I appreciate it very much. We actually are not going to have it done at home. The cardiologist who worked with us really fell in love with the cat and, quite honestly, was in tears herself when she gave us the news over the phone. Every time we saw her and her partner, my wife would bring baked goods and other things she made at home. We have been working closely with her for the past three weeks and have developed a real relationship with both her and the staff. I wouldn’t dream of having anyone else do it at this point. We have the good fortune to live in NYC, so we go to the Animal Medical Center. I have to tell you, if I would rather be treated at the AMC than at any hospital in New York.
Best of luck then. You still might want to ask if she would consider doing it at home for you.
A few quick things anyway that are still relevant.
If you are there when they do it. “It” happens FAST. The eyes fully dialate nearly the instant they start pushing the plunger. How long it takes for brain function to cease I don’t know, but I imagine its pretty damn quick. Not this slowly going to sleep Hollywood business. With the dialating eyes, if the room is bright, they would be blinded by it for the last few seconds, so don’t expect your pet to be able to see anything once it starts. You might even ask the vet to turn down the lights at the last minute. We did our cat in a well darkened room where there were no uncovered windows (glare) and his eyes were already nearly fully dialated.
I suspect sounds and feel are the last to go, so whatever words and physical contact you normally use to make Vergil feel good and comforted normally are the ones to use now. Start using them way BEFORE the injection starts, because you wont have time after.
I take it being in NYC you arent burying him at home?
I feel for you as well. Best of luck.
When they did it the last time…there was 2 shots. One was to sedate/relax…the last to kill. We had several minutes inbetween. It was then I realized we did the right thing. My cat was a purrer…she liked to purr. Her last 2 months she seldom purred. After they gave her the sedative, she layed down and purred. The vet said it most likely was because she was in pain and the sedative took the pain away…
Angry Kitty says FUCK DEATH!!111!!
Boots, you were clearly much loved kitteh, living on in memory of your hoomans.
Vergil, go comfy.
KK sends snuggly peace thoughts to all.
Thanks. This saves me from having to ask the doctor what to expect. I do hope he has a sedative round first. He is also a purring machine, and he has not purred now in weeks no doubt due to his discomfort. I will also ask them to remove the nasogastric feeding tube. I don’t want him to go out with that awful thing in his nose.
I will definitely ask them to turn the lights down. Thanks especially for this tip.
We are not going to be burying him at home, as yeah, we live in an apartment. We don’t need an urn or anything. My wife has sculpted seven or eight tiny models of him in various of his favorite positions: those along with the pictures we have of him will be wonderful ways to remember him by.
I have been through all sorts of crap lately and have faced most of it with a certain amount of impunity. Multiple layoffs, financial garbage, work garbage, personal garbage, whatever. But this is the first thing in a really long time that I can say has good and kicked my ass.
Sorry, guys :(. My best to you both.
Still ask the doctor, in case he/she does anything different than what we have described.
If he goes the sedative first route, you might want to ask for a few minutes before the second shot comes. I can see a vet just wanting to do the second rather quickly after the first.
I feel like you as well, this has emotinally kicked my ass too, much more than anything else in a long time.
take care and good luck
Thinking of you and yours today Maeglin. God bless.
Maeglin, my heart goes out to you and billfish. I gave extra love to Jake when I got home last night, which he, as always, gave back in full. Oh, it hurts so much to lose them. At least we’ll always have them in our hearts. If someone could convince me there was a heaven where we get them back, boy howdy, I’d be a born-again whatever for that!
Thank you both so much. We have four more hours with him. We have spent the previous twenty just keeping him company in bed. My wife is drawing, I am taking pictures, and no one is able to sleep. I am a dyed-in-the wool atheist perfectly comfortable with oblivion after I die, but it is unacceptable to me that the cat is going anywhere but a paradise of fish, friends, and females.
Maeglin Sorry about that, he was a very good kitty.
The existance of God is not a necessary precondition for such a state to exist.
billfish678 Sorry about your cat that is very sad.
Aw man, I’m so sorry. My sister had her 18y.o. cat put to sleep last week. He’d stopped eating and drinking and was getting really wobbly. And you could tell It Was Time. So I went with her to her vets and stayed with them.
When I was younger, I didn’t understand why people made such a big fuss about funerals and dead bodies and stuff. I kept thinking “The spirit that made that person a PERSON is gone. Only the meat is left. Who makes a big deal over meat?”
Then my favorite cat of all time got hit by a car.
I found him lying in the street, barely marked. He’d been running for home. I scooped him up and carried him to the porch and sat there just stroking him and sobbing and sobbing. That was when I finally understood why people have funerals, and treat the dead respectfully.
Yes, it’s just meat. But the meat matters. You love the spirit and soul, but you love the body too. Whether it’s cats or people.
My Michaelmouse cat taught me that.
I wasn’t able to read this thread all in one go as it reminded me of when Diver died, and of the fear I have of losing Psycho Kitty or Dodger. My deepest sympathies to billfish678 and Maeglin.
billfish678, you have my utmost sympathies on the loss of your sweet Boots. Maeglin, I hope Vergil has gone peacefully and left you with peace. You are all in my thoughts.
I’m tearing up reading both of your posts because we are going to be faced with making this decision, and we don’t know when. My beloved ten-year-old Oscar was 95% diagnosed with a benign brain tumor last Saturday. We went to the emergency vet last Saturday, thinking he had an abscess from a ‘war wound’, and dreading the $400 surgical procedure costs (I was laid off late April and have found a new job, but it is a 4 month contract position that ends in October), and ended up at a neurology specialist 2 1/2 hours away being told that without an MRI to diagnose the tumor and possible brain surgery, at a cost that would send us into bankruptcy (and we have gone over every possible way to pay it - we are heartbroken, but besides the cost, we just don’t know if we can put him through constant medical procedures and the chance for recurrence), Oscar has 5 weeks to 6 months to live. We are controlling the tumor’s effects with steroids for now, and when they cease to work, he will begin to grow more confused and cloudy, and lose control of his muscles and other parts of his body. As long as he is comfortable and his quality of life is good, we will make him happy and love him for as long as we have.
But when the time comes, we will have to make that awful decision, and are considering having it done at home. As much as we don’t even want to think about it, we want to have an advance plan so that we don’t have to worry until we are grieving and even more devastated to make plans. I’d like to hear about your experience doing it at home, if you don’t mind. We obviously don’t want our two-year-old son home for it, but I think it would help us, we have a second cat who has been his housemate since they were both 8 weeks old, and we want him to be peaceful, and not be afraid by a car ride.
If you can talk about it, I would definitely like to hear. It is breaking our hearts to even think about saying goodbye to our boy, and I think learning more information about our options will at least allow us the time to make the right decision and not leave it to the end, when we’re struggling just to get him day-to-day. Maeglin, like you, there have been other life-altering things over the past couple of years, but this is kicking my ass, too. I didn’t expect to have to let him go so soon. I thought we had at least 7 more years with him. I still can’t process the idea that he won’t be here soon.
Again, I am so sorry for you and for Maeglin - Boots and Vergil were very lucky kitties with great owners.
Well, as of Friday, he’s gone.
They took the nasogastric feeding tube out of him and removed his collar, so we were able to play with him for a little while and take some photographs.
The night before, we spread disposable puppy housebreaking blankets all over the bed so he could sleep with us for one more night, despite his loss of bladder control. But after we fed him, he gathered his strength, jumped off the bad, and ran to the litterbox instead. He howled in pain, but by Jove, Vergil did not urinate in the bed. I kind of lost it for awhile then. We didn’t get a lot of sleep, and neither really did he.
We were able to take our time in the hospital. Both of his doctors were there almost the entire time, and his cardiologist wept right along with us when she administered the injection via catheter. There was no fumbling for a vein. It was very smooth. I felt a momentary elation as his suffering abated only to be replaced by grief. I was wearing a t-shirt covered in his hair that I just cannot bring myself to wash. I put it in a ziploc bag and left it on the top shelf of my closet. Maybe I will wash it next week. I have also not been able to bring myself to take away his food bowl. I still fill four bowls, but only for three cats.
The other cats definitely know that something is wrong. My apartment has never been so quiet.
Wasn’t it George Carlin who said that when you buy a pet you’re buying a tragedy?
Hi folks
thanks so very much for the moral support
And my heart goes out to the other sad kittie folks at the moment.
Been pretty busy and will be for another few days. I’ll try to get back then and give some info that will help others.
again,
many thanks!
That’s very sad Maeglin.
Ah, Jesus Christ… I think I have something in my eye.