Should I bring my geriatric cat to the vet?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I have a Siamese who’s 21 1/2 years old. (Sorry to violate Doper law but I don’t have any good pics of her online. You can see part of her with my son here though) She’s mostly deaf, mostly blind, has arthritis, and is getting rather senile. However, she’s always been in pretty good health (she’s outlived 2 kitty friends), she eats well, she drinks plenty of fluids, and urinates often (usually in a place I don’t want her to go).

The problem is that she’s getting lost more and more often. We try to block off places where she could get lost, but that doesn’t keep her from wandering around in circles, crying (Siamese cats who are mostly deaf probably violate most town sound ordinances). She sleeps in her litter box much of the time, I’m guessing because she gets tired of wandering and just wants to sit somewhere. I worry about her, but whenever I take her to the vet the same thing happens:

Vet: Wow, she’s really old!
Me: Um, yes. But how is she?
Vet, feeling her kidneys: Wow, these kidneys can’t possibly be working! That’ll be several hundred dollars for blood tests and urinalysis.
Me: Absolutely. Where do I sign?
2 Days Later
Vet: All of her tests are normal. Try to keep her comfortable. Have a nice day.

So, I keep thinking about taking her in, and then I think perhaps she’s just really old, and senile, and I should just try to keep her comfortable, and skip straight to the “have a nice day” step. At the rate she’s going, she’ll outlive me anyway (my husband believes that she’s sucking our life force with her incredible Siamese meow powers). I just wonder periodically if taking her to the vet might help at all, or if I’m right in my belief that there’s not much anyone can do.

By the way, she’s not in any significant pain, even with the arthritis; she just gets lost a lot and cries. If I knew she was in pain that couldn’t be treated, I would have her put to sleep, the thought of which makes me weep. She’s a damn fine cat.

2

I know there are now some meds to help with senility in canines; there might be something out there for felines, too.

3

Different vet?

Sounds like she does have dementia. I don’t know if there is a treatment for it in cats (there is for dogs, but I know it doesn’t always work).

4

I’m beginning to rethink my vet.

Maybe I’ll take her to a new place to see what they suggest.

5

I’m not a vet but I’ve had a lot of cats over my life. Basically at this point in her life, it’s all about the quality of life. And since you know her best, you know how good or poor that is. If she’s happy, eating, drinking and otherwise healthy there’s not much a vet can do that I’m aware of. However it definatly can’t hurt to get a second opinion on any options available to you. I think what you’re doing right now is good. 21 is an extremely old age for a cat, but I have seen older ones (23, 24) and almost all of them were siamese. Maybe when she’s lost and crying, someone can pick her up and give her love before placing her in a safe, familiar spot?

6

We try. Sometimes it’s tough. She’s woken me up in the middle of the night, and sometimes, I’m just too zonked out to go and find her. We also have the problem of guessing wrong about where she wants to be, when we find her. Has she been to the litter box? Has she eaten? So, if we move her to her cat bed, she may be up in a couple of minutes, crying because she was on her way to the box and now she’s got much further to go to get there. If only she would answer a simple question. :slight_smile:

7

Have you thought about confining her to one small to medium sized room during the night? Set it up so that everything she needs…litter, food, water, bed, etc… is in there, like you would if she was a kitten you just brought home. If she’s getting lost and upset while wandering the house, it could definitely ease her stress. Then again, it might make her more anxious, but I think it’s worth a try.

8

Getting a second opinion can’t hurt, but there isn’t a lot to be done for an elderly cat. Cats are incredibly sensitive to drugs, so there just isn’t much out there. As long as her quality of life is good - and IMO you are the judge of that, not a vet - you just need to cherish her while you have her. I recently lost an 18-year old, and the trite old saying is very true: cats leave pawprints on our hearts.

Also: you think Siamese are loud? I have one, and I thought so too. Now I have a Cornish Rex. I need ear protection.

9

My Cleo spent the last few weeks of her life lost, but she was never unhappy. She coped by following a path around the edge of the room to get to the litterbox, which she used faithfully up to her last hours. We think she might have been blind those last few weeks too, because she took to hiding in a safe place from the other cats, only coming out to follow her trail around the edges of things…literally walking as if she were trailing a hand along the wall. And then she sought us out for her last minutes, dying as we held her in our arms. She was a wonderfully sweet cat. I never took her to the vet those last few weeks because she wasn’t suffering at all…her passing was gentle and quiet.

10

Confining her at night might be a good idea. We’ve done that when she was sick and she’s seemed okay with it. I’ve decided to take her to a new vet, and have been asking locally for recommendations. A vet friend (who’s unfortunately 1000 miles away) says there are some things that can be done. In case you’re interested, this is what she said:

So, there are options. Now to find her a vet I feel more comfortable with.