should the cat go?

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Raelene - 04 Oct 2004 01:59 GMT

"It's lived its life and anything now is a bonus", says the vet, concerning the
cat.

He (Ozzie) is about 17, has no teeth, has either kidney failure or diabetes,
going in the back legs and making the house reek.

Does anyone have suggestions for teaching an old cat to poo (and not just pee)
in the litter tray and get rid of the smell.... or should I say 'farewell' and
get another pet?

Raelene - who thought a 'tiel might be better than a budgie.
xxx

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Victor Martinez - 04 Oct 2004 03:53 GMT

Sorry to hear about your cat. The consensus of cat lovers seems to be
that when the cat's quality of life is diminished, it might be time to
think about letting go.

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Amy Gray - 04 Oct 2004 15:16 GMT

>Sorry to hear about your cat. The consensus of cat lovers seems to be
>that when the cat's quality of life is diminished, it might be time to
>think about letting go.

Is the cat in obvious pain? Is the cat eating/drinking water?

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Raelene - 05 Oct 2004 08:50 GMT

> >Sorry to hear about your cat. The consensus of cat lovers seems to be
> >that when the cat's quality of life is diminished, it might be time to
> >think about letting go.
> Is the cat in obvious pain? Is the cat eating/drinking water?

Cat doesn't seem to be in pain. He still eats/drinks and drinks and drinks
and drinks and drinks, etc etc

The vet said it's either kidney failure or diabetes but to test for both would
mean blood for one and urine for another which would also mean knocking the cat
out for a bit which she says you really don't want to do if you don't have to.

R.

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Amy Gray - 05 Oct 2004 14:56 GMT

>The vet said it's either kidney failure or diabetes but to test for both would
>mean blood for one and urine for another which would also mean knocking the cat
>out for a bit which she says you really don't want to do if you don't have to.

I would follow the advice of the vet. The vet's opinion should be
the ruling authority here. If your vet is not providing the help
you want in this situation find another vet. The Vet in this
type of situation is so critical.

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Amy Gray - 04 Oct 2004 15:14 GMT

>"It's lived its life and anything now is a bonus", says the vet, concerning the
>cat.
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
>Raelene - who thought a 'tiel might be better than a budgie.
>xxx

I good vet will provide guidance as to the entire process of
when the time comes.

Kidney failure or diabetes? Maybe you need a new vet.

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whayface - 04 Oct 2004 16:10 GMT

>"It's lived its life and anything now is a bonus", says the vet, concerning the
>cat.
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
>Raelene - who thought a 'tiel might be better than a budgie.
>xxx

If it's quality of life has diminished then it is time to end it's suffering and pain and
let it go. I feel sorry for you having to make this choice and understand. Our Moses was
17 years old and ate 5 / 6 cans of Nine Lives a day but yet was down to 5 pounds. Kepts
throwing up and just laid around. Finnally I had to let him go and it was the hardest
thing we ever had to do. I regret not doing it sooner for him but I kept hoping he would
improve which never happened. The vet said in his shape and his age she would not do
surgery on him and I aggreed with her.

http://members.aol.com/larrystark/

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Raelene - 05 Oct 2004 09:02 GMT

> >"It's lived its life and anything now is a bonus", says the vet, concerning

the cat.

> >He (Ozzie) is about 17, has no teeth, has either kidney failure or diabetes,

going in the back legs and making the house reek.

> >Does anyone have suggestions for teaching an old cat to poo (and not just

pee) in the litter tray and get rid of the smell.... or should I say 'farewell'
and get another pet?

> >Raelene - who thought a 'tiel might be better than a budgie.
> >xxx
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
>
> http://members.aol.com/larrystark/

My cat's just under a kilo ...... or is that one stone........ can't remember
now. It's not losing weight and is still eating/drinking. It does
wobble in the back legs a bit when it's getting up and sometimes loses balance
when having a scratch but doesn't yip in pain or anything so (apart from
whatever it is that's causing the excessive drinking problem) I don't think it's
very ill or anything.... just getting on in age........ and pooing everywhere
..... which is more a problem for me than for the cat.

It sleeps inside at night and is inside most of the day. If I'm out allllllll
day then I either have to put it outside and risk the nasty neighbour next door
getting to the cat, the cat getting run over (cause i'm sure it's going deaf,
too) or risk having the ocassional mouse brought home.

So, I generally try to keep it indoors, and therefore, have brought out the
kitty litty tray again. So far, after a few weeks, the cat will pee in the
tray but not poo in it......... it poos everywhere else. So now, the house is
reeking of sh.t. I've just found two yukky blobs under the computer desk.

phew!

Raelene
xxx

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Wendy - 07 Oct 2004 00:35 GMT

> > On Mon, 4 Oct 2004 08:59:59 +0800, "Raelene" <blinkiemad@hotmail.comREMOVE>
> wrote:
[quoted text clipped - 50 lines]
> Raelene
> xxx

Have you tried mixing some garden soil in with the kitty litter?

You may want to try setting up a second box. Some cats don't like using the
same box for both.
Also make sure the box is the correct height to facilitate the cat getting
in and out of it comfortably as you said the cat was having some problems
with the back legs.

W

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Alun - 08 Oct 2004 21:49 GMT

>> > >"It's lived its life and anything now is a bonus", says the vet,
>> > >concerning the cat.
[quoted text clipped - 58 lines]
>
> W

Those seem like sound suggestions.

If it is a kidney problem, it may be caused by a thyroid problem. In fact
it may even just be the thyroid. I'm not a vet, but we had a cat with a bad
thyroid. Our vet told us that thyroidism was the most common cause of
kidney disease in cats, and that in turn was the most common cause of
death. A thyroid condition can cause excessive drinking in itself.

Your vet may be right, in that your cat may have too advanced a condition
to do anything. I would definitely get a second opinion, though.

Why does the cat need anaesthetising to get blood?

If there should turn out to be a thyroid problem, that ought to be
operable, depending on the general health of the cat and whether kidney
disease has developped, but that opens up a possible controversy.

We had that cat operated on by our vet in the UK, and then brought her with
us to the US. The operation removed only a part of the thyroid. If the
whole gland had been removed, she would have been on pills for the rest of
her life. The vet we took her to in the US swore that the op we had done
didn't exist (!), and had clearly only heard of the radical removal of the
thyroid.

I'm not sure if that really reflects a difference in UK and US practice (or
at least did at that time), or if the US vet we saw was just an idiot. I'm
inclined to the latter. We were eventually thrown out of their offices!

What happened on that other occassion was that they had given our cats a
lot of extra jabs that we didn't ask for (and which we could have got from
the county for a fraction of the price). We queried the bill, and were just
about speechless (I mean literally, we couldn't decide what to say). Now,
we never actually said we wouldn't pay, because we didn't say much atall.
We were still struggling to know what to say when they told us to get out
and not to come back!

I may be way off track in suggesting the thyroid, but why not ask another
vet? It can't hurt.

Our cat with the bad thyroid died one day of an apparent heart attack. Her
heart was enlarged due to her thyroid condition before she was operated on.
She lived for a few extra years, though.

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wardog - 12 Oct 2004 05:17 GMT

> Does anyone have suggestions for teaching an old cat to poo

Hahahaha you said poo!

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