What to do about a senile cat?

In My Humble Opinion
21

If he really has a voracious appetite and has lost weight, I would bet on hyperthyroidism. Are his nails really long, like looking overgrown and maybe starting to approach his paw pads? Is his appearance becoming unkempt, like his coat has little mats that he didn’t used to have?

Drinking for a long time at the water bowl and vomiting, I would bet on kidney disease and/or failure. He possibly has gone long enough without vet care to be far into kidney failure, which also causes nausea (which usually causes anorexia, unless too hyperthyroid to ignore sensitive tummy because sooooo hungry) and vomiting if also hyperthyroid.

Hyperthyroidism also masks kidney disease - they often occur together or within a short timeframe of each other - and are common in older cats.

Go to the vet, get a Senior Feline Panel done, which should include a CBC, Chem 25, T4, and urinalysis with culture and susceptibility. If your vet suspects kidney failure and/or hyperthyroidism from any of that, then there should be at least a “free T4” and a renal panel added to the above (unless the initial values are so high the verifications aren’t needed).

Personally, cats I have who are over 10 years old get senior panels done yearly. My cats can’t tell me when they feel a little icky. The panels tell me before the cats can if their kidneys or thyroid are starting to go. Much like people, the organs start to fail before they feel bad, and once they feel really bad, so bad that their people notice, they’re pretty darn sick.

If you get any results from the panels that he’s having a problem, making a euthanasia decision won’t be so hard. Whatever you do, take it from a shelter worker, euthanizing him will do him a far bigger favor than taking him back to the shelter. If you take him back to the shelter it will be a death sentence for sure, and not a nice one that he could have with you. The stress of going back to a shelter and dealing with all the changes in daily life, along with health issues that may or may not be diagnosed/treated properly by the shelter, all older cats do when they get returned to my shelter (which is one of the best shelters to get returned to, with a full-time clinic to take care of the cats) is basically get hospice care until they die. There’s little hope of getting re-adopted for cats over 10, especially if they have health or behavior problems.

If you have to make a decision between return to shelter and euthanasia, please pick the latter.

22

His nails look reasonably short. He spends a lot of time outside on the concrete which keeps them ground down, so it’s hard to tell if they’re growing unusually fast.

I’ll certainly get him checked out and I really appreciate the advice on what tests to get, but it’s hard for me to attribute the water and food to medical problems. He keeps his appetite under control as long as he’s in the house, but if he’s outside for over a couple hours, that’s when he eats and drinks too much. Especially considering this is Arizona; being outside for that long will dry you out badly. He actually wandered away for several hours one day during the summer, and the only reason he didn’t simply die from dehydration was because a neighbor found him collapsed outside her door. I’ve been very careful since then to make sure he’s not outside for long.

Regarding shelter versus euthanasia, that’s been exactly my thought process and is why I’m loathe to rehome him. I realized a while back that I’ll be his last owner one way or another.

23

Hey, that’s all you can do. :slight_smile:

Cats are… tricky, to say the least, to figure out sometimes.

I have a soft spot for AZ, I have a bunch of family in Tucson and Flagstaff.

24

An update for those interested:

I kept putting off a vet visit as was suggested in this thread throughout December, first because I was laid off, then because of the holidays. About the middle of the month Bobby had contracted a cold, but I didn’t think much of it until the Monday after Christmas, when I noticed that his nose had been almost completely closed up with dried snot. Tuesday I took him in to see the vet.

The vet gave me a few diagnoses: he had an infection, hence the snotty discharge (it was in his eyes too), he appeared very dehydrated (which is odd considering how often he drank), and he very likely had kidney disease. I explained mine and Bobby’s situation, and I decided to give him another week. She gave me a liquid antibiotic to give to him orally, as well as instructions to overhydrate him. In a week she’d check him again to see how much of what she was seeing was dehydration and how much was kidney disease.

As it turned out, he had a bad reaction to the antibiotic. He lost an incredible amount of energy, to the point where he could not move his hind legs at all. It was the most heartbreaking thing in the world to see him drag himself from his water dish to his bed by his front paws only. I stopped giving him the antibiotic when I discovered he had peed in his bed without bothering to get up. Bobby’s always been bad with hygiene, but not that bad. That plus the actual act of holding him by the head and forcing a syringe into his mouth to administer the medicine was just too much indignity to visit on the poor old man.

Without the antibiotic, he got more alert and was strong enough to go to the litter box, but not much more. He’d jump up on the desk, then lose his balance and fall off. And, of course, the infection came back. For the most part, he spent 99% of every day just huddled into the smallest ball he could make himself on my bed. And, of course, being New Year’s weekend, the vet’s office was completely closed.

With or without medication, he was in too much discomfort and indignity, and I wanted to give him rest before it got worse. As long as he seemed happy, I was willing to endure his…habits. But he just didn’t any more. He looked like he was just waiting to die. And so, with the vet finally open today, I took Bobby in and put him to sleep.

Letting him go was harder than I thought it’d be. For all that he’s pissed me off over the years, he was still my cat. I got him shortly after I graduated from college and started working in the real world. He’s been a steady part of this stage of my life, and it’s heartbreaking to see him go. It was for the best for both of us, but that only makes it a little less difficult.

The vet was kind enough to give me a paw print in plaster, and I’m fortunate enough to have been given a wonderful photograph a year or two ago by my neighbor. As remembrances go, it’s not a bad one. It captures his ugly mug perfectly. RIP, Bobby.

25

{{{{{Bosstone}}}}}

You did the right thing by Bobby.

He surely was a handsome bad-ass lookin’ cuss.

26

I’m sorry Bosstone. I know how hard it is.

27

Sorry Bosstone I know it wasn’t easy but you did the right thing. I put my cat down a couple of weeks ago, and I sure miss the old man.

28

Bless you so very much for “putting up” with the old cat codger for so long and doing the right but hard thing to do when the time came.

Its never easy, even when you almost hate the nearly unloveable twits.

I recently put our 17 year old cat down a few months ago. And now, in the past few weeks, his 15 year old partner in crime, the stinky old Shitzhu dog, has been showing signs something serious may be wrong with him and something may need to be done :frowning:

Just remember all those years of comfort you gave the old cuss that he most certainly would not have had without you .

29

I appreciate the well wishes. He’s the first pet I ever cared for without the help of my parents, and the first one I’ve ever had to put to sleep rather than just rehome. He had a hard life, and while maybe another person might have given him a better end, I did what I could for him.

My next task is to keep my three year old princess from growing up as crazy and neurotic as the old man. :stuck_out_tongue: At least I don’t have to live in fear of pee stains any more.

30

You did the right thing, Bosstone, Bobby had an amazing human. Just give the others extra scritches today.

31

You did the right thing.

32

I agree. You did the right thing. The cat had a good ride. Not many people would tolerate a cat peeing all over the house.