how do you cope with knowing your kat has a terminal illness???

[booktigger]

The important thing is to spend as much time as possible with them and spoil them as much as possible, do take a lot of pics so you have lots of memories. While it is a hard thing to be told, I prefer to know we have limited time than to lose them suddenly, you can make sure you have no regretst that way, and can be there at the end for them.

 

[mews2much]

I just lost 2 and it was harder with Stormy then Yoshi. Stormy got sick and had to be pts the next day. Yoshi I knew was dieing 8 months before he was pts. It will be hard for you. I do have regrets with Stormy and the Vet said its not our fault. I keep thinking why didnt I know her Kidneys were bad. She didnt have many symptoms at all. She would throw up sometimes and drool. She didnt like to be held either but there was nothing else. I do not evn have a last Pic of her. I had Glitch post Yoshis and Stormys Pics yesterday for me on the Pic board. The Pic of Yoshi is the night before he died. I hope your cat lasts longer then you think he will.

 

[bluebellgirl]

hi , thank you.. i'm so sorry to all of you who lost their precious cats.. i have lost 2 cats, both to road accidents, so they were sudden, and it was so awful, but i've never had to deal with a terminal illness before, so its hard coming to terms with it.

he seems quite bright today again, he's talkative and affectionate, so ill make the most of his sweetness.
hugs from bluuebell and moocat xx

 

[tari]

I'm so very sorry about Moo, but it's wonderful to hear that he's feeling better today. I hope that you'll have lots more time with him.

My 18-year-old cat, Harvey, was diagnosed with intestinal lymphoma last October. Given his advanced age, we made the decision to forego any radical treatments, such as surgeries or chemotherapy, and let him spend his final time, however long it was, happy and peacefully. It was a tough thing to learn, and an even harder decision to make.

As others has said, everyone deals with these things differently. For me, though, I got through it by focusing on Harvey instead of myself and concentrating on making his final days as happy as I possibly could. I work full-time, but I made an extra effort to spend some alone time with Harvey every single day. I spoiled him silly and fed him all his favorite foods. (Including a version of macaroni and cheese that I concocted just for him when he started desperately wanting the mac & cheese we had.) I bought him a heating pad for his chair because he liked the warmth. I also talked to him a lot about what was going on and what I was feeling and how badly I wanted him to know that I loved him. It may seem silly, but it helped me get it out and I believe that they're a lot more aware than we think they are. He may not have understood the words I was saying, but I think that he understood the emotions behind them (kind of like listening to an opera in a foreign language). Harvey went to the Rainbow Bridge on New Years Eve. It helped a lot to know that I made his final days as special as I could.

It also helps to talk things out here. It's a great group, and you'll find many sympathetic virtual shoulders to cry on here. Nobody here will tell you "it's only a cat"!