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.

We lost our beloved PollyCat last week. She was only 14 but has been very ill, and has been steadily losing weight for some time. We were hoping to wait until dd was home from university today goodbye, and she was still eating, mobile and grooming so I thought we had time. In then end I decided we couldn’t wait and planned to take her in on Thursday, but Wednesday we sat with her on the hall floor for over 3 hours as she died at home. If I’d known it would take so long I wouldn’t have done that, and called out the vet. The whole thing was quite traumatic. She probably wasn’t aware tbf, but for me and my husband. I wish we’d done it a week too early in all honesty, if just to take thise flashbacks from my mind.

The best advice from a vet that I had, was that if you are considering it then it is probably time.
Like so many others, in retrospect I think we had left it later than we should have done.

The yowling could be a sign of dementia. What is it they say ? Better a week too early than a day too late ? One cat I held onto too long so I didn't make that mistake with the second one.

I think if they truly have no quality of life or are suffering, I think it's the right time to make that call.

But equally, I don't see anything wrong with giving an old cat their senior years, even though they'll slow down, maybe have some arthritis etc. That's what millions of happy old people live with, and life is still worth living.

Vocalising indicates all isn’t well. I suspect your cat is heading towards end of life. This journey can take some time though and you shouldn’t feel bad about expediting things after a long and happy life. See your vet for an exam and discuss whether your cat still has quality of life. Sending hugs.

If she is yowling and thin I would get vet to check her thyroid, they can do well on meds for quite a while.

We let our lovely 18 year old lady go last year and we agonised over it for 6 months. She was deaf, showed signs of dementia, was very thin, struggled to get around and wasn’t grooming well by the end, but she still ate well and snuggled with my partner every night (he was her Neo!) when the vet came around to put her to sleep he looked at her and said it was time - her muscles were wasting and she was struggling in the heat. It is such a difficult decision, but they often just waste away, which is painful to watch so you do just have to bite the bullet. Just think of her and her quality of life.

I made the decision slightly too early and I’ve never regretted it. I went with he wasn’t going to improve and only get worse and I wanted to let him go before he experienced any pain
the vet said I was one of the most sensible owners she had met and how much I obviously cared for him to put him first
he could have lived months or even a year longer but I didn’t want the end to be at 3am with me rushing to an OOH vet that’s a 40 min drive away

Our old boy was 18 and had had very few health issues. Over a weekend about 6 weeks ago he suddenly deteriorated. He lost the use of his back legs, then the next morning, his front ones went.
Al he could do was lie on a towel that I folded up for him as he couldn't move to go to the toilet.

He had no quality of life and virtually no chance of improvement so we decided to have him PTS.

Better a week too early than a day too late.

I have an 18 year old girl we love dearly. She still has a good quality of life and isn't there yet, but everyday she's a bit slower and a bit thinner, so it's coming and I know how hard it is.

I’m sorry, it’s such a hard time with a beloved four-legged family member

like others have said , better too early than too late. We’ve had numerous family pets put down through the years, and it’s never felt like a bad decision. What has left a sour taste and feeling of guilt is knowing when you’ve left it too long, when the signs of chronic discomfort are clear (eg. Arthritis) or basic functions decline (not cleaning, not pooping properly).

I think if you’re thinking about it, it’s probably the best time. You know your cat well xxxx

Our old boy is also 18. He does a lot of yowling. He was always loud but now he's next level, it's almost a scream. Usually at 3am. I think he's definitely going deaf and probably also some dementia.

However, he's still in great shape physically and seems really happy. He eats a lot and is still going in all the neighbours houses begging for scraps of meat (we're vegetarian). He has no toilet issues and can still pee about a meter high! We take him for six monthly health checkups and the vets always say he looks in amazing shape for his age, so we soldier on.

Our old boy stopped eating and just wanted to sleep, and then the decision was straightforward.

My girl had got thinner and thinner but was still eating and drinking.
She was getting confused and having difficulty jumping up anywhere over about 4 months.
One day she hurt her paw and was just holding it up sadly.
I suddenly knew that it was her last night.
Shoving antibiotics down her or treating this frail old lady just seemed like it would be too much to put her through.
I rang the next day and just described to the vet over the phone how she'd gone down hill alot over a couple of months.
When I took her in the lovely vet just looked at her and said yes, she's very thin and you've made the right choice.
It was the paw thing that just made me see.
She was 18 xxx

Get the vet to check her tummy issues …. Might. E something easily sorted.

It’s such a difficult decision, quality of life is important and if she’s stopped grooming and having difficulty with the toilet I’d say it’s diminishing. It’s awful for you I know, a day too early and you suffer a day to late and you both suffer, the fact you’re asking makes me think you know it’s possibly soon. The worst part of being a guardian having to make a decision that’s kind and loving even though you don’t want to have to say goodbye. 💐