Very old cat, when to make that decision

[babycupid]

Our old girl is 18, she’s become very thin and I imagine arthritic as her back legs are creaky and she walks slowly.

She eats very well and loves her treats, lick e lix and buttered toast as an extra treat. The problem I’m having is that she’s not grooming and when she poops she is getting loose stool over her feet that she then walks through the house. It stinks and I’m constantly cleaning floors including a light coloured carpet.

Shes very vocal and yowls all the time. She’s mainly outdoors in this warmer weather but comes in to eat only.

When do you draw the line and make the call to PTS? She’s eating ok but the toileting is annoying and I’m sure she doesn’t like it - cats are usually very clean. So very difficult to know what to do, I don’t want to end her life unnecessarily but also I don’t want her just existing to please us.

Google cat quality of life scale. It might be helpful for your thinking.
Ours is also 18 with some health issues but he scores well on that scale so we just keep him comfortable and happy the best we can.

I'm a veterinary nurse and i know exactly what you are describing as we see many elderly cats that reach this stage.
Sadly they can live? exist? for sometimes a very long time in this state until we see them for euthanasia.
I completely understand how hard it is to make the decision to put to sleep a beloved pet.
Has your vet seen her lately ? sometimes as the owner we can't see the wood for the trees and the opinion of someone who is not emotionally attached can often help make a decision or a plan of what's the best thing to do for her.

We are similar. I've got some painkillers for him and he's diabetic and on special food. He poops 3-4x a day and dribbles sometimes. But he eats well, likes to go outside and still likes a cuddle or two.

And if he gets too runny of poo too many days I usually cave and give him meat which firms it up. We will give him all the steak gristle rinsed off. For a former street cat who slept in a butchers shop he has done well for himself to get to this age and quality of life.

We are monitoring it.

I had my darling boy PTS a few months ago- he was 19 and a half.

He'd been having toileting/grooming issues for a couple of months, but I made the decision to have him PTS on the day he got poo all along his tail and was trailing it through the house.

In retrospect, I think I left the decision a bit too long, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Our old lady is also 18 and spends her days quietly . She has trouble jumping up so she claws her way up the armchair but is still able to leap across to the footstool she likes to sleep on and tap away at our other cats when they pass by. She does eat well though although she has got thinner. She tends to overshoot her tray so we put down puppy pads under it to save the floor. She is a long haired cat so I trim away any matted fur near her tail.She had her checkup recently and her boosters. The vet said she was doing ok for her age.She’s a lovely old girl , hopefully she will just fade away.

Just to add this was her in her prime

It's so hard isn't it. We had to make that decision for our elderly frail nearly 19 year old girl recently - she had got so thin, had some arthritis/ pain treated with pain medication, wasn't grooming properly, was sleeping most of the time, deaf and almost blind.

Our vet was really helpful when asked - we'd taken her in for weight loss and she had had a blood test which found nothing specific.

When asked directly he suggested probably it would be a few weeks rather than months and that we would probably come to a time when we would decide to put her to sleep. She had another 6 weeks, enjoyed some Spring sunshine but became reluctant to eat. We saw another lovely vet who talked us through quality of life indicators.

It was all very calm and peaceful for her and really did feel as though it was the right time. She had had a lovely life. I think you 'll know when it's time.