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My awesome cat is dying. Last week, the vet found a large mass on her spleen, confirmed via ultrasound as a tumor, almost certainly cancerous. She's been eating less and less and losing weight for weeks, and on Saturday, she stopped eating completely. She drinks water very occasionally (maybe once or twice per day), but that's it. The vet told me that around day three with no food is kind of the threshold where we can assume she's in her final day or hours. In the past 24 hours, she also spent a significant amount of time just lying under the bed, which she normally doesn't do unless she's hiding. It's my understanding that this hiding behavior is typical of cats near the end of their lives, although I can't be sure that's the reason here. The vet has given me mirtazapine to help stimulate appetite and liquid buprenorphine to help with pain. She doesn't appear to be in any pain, but I know that's hard to judge in cats. She and I have spent most of the last few days in my bedroom. It's been her favorite place to sleep and hang out for a long time. I have bowls of water and food available for her in the room in case she feels like eating or drinking. I'm trying many different kinds of food, treats that she loves, etc, but she's not interested in any of it. I've moved one of her litter boxes into the room, away from her food and water. She has soft blankets to rest on, and I put a blanket under the bed for her. While she spends most of her time sleeping, she does wake up and move around a bit occasionally. She still comes to me and lays down with me on the bed from time to time. I've spent most of the last few days keeping her company, petting her, and talking to her softly. Once or twice a day, I pick her up and hold her while I walk around the house. I carry her outside for a few minutes per day and just walk around the yard. She seems to enjoy this. She's very calm and quiet while I'm holding her. Can anyone think of anything else I can do to keep her comfortable as she comes to the end? I've tried to cover everything, but people with more experience might have other ideas. She's about 15-16 years old. I've had her for about 11 years. She's moved with me through two apartments and to my house. She's my best friend, a very good cat, and I love her dearly. I tell her those things every day. Thanks for reading.  
BeanBandit fucked around with this message at 03:15 on May 23, 2017 |
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May 23, 2017 02:51
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Thanks for the kind words and the advice. She licked at a bowl of food for a minute yesterday evening, but didnt really eat much, if any of it. I picked up a can of tuna today, and I'll try giving her a little of the liquid and smaller bits in a short while. She's never been big on tuna, but it's worth a try. The vet also gave me another appetite stimulant to try (cyproheptadine). If she doesn't eat anything by Thursday morning, I think it'll be time to do what's necessary. Thanks again.
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May 24, 2017 00:03
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She ate something! It wasn't a whole lot, but last night, after I gave her the new appetite stimulant, she ate some bites of her normal food. Then, I drained the water and some of the meat from the can of tuna I bought, and she licked most of it up! Later that night, I gave her a few pieces of a veggie burger patty I was eating, and she even ate those. I don't know if she's just feeling a bit better or if the appetite stimulant is working, but I am so happy to see her eat something. I'll buy some more tuna and some other foods tonight. I know the prognosis is still very bad for her, so I'm not deluding myself into believing she's going to make it another year. However, if I can keep her comfortable and eating occasionally, and it gives me another week with her... well, I'd do anything for that.  Thanks so much for the kind words and especially for the advice about the tuna! Ferryll posted:Working as a nurse, many times families think that if their end-staged loved one doesn't eat they will be in a lot of pain and this is simply not true. Right, I misinterpreted what the vet originally said before about my cat not eating. She meant that if a sick and old cat doesn't eat anything for three days in a row, that's typically a sign that they're not going to get significantly better and that it's time to start thinking about euthanization. The alternative is almost always a protracted death by starvation, which would obviously be inhumane and unnecessary.
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May 25, 2017 04:19
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Amberlyn posted:How is your cat? Hi, sorry for the long delay. I don't read the forums much anymore, and I forgot about this thread. A few days after my last post, my cat stopped eating again. She wouldn't come out from under the bed for anything, and when I peeked under to look, she was always lying on her side, which she almost never did. The following morning, I carried her outside and just walked around the yard for awhile so she could sniff the flowers and glare at the squirrels one last time. Finally, I took her to the vet where she died peacefully in my arms. My cat had a long, happy life. As painful as it was to let her go, I wouldn't trade my time with her for anything. It was all worth it. take me to the beaver and Huge_Midget, I'm sorry to hear about your cats. Choosing the right time to mercifully end the life of a beloved pet is an impossible duty, but it was part of the deal when we agreed to take them home. If you did what you thought was best given the experience and knowledge of a trained vet, then I don't think you have to worry that you did it too late or too early. I had done most of my mourning and crying in the couple weeks after the vet gave me the bad news. After she was euthanized and I took her empty carrier back out to my car, I felt relief more than anything. I miss her terribly, especially every time I think I see her out of the corner of my eye, but the days and weeks after her death weren't filled with endless stretches of sobbing like I expected. That's okay. There's no correct way to mourn. Whatever you feel after the death of a loved one is okay. Take care.
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Aug 4, 2017 01:51
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