I'm new here and have no idea what is the right thing to do and would love some opinions or advice.
I have a wonderful 6 1/2 year old cat who I love so much. She started losing lots of weight this summer so I took her to the vet who diagnosed her with diabetes and he strongly suggested I put her down. I love her so much that I wanted a second opinion, the next vet I took her to confirmed the diabetes and said she has ketones in her urine so she was hospitalized and started on insulin. This was all overwhelming but I figured insulin injections were manageable enough.
A month later she was still barely eating and very lethargic so I brought her back to the vet who took X-rays and informed me her stomach lining was extremely thickened which is a symptom of cancer in 90% of cats, he even said surgery wasn't worth the money since he was certain it was cancer. We brought her home with medicine over the weekend thinking we would put her down the following week. However suddenly she started eating and was her old self again, the vet said the medicine can do that and to give it a couple days however she kept getting better. The vet then said maybe she falls into the lucky 10% who have a gastrointestinal issue and not cancer. So she had been doing pretty good for a month, getting 4 injections of medicine and insulin a day. But she has started having good days and bad days where she won't touch food then the next day eat 5 cans. The amount of stress I am under with her is crazy, making sure she eats, making sure she has her meds, cleaning up vomit and diarrhea.
I finally sat down today to crunch the numbers I have spent $2200 on vet bills in 4 months and the cost of her medication is between $2000-$2500 per year, that doesn't even include vet bills, food or litter and I can't afford that. We tried a cheaper medicine and it didn't work, I have looked into online pharmacies without much luck. We're not even sure she doesn't have cancer we are just guessing! She runs away from me now, hates her injections, and spends half the time sleeping in the basement.
I have an 11 month old son and am pregnant with baby number 2 and my husband is the only one working now. I even spent my sons Christmas and birthday fund on the cat.
I love my cat but I just can't afford the medical care she needs, I can't handle the stress, but I feel like a monster putting her down because of my problems what should I do?
I have a wonderful 6 1/2 year old cat who I love so much. She started losing lots of weight this summer so I took her to the vet who diagnosed her with diabetes and he strongly suggested I put her down. I love her so much that I wanted a second opinion, the next vet I took her to confirmed the diabetes and said she has ketones in her urine so she was hospitalized and started on insulin. This was all overwhelming but I figured insulin injections were manageable enough.
A month later she was still barely eating and very lethargic so I brought her back to the vet who took X-rays and informed me her stomach lining was extremely thickened which is a symptom of cancer in 90% of cats, he even said surgery wasn't worth the money since he was certain it was cancer. We brought her home with medicine over the weekend thinking we would put her down the following week. However suddenly she started eating and was her old self again, the vet said the medicine can do that and to give it a couple days however she kept getting better. The vet then said maybe she falls into the lucky 10% who have a gastrointestinal issue and not cancer. So she had been doing pretty good for a month, getting 4 injections of medicine and insulin a day. But she has started having good days and bad days where she won't touch food then the next day eat 5 cans. The amount of stress I am under with her is crazy, making sure she eats, making sure she has her meds, cleaning up vomit and diarrhea.
I finally sat down today to crunch the numbers I have spent $2200 on vet bills in 4 months and the cost of her medication is between $2000-$2500 per year, that doesn't even include vet bills, food or litter and I can't afford that. We tried a cheaper medicine and it didn't work, I have looked into online pharmacies without much luck. We're not even sure she doesn't have cancer we are just guessing! She runs away from me now, hates her injections, and spends half the time sleeping in the basement.
I have an 11 month old son and am pregnant with baby number 2 and my husband is the only one working now. I even spent my sons Christmas and birthday fund on the cat.
I love my cat but I just can't afford the medical care she needs, I can't handle the stress, but I feel like a monster putting her down because of my problems what should I do?
