at what time do you put an aged feline down

[nyzki]

snowball is eating again, her owner has given her some babyfood and she has magaged to get it down, her owner thinks that she has been having some problems with her throat but iam relieved that she is at least getting some nutrition. And thank you to you all for your advice and opions it was very much appreciated

 

[june]

Glad to hear that Snowball's owners didn't consider her symtoms as indications of her impending demise and that , at least for now, they're deciding to work lifeward. It looks like Snowball is responding too. Thanks for letting us know.

 

[booktigger]

I can really sympathise with you, my neighbours dog (now at the bridge) had lots of health issues in the last year of her life, and my neighbour thought that she didnt have the right to take the dogs life away. Although to me the dog didnt look like she had quality of life, I wasnt the one living with her (mind you, neither was her owner), so I learnt to keep my mouth shut as while she felt her pet had quality of life there was nothing anyone could do, even though every other person who was close to the situation agreed that she had let the dog go on for too long, but she wasnt ready to admit it. It did get to the stage where she had to admit it, and i just had a quiet word with her mum so her mum could be there for her, it is the most we can do in situations like this. I am glad Snowball seems to be getting better.

Holistic medicine is nothing if not a therapy of hope until an animal actually dies there's hope of recovery from even the most dire condition because when you allow for miracles by persisting with the right natural supplements sometimes they occur.

I have to say i really really disagree with comments like this. In the past 3 years, i have lost 5 cats, all to different illnesses, and I had to watch three of them go downhill, all lasted 2 weeks after the diagnosis, and there was no way hoping for any of them would have worked, it is unfair on the animals. Their bodies are like ours, they can't last forever, and they just cannot overcome any illness, thats just like saying if you have something like cancer then it can be cured by hope.

 

[june]

Re :

"I have to say i really really disagree with comments like this. In the past 3 years, i have lost 5 cats, all to different illnesses, and I had to watch three of them go downhill, all lasted 2 weeks after the diagnosis, and there was no way hoping for any of them would have worked, it is unfair on the animals. Their bodies are like ours, they can't last forever, and they just cannot overcome any illness, thats just like saying if you have something like cancer then it can be cured by hope."

Part of the original quote by Dr. Goldstein,DVM was :

"Holistic medicine is nothing if not a therapy of hope until an animal actually dies there's hope of recovery from even the most dire condition because when you allow for miracles by persisting with the right natural supplements sometimes they occur."

If you read the above quote it is clear that Dr. Goldstein is not advocating sending a pet owner home with hope as the sole therapy of choice. He does mention the use of "natural substances" so holistic medicine must involve more than just hope . . He advocates holistic medicine calling it a therapy of hope. There is a difference. As for hope on the part of the pet owner, if it played no part at all, he wouldn't have mentioned it.He has casebook after casebook full of pets that were cured after vets had given up hope but the pet owners didn't . If they had, the pet would have been put down long before he would have had a chance to help.

 

[dr. doolittle]

I would just like to add that veterinarians, like human physicians ARE required to take continuing education courses to update their education. The level of education required probably varies from region to region but the idea of continuing ed. credits is universal in medicine. Some veterinarians (as with some human doctors) take their CE more seriously than others and some take way more than is required to stay current.
IMO diagnosing a ptometra as heart disease and a perforated gastric ulcer as cancer is called MISDIAGNOSING. It unfortunately happens sometimes as doctors are not psychic, and are human and thus falliable. The more education and work-up, the less this happens. And any animal diagnosed with lymphatic cancer that survives without aggressive therapy is probably also a misdiagnosis IMO. As was already mentioned, if you don't trust your vet- find a new one.
Unfortunately veterinarians are also at the mercy of their clients budget. If an owner can't afford to treat and the animal is suffering, how fair is it to deny euthanasia?

 

[nano]

Well, the particular issue is answered because the cat is said to be rallying...

In general, if you (as an outsider) really feel the need to say something about "it is time", just say it once and let it go. Personally I don't want to hear anyone's opinions or thoughts about the fate of my pets. I will solicit vet opinions and consider facts, but it is my pet -- I know it better than anyone -- so I make all the decisions.

 

[june]

Nano, that's your approach . It's not everyone's . The thread was posed as as question not as a statement. Two questions were posed: "Do I just sit back and watch this animal get worse or do I talk to my friend again about this subject? and the subject was addressed from various angles . State it once and let it go? Clarification doesn't work that way. Yes, the cat seems to be rallying but no one would be able to see that if the cat had been put down. As I said before, " When all is said and done it's really up to the individual whether or not they wish to determine the quality of life of their pet by themselves or with veterinary help. In the latter case,one would think that a vet well- informed in various approaches would be of immense value. That is, if the pet owner wanted to make a well-informed decision on the matter." The point of my post entirely.

 

[booktigger]

you cant always just say it once and let it go, sometimes they let the animal carry on and it has another setback, but because they are so attached to the animal, they are letting it carry on for their sake, not the animals. I have actually faced this from a slightly different point of view. The cat i lost in Jan had had a liver prob for a 10 months before the situation got worse. she then developed a condition called cholangiohepatitis, basically an inflamed liver and bile ducts. her only response to medication was that she hated me and stopped purring, so i decided to stop, knowing that i might be sentencing her to weeks less, but at least she would be happy. I took her to the vets on New Years Eve as she had been sick about 4 times in 3 days, which was more than normal for her. The vet gave her some sub-q fluids and told me to come back on Tues (after hols). I asked if she was in pain, and she told me she would be feeling like she had the hangover from hell. I couldnt let her go on New Year's Eve though, i was too selfish. My neighbours reaction was 'see, the vet could do something', but to me i was prolonging the inevitable, and not for good reasons. I got extremely drunk and had such a bad hangover on New Years Day (i never get hangovers) that i realised i couldnt put my baby through that, so i made the decision then, even though i couldnt take her to the vets till Tues. On the Mon, my neighbour had popped round for something and i said that Snowy wasnt coming back from the vets the day after. First she told me off for saying it in front of the cat, and then told me that my cat had enough quality of life to carry on living. She had only seen the cat once that day though, and it was one of only 2 times she went downstairs that day, very unusal for her. She had been out of character all day, plus the vet had told me she could go downhill at any moment, and with working all day, i didnt want to come home to find out that she had been suffering all day, this way she went with dignity and I was there with her, it was peaceful, quick and painless. She also passed comment the second animal i have lost this year - she had mammary cancer (plus bad teeth, chronic conjunctivitis and possible cystitis) and had gone up 2 weeks after diagnosis as she was off her food. I could have tried her on medicine, but she was very unsociable, and to take her to the vets the day after if it didnt work wouldnt have been fair, her breathing went terrible and she left sweaty paw prints on the table when she went to the vets, never mind being aggressive getting her into the carrier. What clinched it was losing nearly half a kilo in 2 weeks, i knew she was just going to get worse and didnt want to put her through it. My neighbours reaction (she had taken me to the vet) was 'You haven't, have you?'. As she had opted to stay in the car while i was in the vets (45 mins), i was annoyed with her, for just saying it without knowing my reasons why, especially seeing as out of all the times (4 in 3 years) i have had to make that decision, it was the hardest one, i knew it was coming but couldnt say the words.

 

[nano]

Originally Posted by June

Nano, that's your approach . It's not everyone's . The thread was posed as as question not as a statement. Two questions were posed: "Do I just sit back and watch this animal get worse or do I talk to my friend again about this subject? and the subject was addressed from various angles . State it once and let it go? Clarification doesn't work that way. Yes, the cat seems to be rallying but no one would be able to see that if the cat had been put down. As I said before, " When all is said and done it's really up to the individual whether or not they wish to determine the quality of life of their pet by themselves or with veterinary help. In the latter case,one would think that a vet well- informed in various approaches would be of immense value. That is, if the pet owner wanted to make a well-informed decision on the matter." The point of my post entirely.

I've seen you intrude into several euthanasia threads where you imply anyone who goes the PTS route is a murderer, unless of course they listen to you and your snake-oil remedies. Your actions are reprehensible.

I challenge you to start a thread exactly outlining the "options" you think exist for an ailing cat. Put your theories up in a public format and let's see if they pass the giggle test to a group of clear-thinking people. The only folks who might bite on your nonsense are the ones so distraught from grief that they are beyond desperate. And it is really low to prey on people at such a difficult time.

So yeah, put up or shut up...otherwise my words stand as final judment on you.

 

[june]

Nano, obviously you are now behaving in less than a civil manner. I do not need to prove anything to your satisfaction nor follow your criteria in order to do so. Your comments are worth no more of a reply than this:
Cures speak for themselves. I don't need to prove something that has already been proven by qualified vets . Discounting the existence of cures also doesn't , somehow ,make them less true or real. Hope speaks for itself,although its mere mention seems to trigger almost a fear in some people , as though it was something to be avoided at all cost, as though it was too high a standard to strive for, as though it was better not to strive at all ." Don't say a pet was cured when another's pet wasn't" ,"better not to offer it to anyone because I didn't know of it when I needed to know for my own pet. ." To those I say, that is a shame. I would think that this would be a new and exciting time to realize that there are new proven methods and opportunities now available that can help to restore the health of one's pet- things that weren't available in veterinary medicine even five years ago. Pets are living longer because of this. As Charles E Loops DVM has remarked - "After 10 years of traditional veterinary practice I became tired of having no treatment for chronic disease, incurable conditions, and a plethora of allergic maladies which seem to plague all veterinary practices. I was frustrated with giving animals cortisone because I had no other solutions, or using antibiotics for infections which I knew were of viral origin. At this time I had some chronic health problems, which had been unresolvable allopathically, but they responded to treatment by homeopathy. It took some time but it worked!" That is his approach. There are other approaches. As I said before , I'm for whatever works .

 

[ctcat]

I have to agree a bit with Nano. While I am extremely grateful for the FIP info. you gave me, it was extremely painful June for me to read your post in my "saying goodbye to Chloe" thread. Obviously you had not read the entire thread or else you would of known that she was already dead. The guilt and pain that I have from letting her go is unbearable enough. To read that I could of made some last ditch effort was like adding salt to my wounds

 

[babybee]

This is such a difficult situation...If you are really good friends I would talk to her, but not suggest anything, just help her make the right decision, and help her make a decision that she is comfortable with. Of course the final decision comes down to your friend, and most likely there will be nothing you can do or say to change it. She should talk to her vet, and see what options are available as well.

It really comes down to the owner....Try and be supportive, and be there for your friend, because she will need a lot of support no matter what she decides.

 

[journey]

Originally Posted by CTCat

I have to agree a bit with Nano. While I am extremely grateful for the FIP info. you gave me, it was extremely painful June for me to read your post in my "saying goodbye to Chloe" thread. Obviously you had not read the entire thread or else you would of known that she was already dead. The guilt and pain that I have from letting her go is unbearable enough. To read that I could of made some last ditch effort was like adding salt to my wounds

Sorry to hear that.