Unhappy senior cat - would you PTS?

[seniorcatty]

I need to take my 16 year old cat for her 6 monthly health check/blood tests soon and I'm dreading it because I think I want to ask for euthanasia. But there's no immediate medical reason to do so and I don't want the vet to think I just want "convenience euthanasia" to make my life easier.

Basically she's had hyperthyroidism for 4 years (controlled well on Vidalta), has the beginnings of renal disease, some arthritis... She's always been a very demanding and grumpy cat (I used to get bitten regularly when she was younger - she was a rescue aged about 4-5 so I don't know her early history). Now it's like all her bad behaviours are getting worse.

She's become extremely vocal - always has been but her voice has changed from a more ordinary meow to something that sounds like screaming/howling and it's extremely loud. I assume she is becoming a bit deaf and her volume is going up. She does it early mornings, late nights and pretty much whenever she wants food/attention and often seemingly just for no reason sometimes, i.e. sitting on a cat tree just howling. If I ignore her, she just continues for an hour sometimes. I'm finding it's really affecting my own mental health now and it's stressing out my other cats. Plus it's so loud I have no doubt neighbours on both sides (terraced house) will hear it too.

She's lost weight in the past year (no obvious explanation from last blood tests), her coat has become duller (she grooms less), she occasionally vomits (maybe once a week). She drinks and pees a huge amount (has done for a few years now).

She reminds me a lot of my granny who had Alzheimers and for many years it was like she was there but not really there if that makes sense. Same with DCat, I understand cats change with age but it's like a different cat.

She still eats well and enjoys a fuss and an occasional walk around the garden (if I take her out). So I'm wondering about her quality of life really? But also a huge part of this is her being so vocal and the impact on everyone else's quality of life (mine, our other cats, even the neighbours!).

She's always been difficult to handle at the vets as well so we've already briefly discussed with the vet that she's not a cat I would put through extensive treatment or anything requiring regular visits.

I know you've had blood tests done - are they absolutely convinced it isn't diabetes? It's just that all the symptoms - weight loss, drinking and urinating lots, lack of condition, vomiting, eating lots - even down to the loud vocalising sound exactly like my cat a few years ago before the diagnosis.

Am sure they have done so, but just wanted to check.

Sounds like renal failure is getting worse to me. My cat vomited very regularly, almost daily, until we put her on special kidney cat food. It improved a great deal with that. Unfortunately she had to be pts just before Christmas. She couldn’t jump up for door anymore (we have dogs so food has to be up) and lost a third of her body weight and then couldn’t really walk. Even then the vet asked me if I wanted her to just slowly fade away at home. I couldn’t put her through the pain and she managed to actually get up and out the cat flap twice that week (I’m convinced she was looking for somewhere to die and I couldn’t bear the thought of her doing that in some freezing cold, wet and on her own place so I sort of insisted.)
If you want to try the food I can give you the name of it? But sometimes I do think you know when it’s their time but you may have to explain why!

My otherwise fit and healthy 19 year old previously quiet cat used to do the howling, it was a real throaty loud wail. He started at about 17 and got steadily worse and the vet told me it was a form of kitty dementia. We loved him so much and he didn’t seem distressed but it used to drive us mad. The vet said he wasn’t doing it consciously but it was because he didn’t always know where he was and he couldn’t control it. We were told to keep him indoors as he’d lost his common sense and would wander off and get lost. He never went far but we started keeping him indoors and noticed he started sitting with his face almost touching the wall and that calmed him down. We were torn for a long time but Sadly the decision was taken from us when he jumped off a chair and misjudged the drop, the vet said he was too old for anaesthetic and he was in a lot of pain so we had to say goodbye 😢, selfishly we probably should have done it sooner.

A difficult decision for you. I have recently gone through this twice with 2 elderly cats, with the same symptoms you describe. They seemed content, still eating and I felt still had a quality of life. However now looking back I wish I had not let either go on so long because when the end comes it is not nice. It is only natural to want to keep them with us as long as possible, but reflecting now I do think I should have let them go sooner.

She's been eating the kidney diet for about three years now, as soon as renal values became high on bloods and urine was very diluted. She's also had several UTIs over that time.

Yes definitely ruled out diabetes, I specifically asked last time and there was no sign of it in bloods or urine tests.

I think it's the kidney disease getting worse too combined with cat dementia and arthritis probably...

Try using some Feliway in the house for a few days and see if that makes a difference.

We have a senior rescue cat with what I can only describe as mental health issues. The vet said there is some sort of brain damage, possibly from toxoplasmosis as a kitten. She can be pretty happy in herself for weeks at a time, and then goes through a period of quite frankly odd distressed behaviour, hiding, yowling, pestering to go out-in-out-in-etc, changing sleeping places, kitten calling and finding some seriously weird places to hide. A good spray of Feliway all round the house a couple of days running and she calms down again. She will then be back to what is normall for her, and will be contented again.

I had this with my old boy, he was 18.

I think it is kinder for them to go earlier rather than when its got to the stage of pain and full on dementia, who wants to see any animal fade away?

for you @seniorcatty

What pain meds is she on? Is it worth changing type/adjusting dose?

It's a tough one, I had my 16 year old girl back and forth to the vet several times in the last couple of months we had her. She just kept developing more and more things, and in the end the sum total of them meant she just was fading away and there were no medications that could help. The vet said there was a good chance she would go into crisis which would be really awful for her and for us to see. So I pts. It was hard but the kindest thing to do.

Just wanted to update to say she's now been to vet's for another set of blood and urine tests and a full health check. Still waiting for results but vet thinks kidneys, dementia and deafness... DCat was even more feisty than usual with the vet staff, bless her.

We had a discussion about how to know when it's time... She said "I usually tell owners you'll know when it's time and when people wait too long, they always regret it.". She said she wouldn't advice to PTS without trying everything reasonable first but then once everything's been done and there's no improvement...

I have one more new supplement to try for a month to see if it helps with the screaming/yowling behaviour and general unhappiness... She's lost 1.6 kg in the past 6 months, she was quite big to start with but it's a lot of weight to lose.