Greetings, friends; I hope everyone is well.
I'm writing because there's a lot of external stuff going on in my personal life, which is making this situation all the more difficult, and I'm looking for a bit of guidance.
For those who've had cats with chronic illnesses that aren't, ostensibly, life-threatening . . . but which are obviously impacting their quality of life . . . and what treatments you've tried haven't helped (but you can't afford a revolving-door, "Let's see what sticks!" approach) . . .
How do you determine when your cat's quality of life has declined to the point where you might need to have The Talk with your vet?
Friend has hyperesthesia. My vet and I tried Gabapentin and Clomicalm, and neither worked well for him (the Clomicalm actually made him really constipated). Back in January or February, we decided to take a conservative approach to treatment--wherein my vet basically said, "Is he happy and healthy otherwise, when he's not having episodes? Then let's leave him be."
The issue is . . . his bad days have become worse. He has good days, too, but I'm starting to wonder about his quality of life. I don't even know how to assess that, at the end of the day--I mean, how do you draw a line and say, "This is enough?"
I've read all about making lists of your cat's five favorite things and using that as a benchmark and stuff, but . . . when he's having multiple episodes for a string of days in a row--even if he's totally fine when that's not happening--and even though he has strings of good days, too--well, it gets me to wondering.
And then . . . how do you bring that up to your vet?
Any constructive thoughts on this matter would be deeply appreciated. As I said, there are a lot of other external stresses in my life; I'm not going to make a call at this point--but some help and guidance from those who've been there would be good.
Thanks, all. <3
Dyl.
I'm writing because there's a lot of external stuff going on in my personal life, which is making this situation all the more difficult, and I'm looking for a bit of guidance.
For those who've had cats with chronic illnesses that aren't, ostensibly, life-threatening . . . but which are obviously impacting their quality of life . . . and what treatments you've tried haven't helped (but you can't afford a revolving-door, "Let's see what sticks!" approach) . . .
How do you determine when your cat's quality of life has declined to the point where you might need to have The Talk with your vet?
Friend has hyperesthesia. My vet and I tried Gabapentin and Clomicalm, and neither worked well for him (the Clomicalm actually made him really constipated). Back in January or February, we decided to take a conservative approach to treatment--wherein my vet basically said, "Is he happy and healthy otherwise, when he's not having episodes? Then let's leave him be."
The issue is . . . his bad days have become worse. He has good days, too, but I'm starting to wonder about his quality of life. I don't even know how to assess that, at the end of the day--I mean, how do you draw a line and say, "This is enough?"
I've read all about making lists of your cat's five favorite things and using that as a benchmark and stuff, but . . . when he's having multiple episodes for a string of days in a row--even if he's totally fine when that's not happening--and even though he has strings of good days, too--well, it gets me to wondering.
And then . . . how do you bring that up to your vet?
Any constructive thoughts on this matter would be deeply appreciated. As I said, there are a lot of other external stresses in my life; I'm not going to make a call at this point--but some help and guidance from those who've been there would be good.
Thanks, all. <3
Dyl.