Concurrent conditions prognosis for older cat

mooby1231

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My 18 year old cat Ziggy is overweight by about 6 pounds, has arthritis, has been diagnosed with pancreatitis, thickening of the heart muscle, and abnormal heart rhythm. Occasionally he has trouble getting his back legs to work right (he seems to get some kind of twitch thing that makes him not have control over his hind legs for a few seconds...this really confuses him.)

He is being treated for the pancreatitis, but it seems like he is only partially responding. He spends most of his day since the treatments began going to the food dish and eating 4 crunchies, going to the water dish and taking 3 licks then going immediately to the litter box. Then he rests for 5 to 10 minutes and starts all over again. He is not sleeping as much as usual. He no longer cuddles all the time which he did before. He purrs and seems happy when you go to him and pet him, but he no longer initiates contact.

Due to his age and number of health problems, I am wondering if he is nearing the end of his time. I am kind of nearing my max ability to treat him financially, but I really don't want that to decide the length of his time with me. I don't think I could emotionally handle that. However, if he is not going to have any quality of life, I don't want him to spend his last time suffering.

Any advice?
 
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mooby1231

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Update: I took Ziggy to the vet because he started leaking urine in small amounts. He does have grit in his urine (which I forgot to add to the previous details). He had surgery many years ago to widen his urethra. He is staying there so they can do a urinalysis and see what type of stones these are.
 

mrsgreenjeens

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Oh dear, that just makes matters worse for Ziggy, if he has stones
.

I would say he needs to lose some weight to help out with his arthritis, AND for over all general health, but not sure at this point how he'll feel about that if he's not feeling all that well anyway.      Food may be his main source of comfort right about now.  Does he have diabetes?  You said he has other health issues, but didn't say what they are.

Maybe this qualify of life scale may help you when thinking about what to do.  Of course, we never want to say goodbye to our furkids, and maybe it's not time yet.  That's something you need to discuss with your Vet too, whether or not they think he has a good chance of feeling better or not.  But if not, you're right on not wanting him to suffer


http://www.veterinarypracticenews.com/November-2009/Quality-Of-Life-Scale/
 
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