- Joined
- Aug 9, 2018
- Messages
- 5
- Purraise
- 24
Hi, I’m new to this site & just want to ask other cat lovers how I come to terms with having my beloved baby boy Frankie to sleep yesterday. I just feel so guilty & sad that I can’t stand it. He was 15 & such a special boy who followed me everywhere. Even while I was in the bathroom, he was there. When I came home from work, no matter what time, he just appeared to greet me. For a few months he’d been a bit vacant & had lost weight but still had a good appetite. He’d been checked at the vets for his weight loss but his thyroid test & diabetes tests were both negative. I decided not to put him through any more invasive tests as he was happy & not in any pain. My husband & I had to go away for 5 days & left him & my other cats with the lovely lady who looks after them. I had a message from her on Tuesday morning to say that Frankie was not good. She’d found him lying in his own faeces & he was weak on his left side & kept falling over. He was still eating & not in pain so she cleaned him kept him comfortable in her spare room & cuddled hiim at regular intervals.
We arrived home next morning after a horrendous journey home so upset. We collected him straight away & took him home. I cuddled him in a blanket instead of a carrier & he just let me which he would never have normally done. I put him down in the kitchen & he could walk but his left back leg kept giving way & his left front leg kept bending under at the elbow. He couldn’t stand on slippy floors without his leg splaying out. He did manage better on the carpet though. It was awful to see. He did recognise his litter tray & did manage to have a wee in there. He was hungry & ate some food but his face fell into the food a couple of times & he had trouble finding the water dish.
I called the vet & we took him straight there. She was very nice & said it was very likely to be a strike which is what I already thought. She said he did feel pain in his toes which was a good sign & there could be a slim chance he could improve. She said we could take him home to see if he improved over a couple of days or we could make the dreadful decision there & then. She have us time alone with him to decide & we put him on the floor. He kept falling over & looked so pitiful - it was horrible.
We couldn’t stand the thought of watching him suffer like that any longer so told her to give him the injection. We said our goodbyes & stroked him & told him that we loved him. He didn’t struggle at all when she injected him & it was very quick but so, so sad. Since then I’ve just been asking myself if we did the right thing - should we have brought him home to see if he improved? Did we decide too fast? Why did the vet tell me there was a slim chance of him improving - did she really think that? Why did she give us the option to take him home unless she thought he would get better? All these things going round in my head.
I’m torturing myself by thinking I let him down. I had him from 8 weeks old & loved him so much. Watching him die was the hardest thing I’ve had to do. To make things worse, it was my Mums funeral last week so I feel like I’m losing everyone I love. Frankie was beautiful - that’s him in the photo. He was a moggy but so special & gentle. Any advice from members who have been through this would be really appreciated. Thank you.
We arrived home next morning after a horrendous journey home so upset. We collected him straight away & took him home. I cuddled him in a blanket instead of a carrier & he just let me which he would never have normally done. I put him down in the kitchen & he could walk but his left back leg kept giving way & his left front leg kept bending under at the elbow. He couldn’t stand on slippy floors without his leg splaying out. He did manage better on the carpet though. It was awful to see. He did recognise his litter tray & did manage to have a wee in there. He was hungry & ate some food but his face fell into the food a couple of times & he had trouble finding the water dish.
I called the vet & we took him straight there. She was very nice & said it was very likely to be a strike which is what I already thought. She said he did feel pain in his toes which was a good sign & there could be a slim chance he could improve. She said we could take him home to see if he improved over a couple of days or we could make the dreadful decision there & then. She have us time alone with him to decide & we put him on the floor. He kept falling over & looked so pitiful - it was horrible.
We couldn’t stand the thought of watching him suffer like that any longer so told her to give him the injection. We said our goodbyes & stroked him & told him that we loved him. He didn’t struggle at all when she injected him & it was very quick but so, so sad. Since then I’ve just been asking myself if we did the right thing - should we have brought him home to see if he improved? Did we decide too fast? Why did the vet tell me there was a slim chance of him improving - did she really think that? Why did she give us the option to take him home unless she thought he would get better? All these things going round in my head.
I’m torturing myself by thinking I let him down. I had him from 8 weeks old & loved him so much. Watching him die was the hardest thing I’ve had to do. To make things worse, it was my Mums funeral last week so I feel like I’m losing everyone I love. Frankie was beautiful - that’s him in the photo. He was a moggy but so special & gentle. Any advice from members who have been through this would be really appreciated. Thank you.