Context: 14-year-old male cat. Has been in our family since he was 6 weeks old. Was always slim but in the past year has lost literally 1/2 his body weight. Has been being treated the past 2 weeks for hyperthyroidism, but there are other conditions which may or may not be related: pancreatitis, heart murmur, abnormal liver enzymes, and suspected kidney issues. He’s due more blood tests in 2 weeks to finalize the diagnosis.
I guess I just want some thoughts on how to make a caring and responsible decision regarding his care. Hyperthyroidism I know is treatable, but I’m uncertain about the rest. At the moment he’s in a lot of pain despite being on what I understand is a pretty heavy duty pain killer. He’s crying on and off every couple of hours, wandering around the house seeming to look to us for reassurance and only settling when he’s in our arms (he’s usually not the cuddliest guy!). This is somewhat complicated by the fact that we have a young child and #2 due in 3 months. We try to provide him with lots of affection, but we’re spread a bit thin and soon will be spread thinner.
Treatment is likely to be very expensive (we’re in Canada and so far in 2 weeks of care we’re approaching the $1000 mark.) I don’t want that to overly influence my decision, although obviously I can’t be shelling that much out every few weeks indefinitely. I guess my question is: has anyone had experiences of these conditions (combined)? Is there any hope of a better quality of life for our little guy given the proper treatment, or are we prolonging his suffering with multiple interventions? Has anyone come to a decision to put a family pet down, and if so how did you reach it? Our vet isn’t very helpful in these conversations, we’re finding. His approach is always “we can try x, it will cost y”. When I’ve asked him about quality of life and told him I’m not particularly interested in discussing the financial pros and cons (at least at this stage) and just want a realistic expectation as to the cat’s chances of surviving and thriving, it seems like something short circuits in the vet’s brain.
I always expected I could be unsentimental about the cat, but it appears that I can’t be. Especially since my 17-month-old DD just started talking a few weeks ago and one of her very first words was “cat”. She absolutely adores him... This is so tough...