Goodbye to our darling girl…but also wanted to pass on some tips to help others

[Shrinky]

I’ve been a very long time lurker on these boards but never posted before.

Our darling Shmi passed away today. She was nearly 18, and had heart and kidney issues. She was a fighter but in the end, we had to make the hardest decision ever and give her a peaceful end 😢. I’m sure she’s with our first cat Saree now, doing all the things she used to do to irritate her 🥹.

She was a super fussy little madam, and we had to figure out all sorts of things to keep her eating and get medication into her. This was really stressful at times when she was unwell, and I thought that if any of these can help somebody else who’s struggling with their beloved feline, then I’d pass them on in Shmi’s memory. (I’m sure some of these are well established already)

• she’d only have her liquid renal supplement (refused the renal specialist cat food) when it was extracted from the capsule and a lick-e-lix squirted on top of it. Salmon ones worked best.
• she’d only have medication if we hid it in a web box meat stick. We’d buy fresh sticks every week so they would be soft enough to poke a hole in with a fork tine. Then we’d use the fork to poke in the tablet and sort of mould the opening closed. If the stick was too dry and it split or she had to chew it too much then it wouldn’t work. We’d give her a ‘clean’ piece, placed on the floor in front of her then a medicated piece, and put another clean piece in front of her nose as soon as she took the medicated one into her mouth.
• when she wouldn’t want to eat treats anymore, we’d put the stick into her cat food bowl with her food at breakfast when she was hungrier than at other times of the day.
• we also tried dairylea triangles to hide meds in but she wasn’t used to the taste. It worked really well with our other cat though.
• when she was mainly just licking the jelly or gravy off the food rather than eating, we switched to gourmet revelations mousse which she would eat.
• when her appetite went right down, our vet gave us a transdermal mirtazapine gel to rub on her ear, which is an appetite stimulant. Very effective.
• when she was reluctant to have one of her medications (Clopidogrel) even in a treat (is very bitter apparently), we managed to find an online specialist pharmacy (https://specialist-pharmacy.com/)who compound it into a transdermal gel for you. Our vet did a prescription for us. We were in the process of ordering this when she passed away.
• she was terrified of going to the vet and we didn’t want to distress her at the end, especially with her heart issues. We used Dignipets so she could fall asleep at home with us holding her. It was expensive but worth every penny.

Hope this can help someone 😿

When I knew that my cat didn't have long. I made a plan of what I wanted to happen. And it made it much easier, when the time came.

Sorry for your loss.

Ours wasn’t really expected to live past three months about 18 months ago, so we’d planned certain things then. Definitely made it easier when the time came.

What a thoughtful post when you are grieving, I’m so sorry for the loss of your beautiful girl, she was clearly much loved and so well cared for, what a lucky girl to have had such a loving home

Thank you

Thank you for this useful post, and really sorry to read about your loss It is so difficult to get them to take their meds.

It's been touch and go with my 14 yr old girl this week..getting them to eat drink pee and poo becomes a mammoth exercise.. Vets visits are not appreciated and the expensive medication is spat out or rejected at the first sniff..so sorry for your loss but I guess the fight isn't missed xx

Thanks all 🖤
It’s all part of the love, isn’t it? It is stressful and challenging at times, but is what we’d do for any family member. And we can look back knowing we did everything we could for someone who brought so much joy to us.

OP. So sorry for your loss and thank you for the tips, especially at such a difficult time for you,. My girl is in a very similar situation and getting her to take her meds is an ongoing battle! She doesn't like the expensive renal food either.💔💔

Thank you so much for your post and very sorry for your loss. Our girl is still in reasonably good health but I know we could be at this point fairly soon. Not putting her through the stress of a final trip to the vet would make a huge difference.

When she started refusing them point blank, we did try and hold her to administer once. We’ve done it before many times with worming tablets etc but it’s very different when they’re well even though she always hated it and would get frightened and upset. We had to weigh up whether it was worth the emotional distress when she was unwell plus the impact on her heart, and her relationship with us during this last stage of her life. And we agreed with the vet that it wasn’t, and if / when we could get it into her covertly then that was a bonus, but there were days when we couldn’t. It was hard to put aside the worry for her health and focus on her happiness but there was no choice really in the end, unless we were prepared to make her miserable as well as unwell.

None of our cats have ever been ok going to the vets. We’d see other cats there, sitting quietly in their carriers. Not ours! They’d be crying and yowling away as if we’d tortured them before leaving home. Shmi in particular though would be terrified - when the vet handled her, she’d go totally limp. She was mostly deaf and blind towards the end, and similar to the medication, we had to weigh up the stress of a vet trip against any potential benefit. Our vets were really good at giving us advice and chatting through things on the phone. And the fact that we managed to have her last moments at home where she was happy made a heart-breaking time slightly less awful.

Sorry to hear about those of your cats struggling with health issues…hoping you find ways to make it easier for you and them 🤞