain, is eating and seems to be improving I think you are justified in waiting a while before making a decision on euthanasia. I would phone and talk to the most empathetic of the vets you have seen, and explain the changes and ask what they advise. They may feel the improvement is likely to be only temporary, but even so in your place I would wait a few days, as long as I knew I had access to an emergency vet if it suddenly became essential. Otherwise you will always wonder if she might have got better had you waited, and that would make your grieving even worse.
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Mollycat
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Re: Maybe my cat doesn't have to be put down?

Post by Mollycat »

There are quite a few things you might need to remind yourself of, without wanting to put a damper on your celebrations.

Cats are incredibly resilient and being solitary animals it's not in their nature to show pain and illness. So they have to be very very ill to show it, and they can still be very ill when they seem to be fine.

Cats and most other creatures including us, rally. Rallying is that period of everything being fine and feeling well that often comes before the final downhill, whether the final downhill is nature taking its course or a decision to euthanise. As the brain starts to shut down systems, sometimes incredibly painful conditions and wounds are just not registered - my dad was one, with open weeping bedsores the size of the palm of a hand all over his legs and yet with no painkillers drugs or treatment he couldn't feel a thing and was conscious and comfortable. My Bobby was distressed and unable to pee - he was 15 too and had a long history of digestive problems - rushed him in thinking this was it, he had a temperature of 104 but the vet said she could sort him out. We left him there for 24 hours with her, she said he peed it was on his bed but she was happy that he was able to, the fever came down and we brought him home. Within minutes of being home he was the same again plus open mouth panting. We kept in close touch with the out of hours vet and after a couple of hours he calmed down, the next day I took him in and had him put to sleep but the final 14 hours were peaceful and calm for him and he even jumped up on my lap and washed my hand like he always used to. But he wasn't better, he had reached the stage of the dying process where the pain and discomfort is gone and he and the other animals in the house all knew it was time.

There are lots of heart related reasons cats can "throw" a clot (that's what it's called when a clot comes from the heart and goes down the blood vessels until it gets stuck and causes a problem) and if you look up saddle thrombus that's the extreme and excruciatingly painful, some cats properly scream with it and there's not a lot that can be done to help them if that happens. If one clot breaks loose from the heart others are likely to follow and the next one could be that horrific one that is not the way you would want to remember your cat. It might not happen, it might not be that, but if your vet is strongly suggesting that we say goodbye on Wednesday, vet might be suspecting this scenario. Vets aren't always right but when their best off is to put an animal to sleep, we should certainly take that suggestion very seriously and know what we're talking about if we refuse.
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