- Joined
- Jan 13, 2023
- Messages
- 15
- Purraise
- 24
Our 13 yo cat has dementia.
A little history - He's been living with diabetes since Jan 2022. His numbers are regulated and his dose is 2 units of Lantus/2x per day.
He has blood work regularly and sees our vet as needed.
He is in very early stages of kidney disease but the dementia is the hardest to manage.
His eye sight and hearing are fine.
We've spoken at length with our vet about it and we've all concluded it is dementia.
He paces, stares at walls, has started peeing and pooping outside of the box. We have puppy pads on the floors where he goes for protection - mostly works, but not always. He will walk and just freeze in place mid-step at times. He's start to sit down and just freeze for a while before doing it. But he's also the biggest mush to cuddle with. He follows me everywhere, he will sleep with me for hours - but i don't know if that's just comfort for him because his body is so uneasy.
He doesn't do the normal cat stuff anymore - sniff our finger if we point at him, rub up against us, ask for affection.
How would we know if he is in pain or uncomfortable? He's had pancreatitis a couple of times and purrs when he's inflamed, so we know he is in pain. He doesn't purr anymore outside of that.
We feel the end is coming but we are having such a hard time making the decision.
I spoke to our vet last week and he feels that he's having more bad days than good at this point but we live with him and just don't see it (or maybe we don't want to?). We promised him when we adopted him that we'd do everything we could to give him the best life ever.
We have lost pets before but we have never had to make this decision and we are having a really hard time with all of this.
How do we know if we are being fair to him (and ourselves)?
A little history - He's been living with diabetes since Jan 2022. His numbers are regulated and his dose is 2 units of Lantus/2x per day.
He has blood work regularly and sees our vet as needed.
He is in very early stages of kidney disease but the dementia is the hardest to manage.
His eye sight and hearing are fine.
We've spoken at length with our vet about it and we've all concluded it is dementia.
He paces, stares at walls, has started peeing and pooping outside of the box. We have puppy pads on the floors where he goes for protection - mostly works, but not always. He will walk and just freeze in place mid-step at times. He's start to sit down and just freeze for a while before doing it. But he's also the biggest mush to cuddle with. He follows me everywhere, he will sleep with me for hours - but i don't know if that's just comfort for him because his body is so uneasy.
He doesn't do the normal cat stuff anymore - sniff our finger if we point at him, rub up against us, ask for affection.
How would we know if he is in pain or uncomfortable? He's had pancreatitis a couple of times and purrs when he's inflamed, so we know he is in pain. He doesn't purr anymore outside of that.
We feel the end is coming but we are having such a hard time making the decision.
I spoke to our vet last week and he feels that he's having more bad days than good at this point but we live with him and just don't see it (or maybe we don't want to?). We promised him when we adopted him that we'd do everything we could to give him the best life ever.
We have lost pets before but we have never had to make this decision and we are having a really hard time with all of this.
How do we know if we are being fair to him (and ourselves)?
