My cat died, feeling guilty

[Eurydice84]

My cat died suddenly of a suspected brain tumour. She stopped eating and after 7 days of IVs and emergency hospitalisation we got told it was probably stomach & brain cancer. She was shaking and falling over herself at the end. We decided to put her to sleep, as per the vet's recommendation.

I feel horribly guilty. What if I made the wrong choice and the vet was wrong? There was a rotation of vets and the one who gave the final diagnosis had never met her before.

DD (4yo, only child) is very sad and asking for a kitten for her birthday in April. Not sure whether it's a good idea as I still haven't processed the grief but the cat was truly her best friend and I don't want to upset her even more.

Don’t feel guilty, you made the right decision from the sound of it, your cat was very ill. you did it because you loved the cat and didn’t want her to suffer.

as for a new pet, you don’t have to make a decision now, although I think a new kitten bumbling around could be lovely

The vet wasn’t wrong. You did the right thing, try not to beat yourself up. As a pet owner making that decision is the hardest one so be kind to yourself 💐

(Yes a new kitten bumbling around would be lovely but not as nice as two kittens 😉)

My beautiful boy died of a brain tumour at a young age. From his first symptoms to his death was 3 weeks, I had time to get brain scans and emergency treatment to reduce pressure but couldn't afford the 12k surgery. I also didn't think it was fair to put him through it.

Its taken me a year to be ready for a new cat, I got a rescue who is very different from the last one, but just what I needed. I'm sure your daughter does miss the cat, but wait til your ready as youve got to cope if this one needs to to the vets for anything, not automatically panicking if the new cat gets poorly.

It's really hard and I'm sorry for your loss. You did the right thing

I am sorry for your loss. “Shaking, not eating, falling over” , she was clearly very unwell and you did the right thing by trusting your vets diagnosis.

Sorry for your loss, it's worse when they die young isn't it. My cat died at 8, which isn't that old after all. A stomach scan showed a black mass which was probably cancer so they deduced it had spread to the brain as her head and eyes were shaking and she couldn't get up. They didn't give her a brain scan which is what I'm feeling guilty about - perhaps I should have requested one, but that would have meant other days of suffering from her. It's so hard.

How traumatic for you. Absolutely awful when a pet has to be pts especially when they are young. You made the right call. Remember that animals don't know how old they are. They live for today. If it was her time to go then that was right.

It’s horrible. My girl became ill in February last year and we ended up having to make that call in April. It is so hard to do and I still question if I did the right thing, even though I know I did. She was 10 years old.

But we got a new kitten in July and although we miss our girl hugely but the kitten has given us so much.

You did tbf right thing, it would have far worse to allow her to suffer any longer.

A new kitten in a few months sounds like a lovely idea.

Mine was 8 too. Too young. We did the scan as by the sounds of things he wasn't as far as yours, the falling over only started a few days before that and shaking didn't start til a day or so before we had him PTS.

Pressed post too soon.

But I do think from everything youve said you did everything right. Take the time to grieve your loss and then get another cat/kitten when you've ready