Hello all, I'm seeking some advice about my cat from other cat people.
One year ago, I adopted a 3-year-old manx named Harley. She had been in and out of shelters for her entire life. She had been adopted several times and then brought back. The shelter where she was when I adopted her let the dogs run free at night and the dogs would terrorize the cats. The people at the shelter told me she was the sweetest cat in the world but people avoided adopting her because she doesn't have a tail. I didn't mind the tail thing and she was perfect because my apartment complex had rules that pets had to be older than a year and declawed. Harley was already declawed.
She really is the sweetest cat I've ever had. She meets me at the door and snuggles with me whenever I sit down. Her meow sounds like she is saying hello. Really quite adorable.
I had her for about 4 months and I noticed she had worms so I took her to the vet. They ran some routine tests and found out a lot. First, she has Feline Herpes, which the shelter did not mention when I adopted her. It would not have changed my mind but I hadn't been treating her for it for the entire time I had her. Second, she had a serious urinary tract infection. The vet said it was so bad that she had likely had it since before I adopted her. The shelter ran a vet check on her when I adopted her and said nothing about it. My first vet visit after that was with their vet and they didn't even check. We started her on antibiotics and knocked it out but since then she has had another UTI and consistently leaks urine. This is probably do to the damage to the nerves in that area due to her lack of a tail.
In the past few months, she has started to lose control of pooping as well. She sometimes will be sleeping and poop starts coming out. She rushes to the litter box, pooping all the way. I have two litter boxes in different locations and I clean each out twice a day, because she won't use it if there is something else in it. She also poops in my bed. All the time. I've started denying her access to my bedroom.
In the past month, she developed some nerve issues. If you pet her on the back, even lightly, she starts having some sort of muscle spasm and starts compulsively biting one of her front paws. This week she also started grooming a spot on her side compulsively and she has noticeably less fur now.
The last time I went to the vet, he said that she had a chronic stress disorder making UTIs highly likely as well as other infections. As you can see, she's not a very healthy cat. I've looked into surgeries and medications and other lifestyle changes, but I am a graduate student and a single woman and I don't really have the resources or the time to afford any of them long-term or really change her lifestyle that much. She constantly smells of urine and makes everything in my house smell as well. I wash all the fabrics in my living room once a week with a urine-eliminating treatment. This is just not sustainable for me.
I don't want to put her back in a shelter because it's such a negative place and it's unlikely she would get adopted into a forever home again. Nobody I know will take her because of her health issues. My parents (who have cats that are 11 and 9 years old and two new kittens) told me I should consider euthanasia. Is it cruel and irresponsible to think about putting her down? She's quite young, but her quality of life is just not that high. Have you ever had a cat with any of these problems? If so, were you successful in treating them in an economic manner? Please advise me in this issue. Thanks.
One year ago, I adopted a 3-year-old manx named Harley. She had been in and out of shelters for her entire life. She had been adopted several times and then brought back. The shelter where she was when I adopted her let the dogs run free at night and the dogs would terrorize the cats. The people at the shelter told me she was the sweetest cat in the world but people avoided adopting her because she doesn't have a tail. I didn't mind the tail thing and she was perfect because my apartment complex had rules that pets had to be older than a year and declawed. Harley was already declawed.
She really is the sweetest cat I've ever had. She meets me at the door and snuggles with me whenever I sit down. Her meow sounds like she is saying hello. Really quite adorable.
I had her for about 4 months and I noticed she had worms so I took her to the vet. They ran some routine tests and found out a lot. First, she has Feline Herpes, which the shelter did not mention when I adopted her. It would not have changed my mind but I hadn't been treating her for it for the entire time I had her. Second, she had a serious urinary tract infection. The vet said it was so bad that she had likely had it since before I adopted her. The shelter ran a vet check on her when I adopted her and said nothing about it. My first vet visit after that was with their vet and they didn't even check. We started her on antibiotics and knocked it out but since then she has had another UTI and consistently leaks urine. This is probably do to the damage to the nerves in that area due to her lack of a tail.
In the past few months, she has started to lose control of pooping as well. She sometimes will be sleeping and poop starts coming out. She rushes to the litter box, pooping all the way. I have two litter boxes in different locations and I clean each out twice a day, because she won't use it if there is something else in it. She also poops in my bed. All the time. I've started denying her access to my bedroom.
In the past month, she developed some nerve issues. If you pet her on the back, even lightly, she starts having some sort of muscle spasm and starts compulsively biting one of her front paws. This week she also started grooming a spot on her side compulsively and she has noticeably less fur now.
The last time I went to the vet, he said that she had a chronic stress disorder making UTIs highly likely as well as other infections. As you can see, she's not a very healthy cat. I've looked into surgeries and medications and other lifestyle changes, but I am a graduate student and a single woman and I don't really have the resources or the time to afford any of them long-term or really change her lifestyle that much. She constantly smells of urine and makes everything in my house smell as well. I wash all the fabrics in my living room once a week with a urine-eliminating treatment. This is just not sustainable for me.
I don't want to put her back in a shelter because it's such a negative place and it's unlikely she would get adopted into a forever home again. Nobody I know will take her because of her health issues. My parents (who have cats that are 11 and 9 years old and two new kittens) told me I should consider euthanasia. Is it cruel and irresponsible to think about putting her down? She's quite young, but her quality of life is just not that high. Have you ever had a cat with any of these problems? If so, were you successful in treating them in an economic manner? Please advise me in this issue. Thanks.
