- Joined
- Apr 2, 2020
- Messages
- 44
- Purraise
- 64
All of the mobile vets in my area are only doing telemedicine for current patients but they're definitely worth a try as well. Good luck, I hope you have lots of good days left and won't have to do it soon.
My cat before Krista, Cabernet, I came home to her foaming at the mouth. That was a Sunday. She had a tumor removed from her mouth and biopsy on Mon or Tuesday. By Friday, I got the terrible news that it was malignant (cancer.). That weekend I searched Yahoo or Alta Vista (this was 14 years ago and I’m not sure if Google was the dominant one yet.). The best advice I found was give your cat daily “cat scores.” How much is he acting like a cat’s cat? Does he eat? Does he enjoy time in the sun? Or staring out the window? Does he want to be with you? Or be in his favorite spots doing things he enjoys? When his scores are consistently in the toilet such as spending most of his time under a bed or in hiding, doesn’t eat, doesn’t want to be with people, doesn’t want to do many or any of his previously favorite things, that’s about as objective as you can make this difficult decision. Only you can decide what your score cut-off is and how many days to give him at that score. For Cabbie, she spent that weekend under the bed or in the dark bedroom rather than with me or sitting in the sun. I’m not sure how much she ate that weekend. But not very much. I knew much less about cats back then to monitor her eating. I just saw several days at “3” or below and changed her oncology appointment that next week to a different kind of appointment.
I don’t know about your current vet or the hospital that did the ultrasound. But Krista’s vet makes an exception to “no parents allowed” for euthanasia. They understand how important it is to both parent and animal to be with each other in those last moments. I hope when it’s time, they’ll make the same exception at your facility.
But until that time that his scores are consistently low, don’t underestimate just how resilient cats can be. I thought Krista wouldn’t make it another couple weeks so many times over the last couple of years through pancreatitis, liver disease, her teeth, when she was pooping liquids for months, and lost all this weight. But she just keeps going and doesn’t show any sign of wanting to give up. I finally stopped trying to make that decision for her and trust that she’ll tell me when it’s time. Until then, I kid with my friends and family that she just may be immortal and outlive us all. She’s been through so much and keeps on going. I hope yours proves to be that resilient too.