Hi All,
My 15 yr old cat has numerous health conditions, and we are now considering euthanasia, but it is breaking my heart and I still have some uncertainty on whether we could/ should do more, or whether we are just prolonging his suffering.
He has diabetes, chronic pancreatitis, and back about a month and a half ago he was diagnosed with a UTI. It was treated with an injectable antibiotic Convenia, did not go away, and in fact spread to his kidneys and we were back in a few weeksand put on a course of Veraflox, but he continued to get worse. He was also put into surgery and got a feeding tube at this time for his excessive weight loss. He was found to have other conditions as well- Chorinic Kidney Disease, and severe GI disease which unfortunately we had no idea about. By the ultrasound, the vet thought the CKD was probably in an earlier stage, but his kidney values were also elevated due to the acute infection.
Unfortunately he has continued to get worse in spite of the antibiotics and the feeding tube. On many days he leaks fecal matter, and he is continuing to pee beside our bed. He was rechecked at one point with an ultrasound (after the first week of antibiotics) and they said the bladder still looked enflamed, and that they would have expected more improvement by now. So, they put him on a take-home set of injectable antibiotics called Enrofloxacin.
He is also now on a steroid for his severe GI issues including fecal leakage. He is on Metroclopramide as well.
Unfortunately, he has just continued downhill, he cries at night (is now on Gabapentin and is more comfortable though, so this happens much less), he does not eat or drink on his own (but through the feeding tube)...except he sometimes cries in front of his water bowl but won't drink it. For some reason he licks up water from our shower?
We are giving him a bit of intravenous fluid. He vomited 2 days ago. He has a watery-dischargey eye on the side of the feeding tube- not sure why. He sometimes trembles a bit as he breathes. He overall looks like he feels miserable...stays curled up in the fetal position most of the day with head in blankets....
Called the vet's today and asked if we should come in for our scheduled follow-up tomorrow for more tests, or if there was no point as he clearly is deteriorating.
They implied that it was very unlikely that much could be added or changed to his care with the follow up, so I felt like it was probably pointless.
They said there was a very small chance that they might find a new bacteria in his bladder (2 weeks ago it was just the e-coli which should have been sensitive to the antibiotics prescribed- but they have not worked). She said there is a very small chance that it would be something different, but even so most bacterias she could think of should have been killed off by the antibiotic provided, so it is unlikely he could get something to turn things around at this point. She implied she thought his kidneys were likely failing.
She also kind of said that she thinks we tried everything reasonable and that euthanasia wouldn't be a bad decision.
Still I feel terrible. Is there more we should be doing? Or do I just need to accept that all his systems are shutting down and he has so many conditions that he just can't recover?
My 15 yr old cat has numerous health conditions, and we are now considering euthanasia, but it is breaking my heart and I still have some uncertainty on whether we could/ should do more, or whether we are just prolonging his suffering.
He has diabetes, chronic pancreatitis, and back about a month and a half ago he was diagnosed with a UTI. It was treated with an injectable antibiotic Convenia, did not go away, and in fact spread to his kidneys and we were back in a few weeksand put on a course of Veraflox, but he continued to get worse. He was also put into surgery and got a feeding tube at this time for his excessive weight loss. He was found to have other conditions as well- Chorinic Kidney Disease, and severe GI disease which unfortunately we had no idea about. By the ultrasound, the vet thought the CKD was probably in an earlier stage, but his kidney values were also elevated due to the acute infection.
Unfortunately he has continued to get worse in spite of the antibiotics and the feeding tube. On many days he leaks fecal matter, and he is continuing to pee beside our bed. He was rechecked at one point with an ultrasound (after the first week of antibiotics) and they said the bladder still looked enflamed, and that they would have expected more improvement by now. So, they put him on a take-home set of injectable antibiotics called Enrofloxacin.
He is also now on a steroid for his severe GI issues including fecal leakage. He is on Metroclopramide as well.
Unfortunately, he has just continued downhill, he cries at night (is now on Gabapentin and is more comfortable though, so this happens much less), he does not eat or drink on his own (but through the feeding tube)...except he sometimes cries in front of his water bowl but won't drink it. For some reason he licks up water from our shower?
We are giving him a bit of intravenous fluid. He vomited 2 days ago. He has a watery-dischargey eye on the side of the feeding tube- not sure why. He sometimes trembles a bit as he breathes. He overall looks like he feels miserable...stays curled up in the fetal position most of the day with head in blankets....
Called the vet's today and asked if we should come in for our scheduled follow-up tomorrow for more tests, or if there was no point as he clearly is deteriorating.
They implied that it was very unlikely that much could be added or changed to his care with the follow up, so I felt like it was probably pointless.
They said there was a very small chance that they might find a new bacteria in his bladder (2 weeks ago it was just the e-coli which should have been sensitive to the antibiotics prescribed- but they have not worked). She said there is a very small chance that it would be something different, but even so most bacterias she could think of should have been killed off by the antibiotic provided, so it is unlikely he could get something to turn things around at this point. She implied she thought his kidneys were likely failing.
She also kind of said that she thinks we tried everything reasonable and that euthanasia wouldn't be a bad decision.
Still I feel terrible. Is there more we should be doing? Or do I just need to accept that all his systems are shutting down and he has so many conditions that he just can't recover?
