My poor old cat... I wonder if she's on the way out?

[MamaHobgoblin]

My cat is 13 and has recently aged a hell of a lot. She's stiff and apathetic a lot of the time, and at the moment she has one of her gunky eyes (she gets this a lot - dunno if it's an eyelash or tiny bit of debris, but it's always sorted itself out within a couple of days and we've learnt not to rush to the vet with it, but today is a lot worse than normal). The eye's got the third eyelid swollen up and she can't close it properly. Vet's tomorrow, first thing. She's changed her behaviour recently - just sitting or standing apathetically wherever we move her to (she gets in the way a lot, bless her).

We saw the vet the other week for her vacs and she felt her all over and declared her in good health for her age, but I do wonder... She's always been picky and often goes a week eating virtually nothing (as far as we're able to tell!) but now I think she's getting too frail to get away with this. I just bought the most expensive cat food I could find for her (oddly, she didn't want the roast chicken we had for lunch) which did tempt her a little. She has an ongoing kidney problem which is being monitored and managed (when she actually eats the food with the medicine in).

Sometimes she goes all kittenish, but increasingly she's quite sad. I feel horribly guilty because she did change a lot after DS appeared 16 months ago (he loves her, she has to take evasive action!), and I also changed - I don't feel the love for her that I used to feel. I know that this is quite common when you have babies, but it makes me feel terrible, because increasingly I resent her for being in the way when I have a toddler on one hip and a load of laundry to do, etc. Not her fault. But I hate the idea of getting rid of a pet just because you have a baby. I'd never do that.

Suppose I'm just airing it, really. I'll ask the vet what she thinks about my cat's changed behaviour tomorrow.
Am I being evil?

[catless]

My elderly cat went through a morose phase with a few wobbly turns and alot of 'just standing there' and at the time I thought he was on his last legs (he was fifteen or so at the time) but ended up being diagnosed with arthritis and with a daily dose of metacam he found a new lease of life.

She's probably not sad - just taking life a little slower now.

[MamaHobgoblin]

Hmm, maybe the vet can suggest something.

I should know better than to transfer my feelings onto her, but she does seem sad - stiff, not very animated, just standing where she's put and not really bothered about anything. I never play with her any more .

Thanks, and I hope it's something we can fix.

[catless]

Definitely mention the stiffness to the vet, her joints might be painful. I think when vets do their pre-vaccination checks they can overlook quite alot.

Oh, you are feeling guilty . I'm sure it's unfounded. I used to feel terrible about leaving my cat overnight while I stayed at my boyfriends house but once I came back unexpectedly and I definitely wasn't welcome! I'd interrupted his little routine and quite spoiled his nap!

[MamaHobgoblin]

Oh god... it was an abcess. The whole area round her eye was full of pus, and I didn't notice. To be fair, it didn't show as a big swelling, but the vet said it was pulpy. That's why she couldn't shut that eye last night, but I thought it was just an eyelash or something, like normal.

She must have been in yet another cat fight and got a puncture wound. I've lost count of the bite-wound abcesses she's had in her 13 years...

Anyway, they've drained it and given her a lot of antibiotics and I'm fetching her home in a while with some eyedrops to put in her poor dried out eye until the swelling goes down and she can close it again. My poor cat...

[catless]

Poor puss! No wonder she seemed sad. Good luck giving a cat eye drops!