Elderly cat- are we coming to the end.

[fixies]

Hello,

My cat is approximately 17 years old. She's going to the vet tomorrow and I am a bit worried about what's to come .

For the last few months I've noticed a real decline in her. She's asleep a lot of the time. She's been pooing and peeing out of the Box ( this isn't to unusual but has got markedly worse). Shes become ultra fussy about food and is sick a lot (again not that uncommon for her but consistently worse than usual). She's ruined a rug by peeing on it so many times. We literally had to bin it as we could t get the smell out. It's becoming quite difficult to be honest.

She'll only eat one food and seems to want to be fed all the time. I think she forgets she's been fed. She's also started howling in the night ( this has just been in the last couple of weeeks).

Shes had a good run of health until now. Any one experienced these sort of symptoms?

Sounds like hyperthyroidism with the nighttime yowling and appetite. Very common over the age of 15. Very easy to treat. Vet will likely do blood tests tomorrow to see if that's the case.

As PP said the yelling could be hyperthyroidism but it could also be feline dementia - there is medication for both but honestly if I had an elderly cat who was consistently messing outside the box then I would be looking at quality of life, not trying to prolong the inevitable.

both. She has early signs of kidney disease and some dementia.
Strong heart though, the b

@fieldsofbutterflies @sussexlife thanks for the replies . She has the early signs of kidney failure and dementia. Strong heart. The vet didn't mention any possibility of her being pts. So assume this isn't needed. But the litter thing is an issue.

She's probably in pain - can you try a lower sided box that she can just step in to? One of mine is arthritic and we had to do that for him so he wasn't struggling.

I'm glad she seems okay otherwise though.

Mine started eating even more than usual, UTIs, more vocal. Tested and bloods perfect

He kept needing steroid injections for urine issues and the vet said there would come a time when they wouldn't work
I took the decision to let him go early so his last hours weren't me driving 30 mins to an emergency vet with him possibly in pain

I've never regretted it, he went cuddled up to me in my lap having not experienced any pain or discomfort. To me it was like letting a human go at 90 rather than 95... he had a lovely life and it was only worse to come

Is she pooping and peeing in certain spots? If so, I’d get puppy pads and put them there.

That's a really positive way of looking at it. Can I ask whether you or the vet suggested it? We aren't ready to let her go but I can see a time that we will be. I can't go on with the urinaring for ever. Is it your choice?

It's on a certain rug, our bed, on our shoes and sometimes kids clothes. The bed is the worst,

Thank you. We got a smaller box like you describe. Fingers crossed 🤞

I hope it works 🤞

@fixies my dad actually had to take him to the vet for a steroid injection and I sort of knew already
Dad came back and said "the vet says these won't always work and he's very frail now"
Then I just made the decision. I didn't leave it long as waiting was the worst part and no time was ever going to be enough

In my experience the vet will leave the decision up to you and may not mention PTS at all. I found myself almost wishing the vet would make it clear and come out and say PTS is for the best, but they just don't generally do that in my experience. It is very very hard because you kind of expect that you will know 100% when the time is right, but it's often not like that.

I mean when there is an obvious crisis moment, a seizure or something then it's easier to say 'the time has come' but sometimes there is just this slow decline and combined with their age you just have to take a decision and hope you've done the right thing. It doesn't half make you feel guilty.

@GoodVibesHere yes. I wished that too. But I understand why they don't. With my first two, I knew it was time. But with Cheddar, we didn't really know what was wrong, and it was so unexpected, that I was blindsided. And just needed the vet to tell me what to do. Although she fully agreed with the decision when it was made.

Thanks. That's good to know. She's 18 years old ish. She won't live forever but I don't want her to become discheveled and be confused and in pain. I also don't want to think of her as a burden

My last poor old boy had a massive tumour, inoperable and vet still never said the words, just said sorry nothing can be done so I had to ask, it was the out of hours as vet had missed it and was trying treatments. I felt guilty that his last day was spent in useless tests and away from me, as I had not realised just how ill he was. With hindsight wished I had pushed harder with vet as all tumour signs were there but missed on scan. I will always be grateful to the vet who found it , so he could sleep. Sat on my knee pts, heartbreaking but no choice. Cats are dignified and yours may be unhappy, if you think so, you will have to raise pts with the vet. Quality of life over quantity always. Best wishes for puss and you

I carried on with my older cat (19), she did wee and poo out of the box all the time, but nothing like as bad as your cat - it was on floors, at night, we covered the floor in plastic sheets and bags with a couple of puppy pads - she would never wee/poo on the plastic so by default did on the softer puppy pads.
As she still seemed to be enjoying life - she could get onto the shed roof to sun herself, was affectionate, we didn't plan to euthenaise her, we thought we would know the right time.
Unfortunately she suddenly got worse and died, I knew that morning she had changed, I made the first vet appointment I could in the early afternoon, but she died in the late morning and I think she suffered, though not for very long.
I wish we had had her PTS as the end was quite traumatic.
Good luck with whatever you decide is best for this puss.