What should we do?

[AltogetherAndrews]

Our cat is becoming a problem. She is 17, we have had her since she was a kitten, and she is much loved.

However, she is now pretty much blind, her thyroid is overactive but controlled with medication, and although she has a litter tray which she uses, she has taken to peeing all over the kitchen floor, day and night. She is possibly peeing elsewhere due to the smell but I havent yet found out where. We can’t let her out anymore, partly due to the blindness, and partly because she wanders, and then misses her medication, and ends up in a mess.
She spends most of the day either asleep, or wandering about yowling, looking for us, because she can’t see us.

What can we do? The peeing has to stop, as we live in rented accommodation and the original floorboards are going to end up destroyed. Coming home to the smell of urine is getting unbearable. The vet hasn’t found anything else the matter, I’ve tried cleaning with the Zoflora pet deodoriser but I’m not convinced it helps. Feliway hadn’t had much impact.

I wouldn't judge you if you had her put down. It sounds as though she doesn't have long left anyway, her quality of life probably isn't great and she's making your quality of life shit too.

I think you either have to permanently cover all floors in puppy training pads or pts.

Yeah, I was worried that might be the answer. It feels horrible to consider having her put down because of the peeing though. She isn’t in any pain as far as we can tell, and still enjoys cuddles.

The puppy pads are not a bad idea in the meantime.

I'm sorry to say that I'd call it a day too, her life isn't going to improve and if she gets distressed looking for you then it may well be kinder to her. I always say it's better a day too soon than a day too late.

Oh dear. I hadn’t thought of it that way.

If she's in distress, it might be kinder to let her go. The uncontrolled peeing will be unpleasant for her, too. You have all my sympathy as I'm constantly asking myself similar questions about my old boy whose health is failing .

Sorry op but I would think it’s time to put her to sleep too. What does your vet think? Could you contain her to a room?

I have a fairly similar situation with my 17 year old... She is mostly deaf (rather than blind) and has a horribly loud, screaming kind of a meow - she often yowls when she has everything she needs, just sits on a cat tree and screams.

Pee is mostly in the litter box but she occasionally goes through phases of pooing elsewhere - usually on top of something, be that a newspaper on the floor or the corner of a rug. She has also become more aggressive towards me and the other cats (she's always been grumpy but more so now). I'm starting to wonder about her quality of life, she doesn't really do much other than sleeps, screams, eats and pees a lot due to kidney disease. She's also on tablets for hyperthyroidism.

We already confine her to the back rooms of the house when we are out or at night, otherwise the pee would be everywhere, and no one would be able to sleep for the noise.

I think I need to speak to DH about it, he was already talking about pts, but he is much less tolerant of the peeing issue, so I though maybe he was being too harsh.

Yes the yowling when she has everything, and demanding food 2 minutes after she has eaten. DH has suggested she might be senile, and can’t remember whether she has eaten? The yowling has become quite raspy, it’s not like the noises she made when she was younger.

Yes exactly like that, I too think my girl maybe has cat dementia. The sound is awful, I wonder what the neighbours think, she sounds like she is so distressed even right after I've fed her and given her a fuss.

It’s so sad when they get old, and can’t tell you if they are ok.