I apologize in advance for such a long post, but please bear with me
I really need some wisdom today.
My cat Toby, who only just turned 6 years old in May, died several days ago. His vet is not exactly sure what happened to him other than it was probably liver related, but whatever it was took hold after a very short period of time. He started to display symptoms that had me worried about him which began on Wednesday of last week. He did spend a lot of Tuesday(June 7th) asleep, but I hadn't noticed anything wrong at the time. It was normal for him to spend a good portion of the day asleep so I didn't question anything. I do remember thinking that day he was behaving a little like an older man. When he did get up, he walked very slowly...almost as if he had arthritis or just stiff limbs but it would pass. He had done that in the past so I wasn't alarmed. I just thought to myself that he's beginning to act like an old cat at 6 years old, what was he going to be like at 12 yrs old? I thought this extra lazy day he was having would pass as it normally had. Little did I know that he would never see 12 yrs old.
By Wednesday (June 8th) he wouldn't eat and he wasn't drinking much. He spent most of his time sleeping and being overly lethargic. I told myself if he wasn't better by Wednesday evening I was taking him into the vet on Thursday. Late Wednesday he threw up once, but all he brought up was a little foam which didn't surprise me because he hadn't eaten in about 24 hours. I started to scold myself for not taking him that evening, but I did have cats that did have an off day once in a great while, but they were ok. It can be hard to know when it's vital during the first 24 hours. One of my cats had the same symptoms before and when I took her to the vet, they said she was constipated and probably suffering from a little bug and was given antibiotics and sent home. She completely recovered two days later. So on Thursday(9th) I called the vet to make an appointment and they said they had open hours that evening in which I could bring him in. He spent most of Thursday during the day in the windows behaving very lethargic....but he was well enough to jump up onto the window sills, but he couldn't walk for very long at a time. He would need to stop and rest every few steps. He still wouldn't eat and again only drank a small amount even though I placed the food and water near him at all times. When I got him to the vet, she opened his mouth and said he wasn't very well based on his yellow gums. Apparently he was jaundice, which was his liver not functioning as normal. She didn't go as far as to say he wasn't long for this world, but yet she was concerned enough so she wanted to keep him overnight and hydrate him because he was also dehydrated. She called us back that night with some blood test results and said that so far everything checked out fine, but there were some other tests she needed to send away and she would get the results maybe on Friday, but possibly Monday if they were busy. She couldn't check for things like white blood cell count, feline leukemia, AIDS or FIP. She said it was most likely a condition of the liver such as cholangiohepatitis or just an infection, but she wanted more results to some tests before giving him any antibiotics. She put him on an IV drip to give him some fluids and she said he seemed a little more perky. He took a little water but he wasn't interested in food. She then said he was sleepy when she left him for the night. She told us to call in the morning around 10:30 to find out how he was and what kind of night he had.
At 8am Friday (10th) she called us to say that he had a very bad night and had a very major decline. She said he was very depressed and was not responding to anything at all. He had seriously crashed. She said we needed to make a decision about euthanizing him. She said he was so bad that she just couldn't put him through anything else. Of course I wanted to see him before making that kind of a decision. Maybe he was low because he wasn't at home and he felt bad anyway so I had hoped I could perk him up with a visit, though I did not hold out much hope. But I wasn't quite prepared for what I saw and I really understood why the vet was advising euthanasia. The second I saw him, I knew what I had to do. I was about to make the hardest decision of my entire life. I can only liken his condition to a coma, or that he was brain dead. He did not react to his surroundings at all. Even when me and my husband were there talking to him and stroking him, it was as if his soul was no longer in his body. It was like this was just the shell of the cat he once was. He was staring into space and hardly moved his eyes and didn't look in our direction. He did blink ever so slightly when I rubbed the side of his face, but the vet assured me that was a reflex, not a voluntary reaction to my touch. His normal way was to be very affectionate and as soon as I would touch him, whether it was to stroke, pet, scratch or pick up, he would purr instantly. But that morning he never purred once. I didn't even feel a vibration in his neck for a soft and quiet purr. He wasn't moving at all, apart from what the vet said was involuntary muscle spasms in his legs. They would slightly jerk every few seconds. I held one of his paws and there was nothing. His breathing was shallow. It seemed like his soul had already left his body. The vet said that if his liver had completely failed, he was being poisoned by his own toxins which would account for his rapid decline. I saw the other cats that were there and none of them were in the same condition as Toby. They were either standing up or sitting, or even laying down but their heads were still up. Some of them were even trying to get attention. If I hadn't known any better after looking at Toby and then seeing the other sick cats, I would have thought he was already dead, aside from the shallow breaths.
But I couldn't leave him like that, I just couldn't do it. I felt it would be wrong to walk out of there while he could have been suffering and I left him that way to probably die alone when I wasn't there for him. The vet seemed 100% positive that there was nothing else they could do for him, he was too far gone to come back and the only kind thing to do was to put him down. I cannot imagine that a vet practice would suggest such a thing if they felt more could be done, but I just can't help wonder. Even from a financial standpoint, they weren't going to make very much money from him if they just gave up. Also we had made it perfectly clear to them that they could do anything for him that they needed to do because he was insured on any medical bills that resulted from sickness or disease. She didn't feel it would have been right to continue mainly for Toby's well-being first and foremost, but also the cost involved in any treatment at this point in the end would only give us a bigger vet bill, not an alive cat.
I just pray to God that it was the right decision, because in fact he wasn't going to make it. As I made the decision to put him to sleep, I do hope it was just a question of WHEN he was going to die, not IF. The vet didn't think he would last the day, so the kindest thing would be to give him a dignified end. If I had any feeling that he had any chance of living a normal good quality of life I would never have made that decision so soon. I do believe quality is more important than quantity, especially when it comes to animals. I guess I'm just scared that he wasn't given enough of a chance. He had only been in this serious of a condition for a few hours ~ between 11pm Thursday night and 8am Friday morning. He had only been in the vet's care for 12 hours, and during the first few he was not in that condition. Sure he wasn't in the greatest condition all the previous day, but this was a far cry from how he was the day before. When she left him at the hospital at 11pm, she said he was certainly doing well enough to investigate and treat him for whatever it was.
The next morning when she came in she saw he had rapidly declined into this coma-like state. Her opinion was that he was dying and I had to agree with her. But to be fair I have never seen a cat die before, so I am not too familiar with the signs, but I did witness the death of a hamster. He also seemed like he was in a coma and his legs were jerking now and then. After a few hours he died. Will some cats experience the same kind of thing? Can anyone give me some input as to what kinds of signs a cat will exhibit if it's dying slowly? If I did the right thing, I guess I just need to be reassured that I did what was right based on his condition. If I was wrong, I want to be told why and what I should have done. I want to be sure for if/when it happens again. I have 5 others and they aren't going to live forever either.
However, I could strangle myself. I had been worried about Toby for a little while, but I was reassured by others that he was fine. When he was 3 years old, he weighed almost 10lbs. But over the last 3 years he had lost 3lbs. I did weigh him regularly and he seemed to level off at 7lbs. I didn't think he would clinically be considered underweight, but he did feel so light and I was worried about it. The vet said he felt a little underweight, but after two days of not eating he could have lost some to bring him under 7lbs. But I got Toby from a friend of mine who owns his mother and she's had several generations of Toby's family around her and she said they are all skinny and huge fans of sleeping a lot, just like Toby.
The only thing he had that was different was a little bit of colitis, which I could control for the most part. I fed him a good quality dry food and nothing else because it all seemed to give him trouble. Every once in a while he suffered with a bout of it, which I couldn't always account for why because he isn't fed anything other than his food that doesn't bother him. He would have one runny bowel movement which I sometimes found blood in, but the very next time he would go it was a normal movement and the vet said it was colitis. As long as I did my best to control it he would be ok. When I was trying to find out what he could eat without this problem occurring he was having a bout several times a week. Once I settled him on the food he could eat, he only had a bout every 4-6 weeks, sometimes as long as 8 weeks in between occurrences. The last occurrence he had before his death was 2 weeks prior and before that he went 2 months without having any.
Other than this, he was healthy in every other way. Although he could be lazy, he could be playful when tempted. Now I just feel so sad and angry with myself that I didn't demand blood tests at the vet's office years ago ~ maybe it would have shown liver disease earlier and we could have treated him before it got worse. Hindsight is 20/20, but I should have listened to my conscience, if I had he might still be alive. I just can't believe I didn't see this coming.
The vet hasn't given us her theory as to what happened yet, other than liver failure, but something must have caused it. I guess what I learn depends on whether she had these tests she sent away carried through or not. She could have cancelled them the morning he died. As far as I know, he wasn't given any medicine except fluids. He had an IV in his leg for the fluids, but he also had a patch on his neck where he had been shaved, but I didn't find out what that was all about. I don't know if she got some of his blood that way or what. I thought she could have got the blood from his IV, but maybe they can't get blood from cats in that way. Does anyone know what that indicates as far as tests they performed? I don't have the bill from them yet as they said they would send it to us in the mail so that we didn't have to worry about it right then, so I can't see what they did exactly.
I would hope that they would carry out the tests even if we end up having to pay for them because I really want to know what happened. We are as sure as we can be that he wasn't poisoned by any household cleaners, plants, food he shouldn't have, etc. I don't leave cleaners out to be drunk and Toby never got anything to eat except his own dry food. I don't have any plants in the house anyway and Toby never went outside as my cats are all strictly indoors. None of the other cats have been sick either.
I'm hoping to find out more when I pick up his ashes because I wanted him cremated by himself so I could keep the ashes. I'm just so devastated. He was such an affectionate and soppy boy. The sweetest cat a person could ever want. People keep saying I shouldn't blame myself, but if maybe I requested blood tests and a liver function test I could have found out if he had a liver condition which they might have been able to treat at that time.
I know this is such a long post, I do apologize again. I guess I should break down what I'm asking:
*Did I make the right choice in euthanizing him based on his final condition Friday morning?
*What are the signs of a dying cat? I know it could vary from one cat to another, but has anyone witnessed a cat in a coma like state just before they died? Can a cat come back from a state of no response at all as if in a "coma" even though the cat has not been medicated or sedated?
*Any idea as to what happened to him? I know that you guys can't give me a definite diagnosis with such little to go on, but does any of it sound familiar to your own experiences? Suggestions appreciated, but of course not required.
*Was there something I should have done but did not? Maybe I should have taken him to the vet a long time ago and demanded a blood test if I was a little troubled about his weight loss no matter how gradual it had been? Maybe I should have taken him to the vet on Wednesday instead of Thursday? My vet practice advises people to give it 48 hours after the symptoms first begin before bringing them in for a check. I waited 42 hours before bringing in Toby. Should I have acted faster? Is there a chance 24 hours would have made a difference?
I just want some opinions and input. I'm not expecting concrete answers, I just want some fresh opinions/ideas on the situation for the sake of my sanity. I don't feel ready to talk to the vet about this right now, I feel more comfortable speaking about it in this fashion. It feels much easier right now to do it this way. I just need a little bit of help with my thoughts.
Thank you all ever so much for reading such a long post! It does feel better to get it off my chest a little.
OwnedByCats
My cat Toby, who only just turned 6 years old in May, died several days ago. His vet is not exactly sure what happened to him other than it was probably liver related, but whatever it was took hold after a very short period of time. He started to display symptoms that had me worried about him which began on Wednesday of last week. He did spend a lot of Tuesday(June 7th) asleep, but I hadn't noticed anything wrong at the time. It was normal for him to spend a good portion of the day asleep so I didn't question anything. I do remember thinking that day he was behaving a little like an older man. When he did get up, he walked very slowly...almost as if he had arthritis or just stiff limbs but it would pass. He had done that in the past so I wasn't alarmed. I just thought to myself that he's beginning to act like an old cat at 6 years old, what was he going to be like at 12 yrs old? I thought this extra lazy day he was having would pass as it normally had. Little did I know that he would never see 12 yrs old.
By Wednesday (June 8th) he wouldn't eat and he wasn't drinking much. He spent most of his time sleeping and being overly lethargic. I told myself if he wasn't better by Wednesday evening I was taking him into the vet on Thursday. Late Wednesday he threw up once, but all he brought up was a little foam which didn't surprise me because he hadn't eaten in about 24 hours. I started to scold myself for not taking him that evening, but I did have cats that did have an off day once in a great while, but they were ok. It can be hard to know when it's vital during the first 24 hours. One of my cats had the same symptoms before and when I took her to the vet, they said she was constipated and probably suffering from a little bug and was given antibiotics and sent home. She completely recovered two days later. So on Thursday(9th) I called the vet to make an appointment and they said they had open hours that evening in which I could bring him in. He spent most of Thursday during the day in the windows behaving very lethargic....but he was well enough to jump up onto the window sills, but he couldn't walk for very long at a time. He would need to stop and rest every few steps. He still wouldn't eat and again only drank a small amount even though I placed the food and water near him at all times. When I got him to the vet, she opened his mouth and said he wasn't very well based on his yellow gums. Apparently he was jaundice, which was his liver not functioning as normal. She didn't go as far as to say he wasn't long for this world, but yet she was concerned enough so she wanted to keep him overnight and hydrate him because he was also dehydrated. She called us back that night with some blood test results and said that so far everything checked out fine, but there were some other tests she needed to send away and she would get the results maybe on Friday, but possibly Monday if they were busy. She couldn't check for things like white blood cell count, feline leukemia, AIDS or FIP. She said it was most likely a condition of the liver such as cholangiohepatitis or just an infection, but she wanted more results to some tests before giving him any antibiotics. She put him on an IV drip to give him some fluids and she said he seemed a little more perky. He took a little water but he wasn't interested in food. She then said he was sleepy when she left him for the night. She told us to call in the morning around 10:30 to find out how he was and what kind of night he had.
At 8am Friday (10th) she called us to say that he had a very bad night and had a very major decline. She said he was very depressed and was not responding to anything at all. He had seriously crashed. She said we needed to make a decision about euthanizing him. She said he was so bad that she just couldn't put him through anything else. Of course I wanted to see him before making that kind of a decision. Maybe he was low because he wasn't at home and he felt bad anyway so I had hoped I could perk him up with a visit, though I did not hold out much hope. But I wasn't quite prepared for what I saw and I really understood why the vet was advising euthanasia. The second I saw him, I knew what I had to do. I was about to make the hardest decision of my entire life. I can only liken his condition to a coma, or that he was brain dead. He did not react to his surroundings at all. Even when me and my husband were there talking to him and stroking him, it was as if his soul was no longer in his body. It was like this was just the shell of the cat he once was. He was staring into space and hardly moved his eyes and didn't look in our direction. He did blink ever so slightly when I rubbed the side of his face, but the vet assured me that was a reflex, not a voluntary reaction to my touch. His normal way was to be very affectionate and as soon as I would touch him, whether it was to stroke, pet, scratch or pick up, he would purr instantly. But that morning he never purred once. I didn't even feel a vibration in his neck for a soft and quiet purr. He wasn't moving at all, apart from what the vet said was involuntary muscle spasms in his legs. They would slightly jerk every few seconds. I held one of his paws and there was nothing. His breathing was shallow. It seemed like his soul had already left his body. The vet said that if his liver had completely failed, he was being poisoned by his own toxins which would account for his rapid decline. I saw the other cats that were there and none of them were in the same condition as Toby. They were either standing up or sitting, or even laying down but their heads were still up. Some of them were even trying to get attention. If I hadn't known any better after looking at Toby and then seeing the other sick cats, I would have thought he was already dead, aside from the shallow breaths.
But I couldn't leave him like that, I just couldn't do it. I felt it would be wrong to walk out of there while he could have been suffering and I left him that way to probably die alone when I wasn't there for him. The vet seemed 100% positive that there was nothing else they could do for him, he was too far gone to come back and the only kind thing to do was to put him down. I cannot imagine that a vet practice would suggest such a thing if they felt more could be done, but I just can't help wonder. Even from a financial standpoint, they weren't going to make very much money from him if they just gave up. Also we had made it perfectly clear to them that they could do anything for him that they needed to do because he was insured on any medical bills that resulted from sickness or disease. She didn't feel it would have been right to continue mainly for Toby's well-being first and foremost, but also the cost involved in any treatment at this point in the end would only give us a bigger vet bill, not an alive cat.
I just pray to God that it was the right decision, because in fact he wasn't going to make it. As I made the decision to put him to sleep, I do hope it was just a question of WHEN he was going to die, not IF. The vet didn't think he would last the day, so the kindest thing would be to give him a dignified end. If I had any feeling that he had any chance of living a normal good quality of life I would never have made that decision so soon. I do believe quality is more important than quantity, especially when it comes to animals. I guess I'm just scared that he wasn't given enough of a chance. He had only been in this serious of a condition for a few hours ~ between 11pm Thursday night and 8am Friday morning. He had only been in the vet's care for 12 hours, and during the first few he was not in that condition. Sure he wasn't in the greatest condition all the previous day, but this was a far cry from how he was the day before. When she left him at the hospital at 11pm, she said he was certainly doing well enough to investigate and treat him for whatever it was.
The next morning when she came in she saw he had rapidly declined into this coma-like state. Her opinion was that he was dying and I had to agree with her. But to be fair I have never seen a cat die before, so I am not too familiar with the signs, but I did witness the death of a hamster. He also seemed like he was in a coma and his legs were jerking now and then. After a few hours he died. Will some cats experience the same kind of thing? Can anyone give me some input as to what kinds of signs a cat will exhibit if it's dying slowly? If I did the right thing, I guess I just need to be reassured that I did what was right based on his condition. If I was wrong, I want to be told why and what I should have done. I want to be sure for if/when it happens again. I have 5 others and they aren't going to live forever either.
However, I could strangle myself. I had been worried about Toby for a little while, but I was reassured by others that he was fine. When he was 3 years old, he weighed almost 10lbs. But over the last 3 years he had lost 3lbs. I did weigh him regularly and he seemed to level off at 7lbs. I didn't think he would clinically be considered underweight, but he did feel so light and I was worried about it. The vet said he felt a little underweight, but after two days of not eating he could have lost some to bring him under 7lbs. But I got Toby from a friend of mine who owns his mother and she's had several generations of Toby's family around her and she said they are all skinny and huge fans of sleeping a lot, just like Toby.
The only thing he had that was different was a little bit of colitis, which I could control for the most part. I fed him a good quality dry food and nothing else because it all seemed to give him trouble. Every once in a while he suffered with a bout of it, which I couldn't always account for why because he isn't fed anything other than his food that doesn't bother him. He would have one runny bowel movement which I sometimes found blood in, but the very next time he would go it was a normal movement and the vet said it was colitis. As long as I did my best to control it he would be ok. When I was trying to find out what he could eat without this problem occurring he was having a bout several times a week. Once I settled him on the food he could eat, he only had a bout every 4-6 weeks, sometimes as long as 8 weeks in between occurrences. The last occurrence he had before his death was 2 weeks prior and before that he went 2 months without having any.
Other than this, he was healthy in every other way. Although he could be lazy, he could be playful when tempted. Now I just feel so sad and angry with myself that I didn't demand blood tests at the vet's office years ago ~ maybe it would have shown liver disease earlier and we could have treated him before it got worse. Hindsight is 20/20, but I should have listened to my conscience, if I had he might still be alive. I just can't believe I didn't see this coming.
The vet hasn't given us her theory as to what happened yet, other than liver failure, but something must have caused it. I guess what I learn depends on whether she had these tests she sent away carried through or not. She could have cancelled them the morning he died. As far as I know, he wasn't given any medicine except fluids. He had an IV in his leg for the fluids, but he also had a patch on his neck where he had been shaved, but I didn't find out what that was all about. I don't know if she got some of his blood that way or what. I thought she could have got the blood from his IV, but maybe they can't get blood from cats in that way. Does anyone know what that indicates as far as tests they performed? I don't have the bill from them yet as they said they would send it to us in the mail so that we didn't have to worry about it right then, so I can't see what they did exactly.
I would hope that they would carry out the tests even if we end up having to pay for them because I really want to know what happened. We are as sure as we can be that he wasn't poisoned by any household cleaners, plants, food he shouldn't have, etc. I don't leave cleaners out to be drunk and Toby never got anything to eat except his own dry food. I don't have any plants in the house anyway and Toby never went outside as my cats are all strictly indoors. None of the other cats have been sick either.
I'm hoping to find out more when I pick up his ashes because I wanted him cremated by himself so I could keep the ashes. I'm just so devastated. He was such an affectionate and soppy boy. The sweetest cat a person could ever want. People keep saying I shouldn't blame myself, but if maybe I requested blood tests and a liver function test I could have found out if he had a liver condition which they might have been able to treat at that time.
I know this is such a long post, I do apologize again. I guess I should break down what I'm asking:
*Did I make the right choice in euthanizing him based on his final condition Friday morning?
*What are the signs of a dying cat? I know it could vary from one cat to another, but has anyone witnessed a cat in a coma like state just before they died? Can a cat come back from a state of no response at all as if in a "coma" even though the cat has not been medicated or sedated?
*Any idea as to what happened to him? I know that you guys can't give me a definite diagnosis with such little to go on, but does any of it sound familiar to your own experiences? Suggestions appreciated, but of course not required.
*Was there something I should have done but did not? Maybe I should have taken him to the vet a long time ago and demanded a blood test if I was a little troubled about his weight loss no matter how gradual it had been? Maybe I should have taken him to the vet on Wednesday instead of Thursday? My vet practice advises people to give it 48 hours after the symptoms first begin before bringing them in for a check. I waited 42 hours before bringing in Toby. Should I have acted faster? Is there a chance 24 hours would have made a difference?
I just want some opinions and input. I'm not expecting concrete answers, I just want some fresh opinions/ideas on the situation for the sake of my sanity. I don't feel ready to talk to the vet about this right now, I feel more comfortable speaking about it in this fashion. It feels much easier right now to do it this way. I just need a little bit of help with my thoughts.
Thank you all ever so much for reading such a long post! It does feel better to get it off my chest a little.
OwnedByCats
