We have an aging cat (the Rocket) in our household (13+ years old). He's one of our earlier adoptees who was an outdoor cat. He's generally been in excellent health, solid and muscular, the guardian of the yard.
Over the past couple of years he had been licking one spot on his back completely bald, and had also started losing alot of weight, though he was eating well. We took him to the vet about a year ago, he said his thyroid activity was marginal, and prescribed low-dose Megace to generally just calm him, and that seemed to solve everything; he started putting his weight back on, and the fur grew back. We tested him again in February and his thyroid (and everything else) was normal...
However, about a week ago (a little more, now), he just completely stopped eating and drinking... He disappeared for a couple of days (actually, he may have been under one of our large yard bushes, we have a very feral yard!), not showing up for crunchies in the morning, which he usually would not miss. When he did appear, he was thin, dehydrated, and generally unresponsive, no interest in food or attention.
We took him to the vet a couple of days ago; they ran a full spectrum of tests and xrays, and our doctor says basically there's nothing wrong that isn't the direct result of dehydration. His kidneys are fine, thyroid is fine, he doesn't know what was wrong with him.
For now, he's put him on a drug which stimulates his appetite, and he has us giving fluids by IV under the skin, once a day, to try to stimulate urination. Well, his appetite has picked up quite nicely, but he's essentially not drinking at all; he *is* urinating a little, but I suspect it's mostly the IV liquid that he's getting rid of. Hopefully this will change as a few more days pass. Unfortunately, unlike our first lady (who had gradual kidney failure, but *loved* the IV because she knew she'd get a half-hour-a-day of undivided attention!!), Rocket DESPISES the injection, and hates being held when we won't let go... if we have to keep this up long-term, I think things are going to get ugly. I dearly hope he starts drinking soon.
So what's my point in all this ?!?!
I guess, I think, I just wanted to discuss how to make hard decisions... no, how to know when to make hard decisions, and maybe ask for some insights on how to decide when there's no hope for recovery, or at least not enough hope to give him a good quality of life. We (my wife and I) are too close to be sure that we're making decisions entirely for him and not for ourselves; we love this boy so much, we have five cats now, but Rocket is the earliest that remains; he came to us 13 years ago, shortly after we bought our house here, he's almost an Avatar of the house!!
We're keeping him in the garage right now, to keep the others away from him, he's used to being outside and being left alone; our Siamese (Yoda) in particular would give him no peace if we didn't keep them separated. He's actually tolerating the garage okay right now, only occasionally running to the back door to ask out, but if he gets any healthier, he's going to become very insistent!! However, if we let him out, he'll just vanish for days at a time, especially if he realizes I'm going to be poking him with a needle every day...
I know many of you have dealt with this exact issue, I've read so many other stories here about folks giving fluids by IV... so when is it time to draw the line? Or is it *ever* time? Should I be happy that he's healthy enough to complain about the needle, and being held? How do you judge the quality of his life? and how do I make sure that I'm deciding for him, and not just for us???
Over the past couple of years he had been licking one spot on his back completely bald, and had also started losing alot of weight, though he was eating well. We took him to the vet about a year ago, he said his thyroid activity was marginal, and prescribed low-dose Megace to generally just calm him, and that seemed to solve everything; he started putting his weight back on, and the fur grew back. We tested him again in February and his thyroid (and everything else) was normal...
However, about a week ago (a little more, now), he just completely stopped eating and drinking... He disappeared for a couple of days (actually, he may have been under one of our large yard bushes, we have a very feral yard!), not showing up for crunchies in the morning, which he usually would not miss. When he did appear, he was thin, dehydrated, and generally unresponsive, no interest in food or attention.
We took him to the vet a couple of days ago; they ran a full spectrum of tests and xrays, and our doctor says basically there's nothing wrong that isn't the direct result of dehydration. His kidneys are fine, thyroid is fine, he doesn't know what was wrong with him.
For now, he's put him on a drug which stimulates his appetite, and he has us giving fluids by IV under the skin, once a day, to try to stimulate urination. Well, his appetite has picked up quite nicely, but he's essentially not drinking at all; he *is* urinating a little, but I suspect it's mostly the IV liquid that he's getting rid of. Hopefully this will change as a few more days pass. Unfortunately, unlike our first lady (who had gradual kidney failure, but *loved* the IV because she knew she'd get a half-hour-a-day of undivided attention!!), Rocket DESPISES the injection, and hates being held when we won't let go... if we have to keep this up long-term, I think things are going to get ugly. I dearly hope he starts drinking soon.
So what's my point in all this ?!?!
I guess, I think, I just wanted to discuss how to make hard decisions... no, how to know when to make hard decisions, and maybe ask for some insights on how to decide when there's no hope for recovery, or at least not enough hope to give him a good quality of life. We (my wife and I) are too close to be sure that we're making decisions entirely for him and not for ourselves; we love this boy so much, we have five cats now, but Rocket is the earliest that remains; he came to us 13 years ago, shortly after we bought our house here, he's almost an Avatar of the house!!
We're keeping him in the garage right now, to keep the others away from him, he's used to being outside and being left alone; our Siamese (Yoda) in particular would give him no peace if we didn't keep them separated. He's actually tolerating the garage okay right now, only occasionally running to the back door to ask out, but if he gets any healthier, he's going to become very insistent!! However, if we let him out, he'll just vanish for days at a time, especially if he realizes I'm going to be poking him with a needle every day...
I know many of you have dealt with this exact issue, I've read so many other stories here about folks giving fluids by IV... so when is it time to draw the line? Or is it *ever* time? Should I be happy that he's healthy enough to complain about the needle, and being held? How do you judge the quality of his life? and how do I make sure that I'm deciding for him, and not just for us???