# Old cat, how will I know? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 26, 2020, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-cat-how-will-i-know/926456 "2020-11-26T03:20:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2020, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-cat-how-will-i-know/926456/21 "2020-11-27T23:09:16Z")
It’s great that you’ve never experienced a cat or dog hiding its illness, but they definitely do it. Some breeds of dogs are well-known for not showing pain. Cats just sometimes do – not particular breeds. [https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/recognizing-signs-of-illness-in-cats](https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/recognizing-signs-of-illness-in-cats) ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2020, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-cat-how-will-i-know/926456/22 "2020-11-27T23:20:59Z")
Yes, but by the time these animals show their sickness, you can be pretty sure it’s well advanced. ---
**Author:** ![dummygladhands71](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c0e974/32.png) [@dummygladhands71](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dummygladhands71)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2020, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-cat-how-will-i-know/926456/23 "2020-11-27T23:34:18Z")
eschrodinger, thanks for the link, very helpful ---
**Author:** ![FluffyBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@FluffyBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FluffyBob)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-cat-how-will-i-know/926456/24 "2020-11-30T02:20:06Z")
I don’t have a lot to add here but to say I’m in the same situation with my cat. Kidney failure. He is nauseous a lot, but hates the cream I’m supposed to put in his ear to help with it. Very needy and affectionate. I bought him a pet heating pad to help make him comfortable. He gets very stressed by the vet trip, so I’m skipping that until the end. If I could let him pass here in his home I would, but I have read that it will get very unpleasant for him before he dies. Good luck ---
**Author:** ![SmartAleq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smartaleq/32/163_2.png) [@SmartAleq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAleq)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-cat-how-will-i-know/926456/25 "2020-11-30T02:59:42Z")
For those who would prefer an at-home euthanasia, check to see if Lap of Love is in your area. I have a friend who does hospice/euthanasia for them here in the Portland area and she came to care for my old dog when his giant liver tumor got to be too much for him. They’re not cheap but they’re amazing and you can get everything set up in advance so when the time comes you just make one phone call to schedule the time. My old dog Bear is likely the next to go and you bet I’ll have her out to be his final friend when it’s time. It’s so much less stress for the animal, especially now that nobody can go into the vet’s office. > **[Home | Lap of Love](https://www.lapoflove.com/)** > > Lap of Love provides in-home pet euthanasia, consultation, veterinary hospice, and pet loss support services. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-cat-how-will-i-know/926456/26 "2020-11-30T03:02:52Z")
We used Lap of Love two years ago, when our old cat (who _hated_ being in the car) was at the end. The vet who came to the house was really wonderful, and they made it as peaceful and stress-free as it could have been. Seconding this suggestion. ---
**Author:** ![dummygladhands71](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c0e974/32.png) [@dummygladhands71](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dummygladhands71)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-cat-how-will-i-know/926456/27 "2020-11-30T04:28:55Z")
I’m doing the vet manana, I suspect after the holiday I won’t get in, but I intend asking for a reference for a local mobile vet. This is killing me. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-cat-how-will-i-know/926456/28 "2020-11-30T04:46:58Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > Stiggs had been an indoor/outdoor cat all his life but once he started failing of the kidney thing I stopped letting him go out because first off there are coyotes in my neighborhood and secondly if he’d dropped like that while outside I would never have found him and he’d have died alone and cold and there was no way I was letting my much loved old man go like that. We did the opposite. When our cat was obviously dying, we put her in “kitty hospice” and stopped doing things to try to extend her life, like making her come indoors at night. (We also stopped force-feeding her, after learning her condition wasn’t treatable.) She spent a lot of her final days curled up in one of our window wells, looking down into the basement or up at the bird feeder. I think she took pleasure in watching the birdfeeder even at the end. We spent a lot of time sitting with her, as she lay in the window well. That was nearly a year ago, and I still miss her. She was such a wonderful cat. 😢 She HATED car trips, and HATED going to the vet, so the vet gave us references for at-home euthanasia. But she never seemed to be in extreme pain, she just … moved less and less. It was winter, and the proximate cause of her death was likely hypothermia, which her vet endorsed as a relatively peaceful way to go. My sister has used one of the local at-home euthanasia services, though, and endorses it. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-cat-how-will-i-know/926456/29 "2020-11-30T04:58:44Z")
> [@dummygladhands71](#): > > he’s fine, for a fat, old, 18 year old cat. He seems happy, sleeps with me, demands food > [@dummygladhands71](#): > > I’m doing the vet manana, I suspect after the holiday I won’t get in, but I intend asking for a reference for a local mobile vet. This is killing me. Has he gotten worse? Or are you just trying to consult with the vet.? I’m not there with the cat; but you don’t seem to me to have been describing a cat who’s ready to go. ---
**Author:** ![dummygladhands71](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c0e974/32.png) [@dummygladhands71](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dummygladhands71)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-cat-how-will-i-know/926456/30 "2020-11-30T05:17:51Z")
I don’t think he’s fat, I palpated his belly, I think bloat. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-cat-how-will-i-know/926456/31 "2020-11-30T05:24:16Z")
Ah. I’d see what the vet thinks. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-cat-how-will-i-know/926456/32 "2020-11-30T05:54:24Z")
I had to make this decision a couple years ago. Tux was about 18 years old, and I realized one day that he hadn’t moved from his spot on the couch for a couple days except to eat and use the litterbox, and when I gave him a scritchy-scratchy, I was just scratching fur and bone. I then picked him up to hold him against me, and smelled urine; at first, I thought he’d had an accident and then I realized the smell was coming out of his fur. ☹ The next day, I took him to the vet (poor thing weighed just 5 1/2 pounds) and within a matter of minutes, he crossed the Rainbow Bridge. When the time comes, you will know. ---
**Author:** ![dummygladhands71](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c0e974/32.png) [@dummygladhands71](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dummygladhands71)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-cat-how-will-i-know/926456/33 "2020-11-30T19:58:29Z")
My Gumba Biddle is gone. Heart failure. There were recommendations of possibly this treatment or that, but I couldn’t/wouldn’t put him thru that. 2020 sucks massive donkey dicks. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-cat-how-will-i-know/926456/34 "2020-11-30T20:07:17Z")
I’m sorry. I know it’s very hard to lose those furry family members. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-cat-how-will-i-know/926456/35 "2020-11-30T20:10:51Z")
I’m so sorry for your loss. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-cat-how-will-i-know/926456/36 "2020-11-30T20:24:02Z")
I’m very sorry for your loss. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-cat-how-will-i-know/926456/37 "2020-11-30T20:27:01Z")
I’m so sorry. ---
**Author:** ![dummygladhands71](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c0e974/32.png) [@dummygladhands71](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dummygladhands71)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-cat-how-will-i-know/926456/38 "2020-11-30T20:33:08Z")
Thanks & thanks to everyone who helped. ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-cat-how-will-i-know/926456/39 "2020-11-30T20:43:32Z")
I’m so sorry. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2020, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-cat-how-will-i-know/926456/40 "2020-11-30T21:58:20Z")
I am so sorry. He knew you loved him, and were doing your best for him. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-cat-how-will-i-know/926456.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-cat-how-will-i-know/926456.md?page=3)