Just that really. He has had what seemed to be worsening gum/teeth problems (his teeth have never been great but his breath was very stinky & he was drooling a bit) and had steroids & antibiotics but I was struggling a bit to get him to eat food with steroid tablets in. The vet's had another look tonight and thinks his tongue doesn't look right and there's probably a cancer growing there. Obviously the outlook is grim. The vet was really nice and we have a palliative care plan to give him long-acting steroid injections until there seems no further benefit to be had. He's had an injection tonight plus some antibiotics so we'll just keep an eye on him over the next few days. Any sign he's uncomfortable or his appetite is dropping off & we'll be having him PTS as I would hate to drag this out too long for him. At the moment he's pottering around and nibbling fancy cat food (chicken fillet in jelly!) and the vet thinks it is reasonable to carry on for the time being.
Very sad as I have had him since he was 3 months old, he was a stray feral kitten living by the local railway line with his mum and he has such a lovely affectionate nature, he absolutely adores being stroked and spends every evening climbing on & off DH's lap for more & more cuddles
We will make a real fuss of him for his final few weeks but I will miss him when he has to go 
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The litter tray
My lovely old boy cat has mouth cancer
timtam23 · 23/05/2014 20:58
Oh, timtam. I know you thought he didn't have that long in any case but it's still so hard.
Thank you 
He is now curled up asleep with Dudley on the armchair, I am a bit tearful looking at them
In some ways it helps to know something major is wrong, it means we won't be trying too hard to keep him going.
The vet was actually relatively positive and thinks at best he could even have a couple of months left of reasonable quality of life (he is a good weight, and the vet thinks steroids could really help by removing swelling in his mouth etc although the effect will diminish each time and eventually they will not help any more)
He has had such a long & happy life, it's amazing that he and my other old cat, who died last year, have both reached the age of 18. Trouble is that because of them I'm not at all used to losing a pet, before I had the cats my last pets were guinea pigs when I was 12!
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I took him to the vet this morning to be put to sleep
It was obvious that his mouth was getting worse quite rapidly so we gave him some extra steroid tablets over the weekend and he had a lovely 2 days in the sunshine, snoozing & pottering around as the fancy took him, and he had whatever he wanted to eat (including the leftover tomato sauce from a can of baked beans!). We made a total fuss of him, lots of strokes and he was groomed from head to tail which he has always adored.
I held him as the vet gave the injection and it was very calm & peaceful, there have been some tears but mostly relief that it was the right decision and things would only have got harder for him if we'd left it a few more days.
I keep thinking I can see him out of the corner of my eye - I guess it will take a while to get used to, he had been around for 18 years after all.
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