- Joined
- Aug 7, 2016
- Messages
- 603
- Purraise
- 487
HK turned 20 last fall. he's got a variety of issues including IBS, hyperthyroid, kidney disease and so on. he's on a variety of meds, lactated ringers, injectible B12. his IBS means that sometimes he vomits when he poops. he has arthritis, but cosequin, which helped a lot, also gave him diahrrea that led to weight loss.
ah, weight loss. for years he was an overweight, 16 1/2 pound cat. not a REALLY fat cat, but chunky. but his IBS (the vets used to speculate on whether it could be cancer) is leading to his absorbing less nutrition from his food as time goes on. he weighs in at only 7 1/2 pounds now. he's REALLY thin, but here's the thing - he still climbs up on the couch with the help of an ottoman, my bed, which has a second ottoman. he talks to us, sits with us, will let us scritch his ears or rub his chin for long periods of time. he still watches if a moth flies by or there's some kind of action. he's engaged.
he's never been a cat who likes to be alone, but after his companion died a few years ago, he didn't want another cat, so i've become that companion. luckily i work at home.
but it's exhausting! and in the last month, as he gets hungrier more frequently and just wants more company, i average 3 1/2 to 4 hours of sleep, thrilled if i get 6 interrupted hours as i rarely sleep more than 2 1/2 hours at a time. yesterday he woke me up mowing loudly. i started to pet him and he pooped on the bed. for some reason, he always tells me when he is going to poop even if he goes on the tray, but i was mostly asleep yesterday and didn't register what might be happening.
luckily he does this frequently enough that the bed is covered by a tarp, then a sheet, and now a doubled over blanket. then a towel, which he lies on and pooped on, so it wasn't a disaster, but it woke me up and got me dealing with it. then i lay back down and he informed me he was hungry. there were 4 different plates of wet food on the floor, but he's always liked having us feed him, and he's even more flavor-picky than he always was.
i'm so tired all the time, too tired to have fun or think clearly. we worry about HK all the time - he's mentally alert but he's an elderly cat with all sorts of issues. two weeks ago, we took him to the vet thinking this might be a 2-day warning, and instead it turned out he was VERY low on potassium, so now he's on a supplement and doing much better. my husband and i cried while they ran the tests. part of me would have been relieved to let HK go, but the rest of me wanted to take him home, save him and protect him. my husband felt the same. and that's what we did. for now. now is what we have.
we're spending $800 a month or more on HK. $400 of that that we don't have is on cat food because he rejects at least 14 cans a day and then there are the partial cans he eats - oh, and the paper plates are up to about $12 plus tax a week. he's on $160 or more of medications, his lactated ringers and tube sets, the B12, potassium and the vet costs. we've maxed our care credit card. the cat who used to live with us and HK who died, his rare heart condition took all our savings.
our vet isn't top notch, but the other vets in the area haven't been, either, plus the other vets have dogs in the office. if we had a great vet, i might feel better about stuff. as it is, half the time i have to research stuff and ask her about things, as she often doesn't think of stuff. when he was severely depleted of B12, with absolutely textbook symptoms, neither the vet nor her boss thought of B12 deficiency.
my mom developed dementia in 2008, and i became the point "man" for her care. it was exhausting and awful, and before she passed away, my husband developed an odd type of kidney stone, and these never passed on their own and lead to a number of infections that lead to numerous 4- to 8-day hospital stays as well as procedures. just before that, jeep was diagnosed with a rare type of congestive heart failure. this led to many specialist trips, an entire plethora of medications, and each time his chest would fill with fluids, we'd have to take him in to get his chest tapped.
so you can imagine when HK began to have more health issues, i was already virtually out of emotional resources. my husband is the best, but we were... words fail me. my son (he's an adult and lives fairly close) has helped with a trip to the vet and repeated prescription pickups.
i have lost track of my friends. i can't make plans any more because who wants to go to disneyland or the beach on 3 hours of sleep? we're broke, and we're sad and it's so hard, so exhausting. the few people who still come by ask "are you sure you're doing the right thing, not putting him to sleep? are you sure he's not suffering?" yes, i'm pretty sure. euthanizing someone who's mostly happy, loves to eat and enjoys life isn't something i would do. why are so many people convinced that elderly equals suffering?
we love HK so much. his health issues seem to bother us more than he. he still purrs when we pet him, talks to us conversationally, he's loving, demanding and doesn't even know he has issues most of the time. and we wouldn't do anything other than what we're doing.
i thank you for "listening". no one who's not a certain kind of animal lover gets this. they see HK thin and assume he must be very poorly off, and we're keeping him alive even though he's suffering. he has maybe 10 rough minutes a day some days, none other days. i wouldn't do less for him than for anyone i love, and i'm happy he's still with us. and when he passes on, we'll know we did our very best for him and that he's had an exceptionally good life. but for now, we cherish him and care for him, spend all the time we can with him and do our best.
ah, weight loss. for years he was an overweight, 16 1/2 pound cat. not a REALLY fat cat, but chunky. but his IBS (the vets used to speculate on whether it could be cancer) is leading to his absorbing less nutrition from his food as time goes on. he weighs in at only 7 1/2 pounds now. he's REALLY thin, but here's the thing - he still climbs up on the couch with the help of an ottoman, my bed, which has a second ottoman. he talks to us, sits with us, will let us scritch his ears or rub his chin for long periods of time. he still watches if a moth flies by or there's some kind of action. he's engaged.
he's never been a cat who likes to be alone, but after his companion died a few years ago, he didn't want another cat, so i've become that companion. luckily i work at home.
but it's exhausting! and in the last month, as he gets hungrier more frequently and just wants more company, i average 3 1/2 to 4 hours of sleep, thrilled if i get 6 interrupted hours as i rarely sleep more than 2 1/2 hours at a time. yesterday he woke me up mowing loudly. i started to pet him and he pooped on the bed. for some reason, he always tells me when he is going to poop even if he goes on the tray, but i was mostly asleep yesterday and didn't register what might be happening.
luckily he does this frequently enough that the bed is covered by a tarp, then a sheet, and now a doubled over blanket. then a towel, which he lies on and pooped on, so it wasn't a disaster, but it woke me up and got me dealing with it. then i lay back down and he informed me he was hungry. there were 4 different plates of wet food on the floor, but he's always liked having us feed him, and he's even more flavor-picky than he always was.
i'm so tired all the time, too tired to have fun or think clearly. we worry about HK all the time - he's mentally alert but he's an elderly cat with all sorts of issues. two weeks ago, we took him to the vet thinking this might be a 2-day warning, and instead it turned out he was VERY low on potassium, so now he's on a supplement and doing much better. my husband and i cried while they ran the tests. part of me would have been relieved to let HK go, but the rest of me wanted to take him home, save him and protect him. my husband felt the same. and that's what we did. for now. now is what we have.
we're spending $800 a month or more on HK. $400 of that that we don't have is on cat food because he rejects at least 14 cans a day and then there are the partial cans he eats - oh, and the paper plates are up to about $12 plus tax a week. he's on $160 or more of medications, his lactated ringers and tube sets, the B12, potassium and the vet costs. we've maxed our care credit card. the cat who used to live with us and HK who died, his rare heart condition took all our savings.
our vet isn't top notch, but the other vets in the area haven't been, either, plus the other vets have dogs in the office. if we had a great vet, i might feel better about stuff. as it is, half the time i have to research stuff and ask her about things, as she often doesn't think of stuff. when he was severely depleted of B12, with absolutely textbook symptoms, neither the vet nor her boss thought of B12 deficiency.
my mom developed dementia in 2008, and i became the point "man" for her care. it was exhausting and awful, and before she passed away, my husband developed an odd type of kidney stone, and these never passed on their own and lead to a number of infections that lead to numerous 4- to 8-day hospital stays as well as procedures. just before that, jeep was diagnosed with a rare type of congestive heart failure. this led to many specialist trips, an entire plethora of medications, and each time his chest would fill with fluids, we'd have to take him in to get his chest tapped.
so you can imagine when HK began to have more health issues, i was already virtually out of emotional resources. my husband is the best, but we were... words fail me. my son (he's an adult and lives fairly close) has helped with a trip to the vet and repeated prescription pickups.
i have lost track of my friends. i can't make plans any more because who wants to go to disneyland or the beach on 3 hours of sleep? we're broke, and we're sad and it's so hard, so exhausting. the few people who still come by ask "are you sure you're doing the right thing, not putting him to sleep? are you sure he's not suffering?" yes, i'm pretty sure. euthanizing someone who's mostly happy, loves to eat and enjoys life isn't something i would do. why are so many people convinced that elderly equals suffering?
we love HK so much. his health issues seem to bother us more than he. he still purrs when we pet him, talks to us conversationally, he's loving, demanding and doesn't even know he has issues most of the time. and we wouldn't do anything other than what we're doing.
i thank you for "listening". no one who's not a certain kind of animal lover gets this. they see HK thin and assume he must be very poorly off, and we're keeping him alive even though he's suffering. he has maybe 10 rough minutes a day some days, none other days. i wouldn't do less for him than for anyone i love, and i'm happy he's still with us. and when he passes on, we'll know we did our very best for him and that he's had an exceptionally good life. but for now, we cherish him and care for him, spend all the time we can with him and do our best.