Putting Him Down:(

[Emma47]

Hi guys! Wow it’s been over two years since I’ve posted in here and two years since Harry’s diagnosis. Unfortunately, I’m back because I’m seriously concerned. Harry was doing relatively well until about six months ago. He has lost a bunch of weight and barfs up most of his food. His appetite which used to be ferocious is pretty much gone. When he does eat, he barfs it up within the hour. I already know we can’t afford to do X-rays and all the other **** it would cost to figure out what’s wrong,, I’m thinking that putting him down might be the best thing. It’s frustrating cause he just turned 12, I don’t understand why he is having so many issues. If anyone has any advice or kind words it would be very much appreciated.

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

You might try using a novel protein and see if it slows down the barfing. Vomiting can be a symptom of inflammatory bowel and novel proteins will help.

This is a link to information on nausea. If the more natural approaches, like slippery elm bark don't work, there are prescription medications you can get from your vet (e.g, ondansetron or Cerenia).

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

I have found slippery elm works really well.
Have you tried feeding a raw diet?

 

[Fog123]

@Emma47 - I don't have advice, just kind words. It's so hard to know when to make the decision. We've had two kidney cats. One we tried too hard with and regretted, and the other (Fog) we're not sure whether we tried hard enough, and also regretted though she went out on a perfect day and we don't regret that. We were adamant with the second that we wanted her to go sooner rather than later and not suffer the way our first one did.

I just don't think there's a perfect answer when they get the way they are.

I found this article helpful and knowing that it was a continuum and they highlight what they consider the four stages of death - https://www.peacefulpassing.com/knowing-when-its-time/ . They used to have better wording along the lines of there is no wrong time once the animal enters the continuum. Our second cat was stage 2/3 and rallied the day we put her down.

I'm not proposing that it is time, and others have suggested solutions that might work. I did read somewhere that once you start thinking about euthanasia for chronic illnesses there is no wrong time after that because your pet is ill enough that you're considering it an option. You know your cat and your capabilities.

We did a lot of Quality of Life scales for our second cat. Here are some of the ones that we used.

https://www.peacefulpassing.com/knowing-when-its-time/questionnaire.html
https://pawspice.com/quality-of-life-scale.html
https://journeyspet.com/pet-quality-of-life-scale-calculator/ (one thing I liked about this was that it considered the human emotion portion of it, we worried that our anticipatory grief was impacting our cat)

Big hugs - it's such a hard decision.

We are fortunate that we were able to start fostering almost immediately. We view it as Fog's legacy to have helped 15 animals find their perfect forever homes.

I'm sorry for what you're going through. I actually have tears in my eyes as I'm typing this.