Urgent advice please

[Opine]

My 18 year old cat was, until last Thursday, absolutely fine. He had a bit of diarrhoea and vomited once. Friday morning he refused to eat and was lethargic. He had some blood in his poo.

Vet ran some bloods which showed raised white blood cells and he was dehydrated. They kept him overnight and gave him IV antibiotics and fluids. Little change by morning but was hydrated enough to be discharged. He still hadn’t eaten so we took him home thinking he might be too stressed to eat on the ward. He was drugged up on painkillers. We were sent home with more and some antibiotics.
He finally urinated once he got home and started drinking water.

He refused and is still refusing food. We’ve tried everything. He ate a few treats this morning but nothing since.
We looked up the medication and both the antibiotics and the painkillers cause extreme nausea. We haven’t given him any more of either because they seemed to zombify him. There is one dose of the antibiotics left. My thinking is that lack of food is the biggest danger to him now and he might eat if he isn’t nauseous and spaced out.

I'm asking what to do next because we cannot understand why he is still functioning and if we should stop accepting he is dying and try to treat him. Do we give him the last dose of antibiotics? Does he need painkillers?(he seems to be very comfortable), do we force feed him?

We had an appointment with the vet again today but we rang and spoke to them instead. We just felt that they had written him off from day one and today was intended to be a euthanasia appointment. They seemed surprised that he is still drinking, using the tray etc. Their advice was a bit flaky. The overall tone being ‘he’s old so..’

I would never let him suffer but I also don’t want to give up on him. He’s obviously very weak and has lost a lot of weight but can jump, climb stairs, get to the tray in time..

Thanks for reading. I realise this might not read well. I’m tired and upset.

Hi Opine

I am so sorry to hear that.

I completely understand your concerns. My cat is 15 and has also been unwell to the extent we thought he may pass away but he is still eating and drinking although his arthritis is causing a lot of health issues

The vet was similar and stated he is old and recommended he receive strong pain relief.

I agree not eating is a concern so if your cat is really lethargic with the medication I personally would leave the last dose to see if they eat something and then speak to vet again. I’m by no means trained but if your gut is telling you it’s best for them to eat that’s what I would do

I hope you manage to get some rest too

I wouldn’t stop antibiotics or pain relief without vet advice. Contact them.

Thanks to you both. It’s a very stressful time made so much harder by not feeling our Vet cares very much.
I mentioned not continuing with the medication and she said to do what I thought was best. Not very helpful.

How is your cat today, OP?

@Judystilldreamsofhorses Thank you for asking.
Just sleeping mostly. He went outside for a wander and then fell asleep. He’s calm, likes being stroked. Using the tray..
he was a bit sick this morning so clearly not improving.
I know it’s his time but he just seems to be very comfortable and so I don’t know if we should just let him slip away naturally. Surely not everyone euthanises? We just don’t know what to do.

Op it's so difficult especially when they don't seem particularly unwell. I'm sure you know though that cats can mask pain very well so it can tip quite quickly from being fine to definitely not being fine. Sadly I've seen it with 3 of my cats in just over a year. One was eating chicken in the morning but by the late afternoon wouldn't get out of her litter tray, the next day she was PTS. Another was eating treats and her food in the evening but by 6am was very unwell and rushed to the vet.

I am not saying that's the case with your cat, but I wouldn't want you or him to go through what my cats and I went through. Perhaps you could get a second opinion, either from another vet in the practice or a different practice if you happen to have a few locally?

Good luck with whatever decision you make.

You can get more supportive measures in place for the next few days. Anti-nausea injection and maybe an appetite stimulant which is usually tablet form. Maybe some probiotics too. Continue with the prescribed medication, keep your next appointment and see what they can add in to support them. Maybe some sub-cut fluids if tolerated while he is there.
Also prepare yourself for the worst though, it sounds like you are already starting to xxx

Sorry to hear that, it’s so sad and hard. I’d be inclined to make an appointment to pts personally, as I would hate to be in a “crisis” situation and rushing to OOH at midnight. We potentially went in slightly too soon with our lovely last girl who had cancer, but I wanted to be sure she had a calm, graceful passing at our trusted vet’s while she was still “well in herself” (she caught a mouse that morning!) rather than have her go downhill and possibly be in pain. I don’t regret that decision despite it being really, really awful to make.

@RumNotRun Thank you for your support. Sorry you have also been through this. It’s awful. So unexpected too. I would have imagined a more obvious decline. It’s all so sudden. I definitely don’t want him to suffer. He seems content for now.

@Catnaaaaap Thanks so much. All the the advice you’ve given is exactly what I’ve suggested to them but they are just reluctant to do anything at all. The appetite stimulant could make him over eat apparently, the anti nausea was given once but never offered again. I just think the likelihood is that he’s past the point of no return. I suspect things could have been different with better care though.

We just can’t understand how, after 5 days without food, he can function the way he is. It’s making things harder for us to accept.

@Judystilldreamsofhorses You absolutely did the right thing and I want to be sure that we don’t leave it too late either. The difficulty is that w have no idea what’s wrong really. It’s just a shock to the system.
so sorry for you loss. It’s so difficult.