In about 2 1/2 hours I have a vet appointment. I’m thinking of telling the vet that it is time to put my cat, Timmy the Cat, to sleep. I am conflicted, though.
Here’s the story:
About a two months ago, he started vomiting. He had a short bout of diarrhea the week before. He had also lost some weight. I took him to the vet. After a series of tests ($1500 worth) I found out the following: he had thickening of the walls around his heart (he’s had a heart murmer his whole life), and he has some kind of thyroid disease. He also had an infection as a result of these conditions. The doctor said the heart condition was irreversible, and the thyroid condition may be the body’s way of compensating for a kidney condition. The vet said he had about 1-2 months to live without medication, maybe 6 months with the medication. I put him on antibiotics for the infection and medicine for the heart and thyroid. The anitbiotics took care of the infection. He began to regain weight and showed signs of life.
By the way, the two medicines cost a total of $90 a month. I am presently unemployed and don’t really even have the $1500 I spent earlier.
Last month, the infection came back. The vet put him on the antibiotics again and that seemed to address the issue. With one sideeffect. Major diarrhea. I had been given acidophilus to combat the diarrhea the first time and it worked. It didn’t work the second time. We finished the antiobiotics and the infection seemed to disappear with the exception of hte diarrhea. Oh, he hasn’t been using the litter box through this entire situation, so I’m cleaning cat diarrhea two times a day.
Timmy has always been sort of a dull cat. Meaning, he doesn’t like catnip, doesn’t care for cat treats or cat toys. His primary joys were sitting in my lap and sitting by an open window. Lately, he doesn’t want to sit in my lap and doesn’t come runnign when a window opens. He doesn’t appear to be in any pain, though.
This morning he pooped outside his litterbox while I was taking a shower. The smell made me gag and dry heave in the shower. I am REALLY tired of cleaning up cat diarrhea.
So, through a combination of money concerns, quality of life for him and me, being sick of the diarrhea, his prognosis for the future, I am feeling like it is time for me to say goodbye.
I am conflicted because he is not in pain. When I adopted him, I feel like I took on the responsibility of taking care of this animal. For better or worse, so to speak. I can’t help but think that I am doing this for personal, selfish reasons, though.
So, in the remaining 2 hours or so, I’d be interested in Dopers opinions, perspectives and thoughts regarding this issue.