What would you do?

[Wagt]

What would you do… Cat is 15. Cat has hyperthyroidism and congestive heart failure. The thyroid can only be treated with meds, as cat’s heart is too fragile for surgery or the radioactive injection.

Recently cat’s heart trouble worsened and the Vet suggested euthanasia but said we could try medication and see if that helps. Medication has helped! Cat is almost back to normal and has good quality of life for a 15 year old cat (ie sleeps, sits in sun, eats, sits on lap, sleeps again).

But, cat will not accept drugs in food or milk - I have tried everything, please don’t suggest foods or different meds, I have tried them all. Basically cat would rather starve than eat medicated food. So twice a day I have to pin down cat to squirt different medications down his throat. This makes cat angry and often he manages to escape the blanket and scratch me.

The drugs are costing about £100/month. I can afford it but obviously paying the money sucks. We can’t holiday because I can’t ask anyone else to medicate this angry squirmy scratchy cat twice a day. Even if a cattery would take him, he’s out of date on his vaccines because it seemed silly to stress his failing body and spend £££ on a cat expected to die any moment.

But, cat seems happy most of the time and has come back from the brink to be relatively stable.

DH reckons might as well euthanise now as in 6-18 months after spending ££££

What to do…

It's tough, couldn't say to be honest. Though I think it's wonderful to see cats reach their teens, so many are cut short before this.
Only thing I would suggest is make the process of giving meds a bit easier. My cat is bloody miserable with any medication, won't take anything mixed into food. But I always do it as brisk and smooth as possible, quicker with two people, and I give some cheese or bacon fat as a reward.

I personally would be considering PTS. My car would absolutely hate being grabbed and held like that every day, to the point she'd hide from me. It's also not good for you to be scratched every day.

I used to get my elderly cat (with the same problems as yours) to take his medication mixed with webbox lick E Lix cat treats. He lived to be almost 23. I hope you can find something that your cat enjoys to enable him to take his medication.

I had a cat with severe heart disease, fortunately she took her medication well. But if it distressed her that much, I'd have put her onto palliative care then PTS when the time was right. But with the thyroid issue as well, I think I would PTS, sooner rather than later.

Completely understand how hard it becomes when they need regular medication.

However, I’d avoid doing whatever your method is re wrapping in a blanket. It’s going to stress them out more being regularly restricted like that.

This is going to be a long and boring description, but bear with me !

Firstly, get the meds ready ahead of time - at least 30 minutes. Depending on type of meds, get your syringe or tablet ready and easily accessible ahead of time.

When it is time for meds, scoop cat up and plonk them on a table or worktop. You want them at chest height to you. When you “plonk” them down you want their back towards your chest. Gently lean them into your chest and use one hand to gently prise their jaw open. Pop in the tablet or administer the syringe and then gently hold their jaw shut for a couple of seconds.

Then give a few treats!

It sounds convoluted, but once you get in the swing of things, it’s over and done with very quickly. My mum’s cat didn’t know what had hit her!

The trick really is with getting the stuff ready and to hand a while before you do it. So you then scoop up, plonk, administer with no fuss or stress.

He’s doing well on medication now and you can afford it, so I find your husbands attitude really awful.

Your cat is 15 and has some conditions so will likely not have many years left. While he is happy, give him the lovely life he deserves.

Your husband on the other hand.....

I couldn't get a pet PTS that had a happy life on medication. I would never forgiven myself.

I have a young cat who's medicated daily and I find tablets much easier than a syringe if that's an option?

I get the medication ready in advance, pick him up and put him on the worktop, open his jaw with one hand and pop the tablet in - then massage his throat so he swallows. It takes about thirty seconds to give him three tablets and he's now so used to it that he comes to me and taps me on the arm if he thinks I've forgotten

He always gets an extra fuss and a kiss on the top of his head afterwards he can't really have treats as he has a really sensitive stomach so kisses if has to be!

I have a similar cat. My vet said that there are medications that can be rubbed onto the ears and absorbed that way. I don't know if that could be an option for your cat?

Can you improve the medication administration technique so that it's faster & he doesn't scratch you? Better swaddling, I mean. If you got it down good, maybe someone else could administer. Or you could dare to let him miss some doses too if you went away. How long since you had a holiday ? He's not going to last super long even with this plateau, he's on a sliding down trajectory. What I mean is, you're living one day at a time, not a forever commitment. You're buying him some time, not a long time.

Thanks guys. It’s tricky eh. We did try the tablets but sometimes anout them didn’t agree with his stomach and they got vomited straight back out.

Yes I don’t think I can accept PTS while hegot decent quality of life but I don’t know how yo improve own quality of life 🤦‍♀️ if I don’t use a blanket the claws come out.

Ask your vet about y/d food or the skin gel for hyperthyroidism. I think neither are as good as oral meds but worth a try

Do you crush the tablets when you put them in food? My last cat would not eat a tablet hidden in food but was happy with it as powder mixed into food (and likelix or malt paste were like crack for her).

Thyroid tablets can't be crushed

My cat has gel rubbed on her ears for thyroid. Tablets get crushed and hidden in a prawn

There's a few options for hyperthyroidism in cats but they're not interchangeable
My girl has tablets in treats or pill pockets
I wouldn't put her through the trauma of forced medication ( I did that with one of my other girls. Never again )
There's liquid medication and also a topical gel you could consider
If your kitty is happy and enjoying life the pts option is wrong on so many levels

You can’t euthanise an animal that is to all intents and purposes healthy because you’d rather save money , aggravation and go on holiday and frankly if my husband had suggested that course of action I would be seriously questioning what I had married .

The animal isn't to all intents & purposes healthy. It's doing ok for now & has decent quality of life again, not in imminent danger but it's got pretty bad heart failure. It's pretty precarious health situation, truly.

I meant in that the OP said it was back to behaving in its normal fashion and had a good , for its age , quality of life . I’m pretty sure if you scanned and x rayed most elderly animals you’d find something wrong with them .

Yeah it’s hard to explain everything without going into pages of detail. His heart is 4x normal size, has been for a couple of years, vet is amazed he’s not dead yet and is expecting him to suddenly die painfully at any time, which makes it all very confusing. Cat seems perfectly happy, even playful, at the moment, although staying mostly inside the house last few months (he used to roam widely).

I could possibly switch to the ear-gel thyroid meds, will ask vet but the heart stuff has to be oral I believe. Yep thyroid pills can’t be crushed.

Last holiday was July, he was fine when I left but quite poorly when I got back, think he got depressed. He’d always been fine with a neighbour feeding him before (has never been in a cattery). Normally I’d have booked a summer holiday by now but I’m a bit 😱 not happy to leave him. Wonder if cat fancies a trip to an airbnb by the sea 😬 Hm probably not.

I guess we’ll take it one day at a time.

Personally I'd be thinking pts, it's an elderly cat and cats are very good at hiding any pain or discomfort. Sleeping a lot could be a sign he's feeling unwell.

Be guided by your vet.

I have twice kept pets going longer than I ought to have done, because it was possible to do so. I would have PTS much earlier, but I lived with my parents at the time, and DM could not bear the idea. So because we could, we kept the animals going. One pet died in his sleep, after several weeks of apparent 'happiness' - no crying for example, but also minimal movement and no ability to toilet or wash independently. The other I eventually over-ruled my parents and PTS because, even though dpet was clearly not in pain, she was clearly not contented, either.

Just because you can is not a good enough reason to keep an ill pet alive, especially if the means of keeping it alive distresses it.

Of course you love your dcat and want the best for him. It's not about the money or the holiday. I'm not saying put him to sleep now, I'm just saying be more open to that option. Don't get stuck in a sunk costs fallacy or be guilted into drawing things out.

So sorry you have to make this hard decision.