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svnnhwlsn's avatar

What should I do about my sick cat?

Asked by svnnhwlsn (24points) February 12th, 2022 from iPhone

Hi everyone. My cat is very sick and close to dying and I need advice. I don’t want her to suffer, but I love her and obviously don’t want to have to do that and Id feel so horrible for not just letting her live out the rest of her life in her home where she’s comfortable. We’ve had her since November of 2020 and she’s now two and four months. She was very skinny when we first got her and she began to put on a little weight after a while, but then she got a bacterial infection and we were able to treat it, but she was still pretty small. I have a feeling she was abused at her last home because she’s always been shy and hiding in the bathroom at our last home all of the time and now at this home she’s always in our bedroom. She’s comfortable around me and will be out, but if anyone else even walks by she runs under the bed. Well over the past maybe 4–5 months she’s been losing more weight and the last vet visit she was 3.9 lbs. When I noticed she was losing weight, I took the advice from those around me and started giving her only wet kitten food with a little hard food because I didn’t want her teeth to rot. She just continued to lose weight and we found out that she’s severely anemic and she has a parasite in her blood that causes her body to attack her blood. Due to the toxins in her body, she’s going blind and it’s getting worse day by day. Her pupils are fully dilated, even when you shine a bright light directly into her eyes. It began with her pupils being different sizes and having little reaction to light, but they still had some. Now that’s just totally gone and she’s walking straight off the bed, walking into furniture and tripping over everything and she’s very wobbly. I just sit with her and keep her steady and give her some company and tlc. She had developed a respiratory infection and our vet put her on an antibiotic and steroid so to help with the respiratory infection and the parasite in her blood. Since we began giving her the medicine, she’s been out a lot more, been more receiving to love from both my boyfriend and I, and she’s even wandering out into the living room. When she’s startled now, she just freezes and looks very tense. The past two days she seems very hungry for food and will scarf about half of what she’s given and then stop eating and she won’t drink water (at least not that I’ve seen). I’ve tried putting it in a syringe so that I know she’s getting water, but she already hates having to do that with the antibiotic and steroid and when I give those to her, she starts wheezing more like it went down wrong or it’s just really thick or something. We’ve taken her to the vet many times to get antibiotics for bacterial infections and she’s up to date on her vaccinations. I’m just very sad that it’s happening like this and the vet said that it’s always a possibility (which is why we took the meds) that she can get better and just live out the rest of her life blind just fine, but that she’ll more likely than not get much better and that we’ll have to choose euthanasia. I’d just really hate to do that to her in a noisy office somewhere she’s totally unfamiliar with, especially since she can’t see anymore. I’d like to let her live her life to the end in her home surrounded by familiarity and comfort and love, but I don’t want her to have to suffer like that, but I also don’t want to feel like I’m playing god and mess with nature like that. I just don’t know what to do, so any advice would be greatly appreciated, whether I should go in office and go through with euthanasia or let her stay home.

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8 Answers

LadyMarissa's avatar

You might want to do some research in your area. I recently had to have my dog euthanized & a neighbor helped me find a vet that would come to my house to handle her final moments. My dog was at home, laying on her favorite blanket with her head in my lap & me talking to her when she finally drifted away.The vet gave her a shot that made her drowsy & go to sleep. Then he gave her a shot that made her heart stop. It was harder on me than it was on her. She just went to sleep & didn’t wake back up. The vet also handled disposing of the body. It made me feel better knowing that she wasn’t stressed out from having to go to her vet’s office where there were a lot of strange animals & people as well as a lot of loud noises. According to the vet who came out to my home, home euthanasia is popular all over the country due to people’s busy work schedule. So you might want to look into it.

Pandora's avatar

PLEASE DON’T GIVE UP YET. This is something my daughters dog has as well. Her immune system is also attacking her red blood cells. Turns out she’s allergic to protien. So she has to have a special diet with no protein in it. Please have your vet check into that. That may be why your cat is still losing weight. If she’s eating food that makes her immune system worse, than she will have the runs and just get sicker. Find out if this is the issue first. In my daughters dog case she does not have an infection but I feel if she had continued getting weaker and her anemia had gotten worse she may have developed one. Doctor says she has to be careful from now on to make sure she doesn’t get sick because it can trigger her immune system as well. She can also no longer get vaccines because that can also trigger her immune to go nuts.
See if your vet can find a food for her that is safe, and to test her to see if it’s a protein issue.I wish you and the kitty the best and I hope this helps out.

gondwanalon's avatar

I suggest that you save yourself grief and save your cat pain by going ahead and having your cat euthanized.

I went through something like this with my 8 year old cat a few years ago. All the blood and x-ray test results were normal. Veterinarian told me that he didn’t know what was wrong with my cat. My cat completely stopped eating and the vet told me to force feed my cat with the hope that the cat will recover. It was terrible force feeding with a syringe. Over 5 months my cat went from 16 pounds down to 7 ponds. His weight was holding but one morning he was alive but unresponsive and then he died in my arms.

I wish that I would have put an end to my cat’s suffering months earlier. It was torcher for me and absolute torcher for my cat.

KRD's avatar

I go with @Pandora. DON’T GIVE UP see of your cat is allergic to something.

Dutchess_III's avatar

I don’t think we have any vets here.

Response moderated (Spam)
Ikara's avatar

Your cat is suffering and will continue to suffer.
There are vets that do home euthanasia visits. You can have a vet cone to your house so that she can pass quietly in the comfort of your arms in a familiar place. That would be the kindest thing you can do

KRD's avatar

I if your cat is not allergic to anything that you are giving the cat it is time to end suffering by putting you cat down. It may be hard but remember your cat will be happier when it is over with.

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