Kidney Disease. Euthanasia

[atomicrose]

my beautiful Siamese mix that i had for 10 years had to be put down on Saturday 9/22. she was probably 12 ish years old, i found her outside. on Sunday night almost 1 week before euthanasia she was vomiting. probably 15-20x in a matter of 12 hours. I took her to the vet asap that morning. we ran blood work and found her BUN was well over 100 and her creatnine was 5.4. she was diagnosed with renal disease and the vet said her kidneys were shutting down. she only weighed 7.6lbs. in January she weighed 10 lbs. the vet started her on 300 ml saline drip iv for 3 days. i would bring her in and she got a drip from 9-12 then she came home and i gave her 100ml subq drips, azydol and b12 pills. then we added cerena due to her vomiting again and not eating on Friday. in the early hours of Saturday morning i noticed she didn't look like she was feeling well. she was very lethargic, hadn't eaten or drank all day and i didn't see her go to the bathroom at all either. when they drew her blood on Wednesday she wasn't dehydrated and she wasn't anemic. her temp was 100. well saturday i planned on taking her in to the vet becuase she didnt look like she felt well and she hadnt eaten. 30 mins before we were going to go right when they opened i went to check on her and she was laying in a corner in the closet (she never laid there) and was breathing really fast. 70-120x a min. i rushed her to the vet and we were there before they even opened but they let us in and the vet said she suspected her heart was failing and she couldnt breathe and her body temp was 97.1. the vet said she didnt believe that any treatment or tests would help her and likely she wouldnt survive the testing. she said the best thing i could do for her was to euthanize her. the vet has been a vet for 36 years and i trust her but it really was devestating and everything i read online says cats can live years with renal failure and chf. the vet said i could take her to a 24 hr vet and they would need to do an ecg and im sure they would have had to drain the fluid from her chest cavity and put her on more meds but again the vet didnt think that was what was going to be best for her. this cat is my soulmate and it killed me to have to put her down but she barely was holding her head up and she was struggling to breathe. i didnt want her to suffer and i know her diseases were going to be chronic. i told the vet i didnt care about money, by no means can i afford any of the treatments but id find a way if there was any hope. the vet said no and all the vet techs agreed. i feel so guilty though and feel like maybe i should have taken her to the 24 hr vet and ran more tests and had the fluid drained. has anyone had an experience with this? it happened so fast? did i do the right thing? i feel awful and hope i gave her the best chance with the least amount of suffering but idk. any help is appreciated.

 

[jen]

Honestly I think you have done the best thing for her. At this point it sounds like her quality of life was declined greatly and once they stop eating that is usually a sign they have "given up". Yes there is always a list of things you could try, but you would be prolonging the inevitable with more pills and medication and more fluids... that is no way to live. I am not one to exhaust every possible option so I would personally have done the same thing. Once they are suffering it is usually time. I know some people won't agree but I prefer to put them out of their misery. I think you did the right thing. You did a lot for your cat and you sound like a wonderful pet owner. Your cat is in a happier place now

 

[atomicrose]

Honestly I think you have done the best thing for her. At this point it sounds like her quality of life was declined greatly and once they stop eating that is usually a sign they have "given up". Yes there is always a list of things you could try, but you would be prolonging the inevitable with more pills and medication and more fluids... that is no way to live. I am not one to exhaust every possible option so I would personally have done the same thing. Once they are suffering it is usually time. I know some people won't agree but I prefer to put them out of their misery. I think you did the right thing. You did a lot for your cat and you sound like a wonderful pet owner. Your cat is in a happier place now

thank you for the response. im just having a really hard time with it. i keep reading articles of people who say their cat was on deaths door and came back. i mean i only had her 10 years. she was my everything. she just wasnt herself and i knew she was suffering, but i really would have tried anything if the vet would have given me an ounce of hope.

 

[jen]

It is never an easy decision, you will constantly as yourself "what if..." this and that. I did the same thing. I put my cat down about 2 months ago and I still question everything. But it was just more and more pills and when she had her bad days of laying under the bed and not coming out or eating, and she was down to 5 lbs.... I knew it was time. It is so hard

 

[atomicrose]

It is never an easy decision, you will constantly as yourself "what if..." this and that. I did the same thing. I put my cat down about 2 months ago and I still question everything. But it was just more and more pills and when she had her bad days of laying under the bed and not coming out or eating, and she was down to 5 lbs.... I knew it was time. It is so hard

ive had to put 3 of my rats down and i was there for my moms cat. with my rats i knew it was time but it was still rough this one just seems different. i know she wouldnt have wanted to take 6 pills a day and have me force feed her and stick a tube in her chest. i just feel terrible because i know if she was a human thats exactly what would have happened.

 

[kittyluv387]

ive had to put 3 of my rats down and i was there for my moms cat. with my rats i knew it was time but it was still rough this one just seems different. i know she wouldnt have wanted to take 6 pills a day and have me force feed her and stick a tube in her chest. i just feel terrible because i know if she was a human thats exactly what would have happened.

Only because we have religious hang ups about human euthanasia. I personally think the same kindness should be extended to us humans as well. I would not want to live like that.

 

[atomicrose]

Only because we have religious hang ups about human euthanasia. I personally think the same kindness should be extended to us humans as well. I would not want to live like that.

true. i wouldn't either.