How do you know when its time...

[goodgrief54]

My 16 year old cat has been unwell for a few months. She has lost most of her body weight and is mostly bones but she never stops eating. She keeps pooing everywhere which recently has become a lot less solid. She occaisionally sits on my knee but spends most of the time in the kitchen waiting for more food. She has 2 different pills one for her heart and one her thyroid. I just dont know what the best thing is for her.. I am taking her to the vets again on saturday but worried what they will ask me to choose. What would you do? is the fact she wants food a good sign that she has fight in her?

I think it was Lonecatwithkitten who put forward the idea of 'more bad days than good days'. I think I'd pretty well go with that.

It's always a hard decision though.

I'm sorry goodgrief. I've been going through the same with my 18 yr old cat recently - she has kidney failure and arthritis. I'm taking her to the vet tomorrow to be put to sleep as there has definitely been a shift towards "more bad days than good" and I don't want to leave it too late. It's really hard to know what's best but I think we can't expect her to get any better now so I don't want her to suffer.

On the bright side the vet may be able to increase her thyroid treatment as her symptoms sound like she's still got an overactive thyroid (I'm assuming that's what the thyroid treatment is for?) - My other old cat had tablets then surgery on his thyroid 18 months ago, aged 16 and he has done well. His thyroid is absolutely fine now, he's gone blind due to other health problems but all of the inappropriate pooing, weeing and constant eating stopped a soon as he'd had the op and I would say he still has a good quality of life at the moment and he's put on plenty of weight. Good luck at the vets.

We had a cat who got diabetes and this was what he was like. Has the vet tested for that. He was PTS as we didn't go down the insulin injection route as would've had to keep him in and that would've been a torture for him.
The vet said to me can you imagine what it's like to always be starving and never get any respite from it.
The vet will advise you but I personally wouldn't let a cat linger too long. We did it once and in hindsight
it was for us rather than the poor cat.

I had my 12 year old cat PTS 3 weeks ago, he had kidney disease and heart failure. He went from non stop eating (despite losing weight), to not eating or drinking anything at all over the space of six weeks. His coat went scraggy and was very clammy. He was hiding out under the bed sleeping up to 18 hours at a time. I knew he was shutting down (have experienced it with another 2 of my cats) and I couldn't put off taking him to the vet. I felt physically sick up right up until it was time.
It was the hardest thing I ever had to do especially as i'd lost my 11 month old female to the road 4 days beforehand.

The vet confirmed what I already knew and DH and I had always agreed that we would not keep him going for our sakes, we would not let him suffer. So I know I did the right thing.

I think if you have a chat with your vet he/she will give you every available option and help you through it. You wont even need to make a decision there and then you can go away and come back again if needs be. It's never an easy decision but you will know when the time is right.

Thanks everyone for your comments. It is really not easy..

I don't think people regret putting a pet to sleep too soon, more too late is the usual regret.

Cozie is right I do suggest the more bad days than good days. My other is better a day to soon than a day too late.
With elderly pets who have chronic health conditions I believe it is best to make the plan so we all know what you the owner want to happen when the day comes rather than struggling with decision about where and cremation when you are already upset.
This time of year is often hard for elderly pets and they can deteriorate rapidly. I have suggest to three families tonight that they make 'the plan' so when the bad day comes they what they want.

goodgrief it is a really really hard thing to do

I said upthread that I would be taking my old girl to the vet on Monday, well I went through with it and although I'm very very sad that she is no longer with us, the main feeling is of relief that we did make the decision with clear heads and we were not having to make decisions whilst in the middle of an awful crisis situation with her. I had thought about what I wanted done with her body beforehand so I was prepared for that discussion with the vet and although I was upset it was a very very quick procedure and I was comforted by how peacefully she slipped away - we had watched her fading over 24-48 hours and I'm sure if we'd left it only a day longer she would have been in some distress. She is at peace now and it was the kindest thing I could have done for her.

She had had a relatively good summer and enjoyed pottering around, but as Lonecat says, the start of the colder weather marked her final deterioration

My thoughts are with you as you decide what to do