- Joined
- Jul 2, 2023
- Messages
- 13
- Purraise
- 32
Idk how to even start. 2 yrs ago Sox was just a luvable gray chunk that we met on our walks and I'm pretty sure thinks he's a dog. I ADORE him. That's important to know.
To keep it short, I'll skip to 1 yr ago. He was just the super spoiled neighborhood tom cat. Many houses pet him inside at times and he probably got 3 or more feedings at each meal from different families. He's not afraid of dogs, loved to join in the walks or follow you home for a treat. One particular family seemed to mostly claim him. They had vetted him about a yr before we met him just for vaccinations and to make sure he was already neutered. No one knows his original origin. (He does have a chip, but they were uninterested.) There's a young girl there who called him her cat, and they seemed close.
Last June Sox started sort of yo-yo'ing in weight. At first, I just scratched my head at it but didn't worry, thinking I was being oversensitive and my eyes were exaggerating what they saw. But slowly, it became obvious that each time he lost weight, he'd get smaller & smaller, to the point that he looked positively gaunt. He's also become extremely vocal (like hear him 4 houses down vocal,) and started showing aggression toward other cats- when before he'd always been the cuddly Bob Marley of our street.
Throughout this entire time, I approached the girls family 5 or 6 times to express concern. Then later to request something be done. Every time was dismissed. "Oh, no- he's fine, he just does that sometimes." But eventually even they finally couldn't deny something was wrong. The girl and her mom adored him so I thought they'd def help him now that they understood! I begged them to have him seen, then later offered to pay half if they would, then to pay ALL, then I just had enough and took him to their vet by my damn self.
Took 5 minutes to Dx Hyperthyroidism. He was down from 11 lbs (when the girls family originally vetted him) to barely 7 lbs. Put him on Tapazole, made some major adjustments to his and my daily routine so I could make sure to be able to admin the meds once a day. Then in November, twice a day. It was tough. He was basically flat when he pay down. It was near impossible to pet, cuddle, or pick him up-he was ALL bones. But then finally around Xmas, he started gaining! In Feb he was 9.3lbs!! Thank the fur gods!
Then.....
In April, I noticed the little lump on his front right elbow was now 2 lumps...So we took him in just to be safe.
We learned on the same day that the year of twice daily medication and so much extra food/treats that it started to strain not only my wallet, but also my marriage, in addition to making my own cats pretty fat, that it'd finally paid off! His thyroid levels had finally reached normal level! But somehow Sox had lost 2 lbs in 3 months-
As for the elbow lumps, I assumed they were lipomas as my dog had had them in exactly the same spot, and I wasn't worried...but vet was concerned immediately.
Fast-fwd an hour and I was trying to see through the tears to drive back home with a terminal cat with feline sarcoma. The vet said in his opinion, further testing and treatment would be extremely costly, painful, emotionally traumatizing for Sox, and highly unlikely to succeed with Sox's hyperthyroidism and other overall health, and that palliative care was our only real option.
After a couple days, and dissatisfion with the vets pain treatment plan (3 days Onsior), I decided a 2nd opinion wasn't a bad idea. Dr. H, the new vet, took an x-ray and showed me how the cancer was literally disintegrating the bones in his arm. He said Sox was so vocal and needy bc of intense pain, that the bones would break any day, and he wanted to amputate ASAP. He put him on a steroid, antibiotics, gabapentin, and Buprenorephine.
We thought it over for a few days during which his mobility and pain worsened, and decided to take the chance. On June 1st, Sox had his front R leg amputated up to the scapula. I think that's what it's called? (They left the shoulder blade.) I'll NEVER forget the site and shock when they handed him to me the next day. It broke my heart.
Fast forward through a difficult forward and backward recovery; meanwhile we waited for pathology results to see if the sarcoma had metastisized. (We'd wanted to do the biopsy before the surgery, but the leg had indeed broken 4 days before his amputation, so there was not time for a 7-10 day wait.)
Finally, 17 days post op , Dr. H called with the results, stating "Unfortunately, it IS cancer" Well...duh. We knew that. But had it already spread???? "Well the lab is having a really hard time narrowing down what type of cancer it is." Again, we already knew it was Sarcoma. So I asked AGAIN. "Has. It. Spread?" Dr. H replied "Unfortunately, the lab did find some abnormal cells at the excision site, so yes, most likely, it has spread."
So now I'm just trying my absolute best to give him the best quality of life I can, while I can. (And ofc these things happen all at the same time, so I'm already in debt another $10k from a recent human health emergency.)
Now that you know the back story, my main question right now actually regards the hyperthyroidism. Sox has chronic diarrhea, partly from the disorder and partly from the tapazole. He gets pumpkin daily which helps some, basically switching it from a thin gravy to maybe chocolate soft serve-WHEN it works, which is about 2/3 of the time. (Hope you weren't eating while reading this.)
Ofc Sox can no longer venture outside, so the litterbox situation is as absolute nightmare ATM. It takes me close to half an hour 4-6 x a day ATM, not to mention the massive amount of cat litter, just to get to the minimum level of maintenance. (I've tried the harness and leash outside and even taking him into the backyard without leash/harness. He simply will NOT go with me around, and I can't take the chance that he gets over the fence etc.)
Yesterday, I started transitioning from clumping clay litter to wood pellets, due to cost and amount of time required for clean up of the clay litter and the inevitable splashes everywhere. So far, the pellets thing has been a disaster. I haven't thrown in the towel yet bc I REALLY need a cheaper option than clay. Sox urinates 6x and has a BM 3-4x daily, so cleanup is a full time job.
Can anyone suggest a solution for the litter issue?
And I would love to hear suggestions from those who have experienced any of these specific situations to help him retain some quality of life, while saving money as much as possible bc just the food/treat and meds and supplements bills are already more than my wallet (or my marriage) can take.
TYSMIA!
To keep it short, I'll skip to 1 yr ago. He was just the super spoiled neighborhood tom cat. Many houses pet him inside at times and he probably got 3 or more feedings at each meal from different families. He's not afraid of dogs, loved to join in the walks or follow you home for a treat. One particular family seemed to mostly claim him. They had vetted him about a yr before we met him just for vaccinations and to make sure he was already neutered. No one knows his original origin. (He does have a chip, but they were uninterested.) There's a young girl there who called him her cat, and they seemed close.
Last June Sox started sort of yo-yo'ing in weight. At first, I just scratched my head at it but didn't worry, thinking I was being oversensitive and my eyes were exaggerating what they saw. But slowly, it became obvious that each time he lost weight, he'd get smaller & smaller, to the point that he looked positively gaunt. He's also become extremely vocal (like hear him 4 houses down vocal,) and started showing aggression toward other cats- when before he'd always been the cuddly Bob Marley of our street.
Throughout this entire time, I approached the girls family 5 or 6 times to express concern. Then later to request something be done. Every time was dismissed. "Oh, no- he's fine, he just does that sometimes." But eventually even they finally couldn't deny something was wrong. The girl and her mom adored him so I thought they'd def help him now that they understood! I begged them to have him seen, then later offered to pay half if they would, then to pay ALL, then I just had enough and took him to their vet by my damn self.
Took 5 minutes to Dx Hyperthyroidism. He was down from 11 lbs (when the girls family originally vetted him) to barely 7 lbs. Put him on Tapazole, made some major adjustments to his and my daily routine so I could make sure to be able to admin the meds once a day. Then in November, twice a day. It was tough. He was basically flat when he pay down. It was near impossible to pet, cuddle, or pick him up-he was ALL bones. But then finally around Xmas, he started gaining! In Feb he was 9.3lbs!! Thank the fur gods!
Then.....
In April, I noticed the little lump on his front right elbow was now 2 lumps...So we took him in just to be safe.
We learned on the same day that the year of twice daily medication and so much extra food/treats that it started to strain not only my wallet, but also my marriage, in addition to making my own cats pretty fat, that it'd finally paid off! His thyroid levels had finally reached normal level! But somehow Sox had lost 2 lbs in 3 months-
As for the elbow lumps, I assumed they were lipomas as my dog had had them in exactly the same spot, and I wasn't worried...but vet was concerned immediately.
Fast-fwd an hour and I was trying to see through the tears to drive back home with a terminal cat with feline sarcoma. The vet said in his opinion, further testing and treatment would be extremely costly, painful, emotionally traumatizing for Sox, and highly unlikely to succeed with Sox's hyperthyroidism and other overall health, and that palliative care was our only real option.
After a couple days, and dissatisfion with the vets pain treatment plan (3 days Onsior), I decided a 2nd opinion wasn't a bad idea. Dr. H, the new vet, took an x-ray and showed me how the cancer was literally disintegrating the bones in his arm. He said Sox was so vocal and needy bc of intense pain, that the bones would break any day, and he wanted to amputate ASAP. He put him on a steroid, antibiotics, gabapentin, and Buprenorephine.
We thought it over for a few days during which his mobility and pain worsened, and decided to take the chance. On June 1st, Sox had his front R leg amputated up to the scapula. I think that's what it's called? (They left the shoulder blade.) I'll NEVER forget the site and shock when they handed him to me the next day. It broke my heart.
Fast forward through a difficult forward and backward recovery; meanwhile we waited for pathology results to see if the sarcoma had metastisized. (We'd wanted to do the biopsy before the surgery, but the leg had indeed broken 4 days before his amputation, so there was not time for a 7-10 day wait.)
Finally, 17 days post op , Dr. H called with the results, stating "Unfortunately, it IS cancer" Well...duh. We knew that. But had it already spread???? "Well the lab is having a really hard time narrowing down what type of cancer it is." Again, we already knew it was Sarcoma. So I asked AGAIN. "Has. It. Spread?" Dr. H replied "Unfortunately, the lab did find some abnormal cells at the excision site, so yes, most likely, it has spread."
So now I'm just trying my absolute best to give him the best quality of life I can, while I can. (And ofc these things happen all at the same time, so I'm already in debt another $10k from a recent human health emergency.)
Now that you know the back story, my main question right now actually regards the hyperthyroidism. Sox has chronic diarrhea, partly from the disorder and partly from the tapazole. He gets pumpkin daily which helps some, basically switching it from a thin gravy to maybe chocolate soft serve-WHEN it works, which is about 2/3 of the time. (Hope you weren't eating while reading this.)
Ofc Sox can no longer venture outside, so the litterbox situation is as absolute nightmare ATM. It takes me close to half an hour 4-6 x a day ATM, not to mention the massive amount of cat litter, just to get to the minimum level of maintenance. (I've tried the harness and leash outside and even taking him into the backyard without leash/harness. He simply will NOT go with me around, and I can't take the chance that he gets over the fence etc.)
Yesterday, I started transitioning from clumping clay litter to wood pellets, due to cost and amount of time required for clean up of the clay litter and the inevitable splashes everywhere. So far, the pellets thing has been a disaster. I haven't thrown in the towel yet bc I REALLY need a cheaper option than clay. Sox urinates 6x and has a BM 3-4x daily, so cleanup is a full time job.
Can anyone suggest a solution for the litter issue?
And I would love to hear suggestions from those who have experienced any of these specific situations to help him retain some quality of life, while saving money as much as possible bc just the food/treat and meds and supplements bills are already more than my wallet (or my marriage) can take.
TYSMIA!
I'm thinking maybe a combo of your and Feebys Owner's idea: ask for shredded newspaper donations and dump daily...though with Sox it would prob need to be twice daily. Cat mess never smells good, but his will quickly run you out of a room, and lingers much longer. 
Very true.
