Elderly cat - how much to investigate/treat?

[lovelybouclecardi]

We have a lovely elderly lady - around 14. We adopted her from a rescue age 7. Condition of her adoption was that she should be an indoor cat.

She's had a bad time of it health wise. Heart murmur. Hyperthyroidism, which was initially treated with tablets. Then she had a rare auto-immune reaction and nearly died. Spent a week in cat intensive care. Eventually we took her quite far from home for radioactive iodine treatment a year ago. That was amazing for her, but her bloods at the time suggested some kidney issues.

She's now on mostly dry kidney food, half a sachet a day of normal senior food as the wet kidney food made her breath smell so bad I couldn't take it any more. She's slowing up, but generally happy and purring. Likes knees and radiators more than she used to, rarely climbs the stairs.

Vet check up today for vaccines - she's lost quite a bit of weight, has bad teeth (longstanding, inherited from previous owner only feeding wet food) and they think possibly in kidney failure. A dental general anaesthetic could kill her. She also hates the vet and has to be drugged to go.

I'm thinking no more investigations, just keep an eye on her and if she looks like she's suffering, the kindest thing would be to let her go then. Would you do the same? She's been messed about with so much already... we have insurance, so it's not a cost issue. Just want what is best for her.

Picture tax attached.

I'm so sorry, it's so hard when they are poorly.

The one thing that stood out for me was that she hates the vets and has to be drugged to go. My last cat Harry had health issues (heart failure, CKD, dental problems) but he wasn't phased by the vet at all so he had whatever tests the vet deemed necessary. Had he hated the vet we wouldn't have done it.

From your post I think the kindest thing to do is keep an eye on her and let her guide you. Most of all enjoy the time you have with her

Thank you. She's still very sleepy after her dose of gabapentin this morning. Bless her, must be so weird to feel out of it after having what she thought was a lovely morning treat of a bit of smoked salmon! She had to go today for vaccines, and they trimmed her claws for us while she was there. I think I'll talk to the vet about how I can maybe build her weight up a bit. She'd lost 10% of her body weight.

I think your plan is the best for her, I have made that decision with two elderly cats, and it was hard but definitely the right thing for their sake.

We had to make a similar decision about a slightly younger cat, she'd collapsed and had been losing weight and the vet thought she probably had cancer, but they weren't sure without opening her up and having a look, and then they weren't sure they would be able to treat her. It's a horrible decision to have to make, but we decided that we would be keeping her alive for our benefit really rather than her own.

So sorry to hear this.

Yes you are quite right that there comes a point that the treatment that's available isn't the right thing for them and it's better to PTS. Cats can't understand that the pills and vet visits and jabs etc are to help them, they just hate it all. No cat lives forever and realistically something is definitely going to bring her life to a close one way or another in the next couple of years. Best to opt for a slightly shorter span with less medical interventions and then a peaceful end when the time comes.

Does your vet do home visits? Ours has a vet who spends the whole day doing home visits! Great for us as our elderly cat (18) gets so stressed going to the vet they suggested the vet comes to us. So far we've not needed emergency vet but they come once a year for a cat MOT, issue prescriptions for medication and confirm that all is well (or as well as can be expected). So if your vet offers home visits then I'd go for it as it saves so much stress for all of us!

I don't think so but I have seen a mobile vet van while out and about. That's not a bad idea actually. She might not need drugging if we could do bloods at home. Although, looking at the treatment for kidney failure (if that's what it is), there's not much more that can be done for her apart from love and knowing when it is time.

Same if she had cancer I suppose. She's just too old and too frail and has been through too much to be messed about with. Her main joy in life is me. If I sit down, she gets all excited because she knows she can snuggle up next to me. Or DD's knee. DD is 18 and sitting A-levels. I'll need to be honest with her about the situation.

Our Burmese cat suffered from various bouts of ill health (pancreatitis, cystitis) which our vet managed to sort out. Then her kidneys began to fail. She took to the new diet well, but was clearly slowing up. She would have been about 12 by this time. During one of her many blood tests, I asked to have vitamin b12 levels checked, and she was deficient. A 6 week course of weekly injections later, she was flying about the place and setting about us to play just like she did when she was a kitten. And we knew when a top up was due, anywhere between 4 to 8 weeks, because she'd slow up again. So she'd get taken to the vet for her "naughty jab" and come home rejuvenated. So that might be worth checking out for your cat.

Thank you. That's helpful in making decisions.

I agree with this. I've had two cats PTS in the last seven months, and while I miss them dreadfully I wasn't prepared to have them constantly back and forth to the vets, and they weren't enjoying life to the full any more.

It's such a hard call but it's definitely quality of life and comfort for her now.

We put our DBoyCat through a battery of tests only to confirm that it was cancer. He lost a whole day and the upset of being at the vets for nothing.