Should I put her down?

My cat is 17 years old, under 4 pounds and tends to fall off tables, counters, etc., or just falls over while walking occasionally but after a couple minutes gets up and seems okay. It seems that every day there's a moment where she falls over, tries to get up, chills around for a little bit, not sure why, but then she always walks away like nothing happened. Any idea on what to do to make her stronger or is it her time?

Nobody here will be able to tell you when the time is right. I honestly believe that when its time you will know, there will be no doubts, or regrets, you won't ever wonder 'if than was the right time", deep in your soul you will just know.

It's not an easy decision but we don't know your cat, or you so it wouldn't be fair to tell you what to do. We can be here for you though for whatever you decide.

I guess the title is midleading, the main thing I want to know from everyone here is if there is anything to give her that will help her gain weight and muscle, she eats enough where she should be at a healthy weight and I'm guessing she falls over because she is so skinny.

Another thing would be if anyone else has seen their cat do this before they got very sick? We took her in a couple weeks ago and they found nothing wrong with her but if this is the beginning of an illness then it's probably time but I'm just looking for advice here first before we make this huge decision.

there is something you can get at the vets that will add calories to her diet, I give it to malnourished bottle feeders all the time. I would ask your vet about that. Perhaps maybe a higher protein food might help. I wouldn't think she is falling over because she is skinny, as the weight was lost she would have adjusted (again I think) Did the vet do any bloodwork to check for things like diabetes, kidney, liver issues??

When you took her in, did they do any bloodwork? Extreme thinness can be caused by diabetes, or hyperthyroid. If she is interacting...purring, interested in pets, in eating, etc., she's still doing pretty well. I had a cat live to be almost 21, and we adopted her at 14 and she was VERY VERY thin...

Originally Posted by kluchetta

When you took her in, did they do any bloodwork? Extreme thinness can be caused by diabetes, or hyperthyroid. If she is interacting...purring, interested in pets, in eating, etc., she's still doing pretty well. I had a cat live to be almost 21, and we adopted her at 14 and she was VERY VERY thin...

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Bloodwork was done, no diabetes or anything found. She's purring, she still goes at it with our 10 month old puppy who is quite active and she still eats whenever she's hungry.

Well, you know... if she's happy, still enjoying life, then there's no real reason to put her to sleep. Yeah, she's an elderly cat, and yeah, she's probably got something going on; but she's still happy and satisfied, interested in the world around her.

Have you tried feeding her some KMR (kitten milk replacement)? It's a good supplement to get weight back on a thin cat.

I guess its not all that common but our eldest cat has pancreas problems. She lost a ton of weight very quickly and was (still is, a bit) weak. She was walking with her back end swinging out and she would fall over constantly.
My vet thought kidneys, checked thyroid and everything. It all looked good. She tried giving her a pancreatic enzyme and she started to get better and putting weight on.

Its worth a shot. Just ask your vet about it. Does she have ANY other symptoms at all?

I wonder if she's got vertigo? I don't know anything about it in cats, but a couple of years ago I had BPV (benign positional vertigo) for about two weeks, and I had to walk with a cane because I was too dizzy to figure out which way was up! I lost my appetite because I was constantly motion-sick. Usually it's something to do with your inner ear. BPV is the "we have no clue why you've got vertigo" thing, but there are about a million reasons why you might get it. I wonder whether she might not have lost her balance because of vertigo.

my 17 year old is skinny (she was never large to behin with), has balance issues, eats like a horse, still gets up on my lap for cuddles, still grooms the other kitties.

She's old, she has CRF.

I am happy to say with some diet changes and her fountain, she is at least no longer wasting away.

If your kitty still does the things she enjoys, she probably isn't ready to go yet.
Make some concessions for her to make it easier.
Ramps (or steps) to get to her favorite places.
Pillows or blankets on the floor in case she falls from those places.

I make sure my old gal can only get about three feet from the floor because she does sometimes fall when she sleeps.

Originally Posted by Molarmite

My cat is 17 years old, under 4 pounds and tends to fall off tables, counters, etc., or just falls over while walking occasionally but after a couple minutes gets up and seems okay. It seems that every day there's a moment where she falls over, tries to get up, chills around for a little bit, not sure why, but then she always walks away like nothing happened. Any idea on what to do to make her stronger or is it her time?

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Originally Posted by Molarmite

Bloodwork was done, no diabetes or anything found. She's purring, she still goes at it with our 10 month old puppy who is quite active and she still eats whenever she's hungry.

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As someone else pointed out only you will know when it is time to put your animal down. But if she is eating, drinking, urinating, and defecating I would say she is still functioning.

The fact she can hold her own with a ten month old active puppy sounds great !

Great advice and ideas here! I was also thinking what about an inner ear infection? Probably a long shot, but it does affect balance. Do you know if her kidney values are in the normal range?

Oh, and we LOOOOOVE PICTURES!!!!

@Callista No I haven't tried that, maybe I'll give that a try thanks.

@LuvMyParker Hmm, she does kind of swing her back out when she walks now. How did you get the pancreatic enzyme? Is that a vet prescribed medication?

She use to urinate on the carpet and not make it to her litter box but that's been for a while now and I think she's actually getting better at it. To be honest, the only symptoms are thinness, falling over, urinating on the carpet, and the swagging while walking.

@Arlyn What kind of diet changes did you make? Mine can still get about 4 feet, that's our highest jump but she doesn't seem to have too much issues with jumping.

@Kluchetta I think she's deaf actually, she does not respond to any noises anymore so maybe that is something? I assume the kidney values were good because they said nothing was wrong.

As for pictures, I will try to get some up as soon as I can for you guys, thanks for everything!

No huge changes, I've always been a wet/dry feeder.

I switched them all to grain free, I decreased the amount of dry she gets and increased her canned.
If your girl was an average sized cat to begin with, you could add Nutrical to her wet food for added calories, or feed a meal or two a day of kitten food.

My girl has also gone deaf, and I think it has a lot to do with the balance issues as does her vet.

Its not the jumping I worry about, its the falling off of stuff I worrying about.
My girl has had a good, long life, it'd be a shame for her to die of a broken neck.

Regarding peeing on the carpet--Lots of senior cats have arthritis and hate jumping. So it might be a good idea to put some steps or a ramp up to the litter box, so she can walk in and out. Keeping the litter box quite full so she doesn't have to step too far down into it would also help. Also, make sure there is always a box that is easy for her to get to, so she doesn't have to trek all the way across the house when she needs to go, because she probably can't hold it as well as she used to.

Also suggest you do some searches on TCS and the 'net in general about caring for senior cats. Whether she is sick or just old, there are lots of simple little tricks to making her life easier for whatever time she has left. And like everybody's saying--if she's happy, then that's the important thing.

Heard a vet on Animal Vets give this advice to a person with a terminally ill pet... he said, "Make a list of the three favorite things your pet likes to do...a certain meal, a walk, a certain toy, etc..., when they get to the point they are no longer interested in those things, it is near time..." again, that is dealing with a terminally ill pet. Sounds like yours is still purring around...

My Buddy recently had problems walking and jumping, it turns out his spine was out of alignment. He took anti-inflammatories and had his back adjusted and he is doing better. Have they done x rays to look at the alignment of the vertebrae? Most vets don't agree with chiropractic and don't look for the alignment on xrays but if you find a holistic vet they can refer you to someone. It worked for Buddy and now he doesn't need to be on steroids for the rest of his life. It may be worth looking into.

I found a puppy litter box for Buddy because he couldn't get into his old one, too high at the opening. Purina Second Nature Dog Litter Box, about $20. It is bigger and the opening dips down to just a few inches over the floor but has a removable piece that brings the opening up to about five inches if the litter is flying out. It helped Buddy and I could see his self esteem go back up.

You will wonder about when it is time until your heart tells you, when it does you will know what to do.