any had a cat go senile?

[hatstand]

our 21 year old Siamese has lost the plot. She is pacing and pacing and hasn't got a clue where she is - gets stuck behing the video, walks all over things without realising, knocks things over. and yowls and yowls (Siamese tend to do the yowling thing anyway.) and she wees and poos every where. Sooner or later we are going to have to make a decision. The problem is that in many ways she's physically ok. How on earth do we know when she's had enough?

I don't know, Hatstand

But I would worry about the weeing and poing 'cos cats hate to be dirty

Hope things are OK?

oh she doesn't wee and poo on herself - mainly all over the kitchen floor. Paradoxically the floor has never been so clean - gets a daily mop at the moment!

I think it is a fairly 'bad' sign tho' as they are normally clean (iyswim)

My kitchen floor needs a bit of that

It's really hard. we took her to the vets a few weeks ago and he said she seemed pretty unaware of her surroundings and that it was down to us as to when the time was right, iykwim. It would be much easier if she was ill in the classic sense.

Well I was incontinent for about 5 yrs and I was pretty miserable - however I was fairly aware of what was going on - If pusscat isn't it might be fairer to her to let her go quietly rather than hold on until something major goes wrong?

But I understand if you can't

One of the difficult things is being sure we are doing what's right for her and not us. I don't want to feel guilty afterwards and think we did it coz we were sick of clearing up cat wee. I don't think it's quite crunchtime but guess it won't be long

She probable isn't very comfortable and cat really hate making messes

Is her sight OK?

not sure tbh. vet couln't see anthing wrong but she walks into stuff - but i think tha's general cluelessness. we had a dog do the same thing when i was a teenager

virtual hugs

sorry she's poorly

(off to bed now)
K

me too - thanks for chatting.

Hope pusscat is OK this morning and that you aren't too worried

My mums cat Misty was like that, he would also go out and then stand back at the door as if hed been for a wander and wanted to come back in. The vet said it was up to her and after a failed attempt where she couldnt take him she then woke up one day and decided it was time. You will know xxxxx

We had this. Our was just a moggie (mother was a stray that friends took in) but she had beautiful long black and white fur. In the end she didn't look after her fur, and wouldn't let us brush it (she went crazy if we tried) she would have to have a general anaesthetic at the vet s to have the worst bit clipped out. In the end she was so poorly we had to have her put down, she was also weeing and pooing everywhere

It's possible she's blind (cataracts?) or had a stroke, or a brain tumour or similar; even though the vet says they can't see anything, it's very difficult to tell on an old cat, who you couldn't really operate on or use anathestic anyway.
My feeling would be that her quality of life isn't great now, and 21 is an amazing age, so when you get a definite feeling that she's had enough, let her go. I had to have my cat put down, he had similar problems and I felt so so guilty (he was 14), but I do think it was the right thing to do as his quality of life was terrible. The vet thought possibly he had a brain tumour or a stroke, hence the walking into things and getting into places and not being able to work out how to get out. Or he could have just been senile and old.
Whatever you do, you will probably feel guilty, but with pets you've known a long time and love dearly, I think generally gut feelings tend to be right. There's no definite point where you'll know, but the fact you've asked this probably means you're more or less there.

My cat was 17 and started standing right in the corner facing the wall and bumping into things etc The vet said she was just old and it was our decision but a week or 2 later she develpoed a huge lump on her side and it turned out she had leukaemia which he said was prob in her brain etc and was affecting her neuro system We had her put to sleep that day unfortunately.I think you know when their quality of life is compromised and then you have to let them go Good luck I love cats and really sympathise xx

my sister's Siamese had a stroke this autumn and they put him to sleep. He also had started to be incontinent and had developed a heart murmer. it was very sad but she couldn't bear to see him so frail when he had previously been so active.

On a brighter note, she now has twin Siamese kittens. Yes, they're bonkers!!

21 is a really, really good age for a Siamese (since pedigree cats are less robust due to inbreeding). Does she still enjoy affection and cuddles? That would be my cut-off point.

this is exactly what happened to our beloved old moggy hatstand

he had a bit of kidney failure but was doing ok. His staring at walls and getting stuck behind the freezer type of behaviour became very marked when we moved house so we put it down to that initially. He then went floppy one Sunday so we had to take him to the emergency vet - he perked up after getting a drip but it only lasted a week or so. He'd also lost his purr. Anyway he lost the use of his back legs for a short time the following Saturday night so we decided to get him put to sleep. We had already decided that we were going to phone our own vet on the Monday morning as we realised his time had come but events overtook us which was probably best as I was dreading spending all day Monday at work knowing that we would be taking him to the vet later that day

it's a horrible decision but your cat's had a good long life and been much loved