How can I make my cat's final days comfortable?

I’m so sorry. It is a horrible time. Spend time with her. Keep her warm, and give plenty of water. Give her plenty of love.

Perhaps of your vets will come to the house and give Spooney her shot while she sits on your lap.

I am sending this question to Syz.

edit ; one of your vets

Unfortunately, I don’t have any advice. I’m very sorry you have to go through this.

^~^ kitty…

I went through this in March, ETPro and it is sad and difficult. However, I have had two other cats euthanized (due to severe illness) and I would choose to let my pet go naturally every time if I could. I didn’t give her anything, she passed while I was holding her. There were a few moments where it looked like she was stretching and struggling to breathe. Then she was gone.

Give her lots of pets, and if she will allow it, hold her close to you.

I am so terribly sorry this is happening. If you need to talk about it, please feel free to PM me.

I just lost my Molly dog. We brought her in. I wish I would have asked them to come to us to relieve the stress.
If you are hoping to go the natural route and want to reduce both hers and your stress I would suggest rubbing YOUR hands in frankincense oil. Her smell is sensitive so you won’t need a lot but it will give you both a sense of calm.

Awww Spoony!

Yes, the thyroid issues often cause heart murmurs/failure too.
I had a hospice housecall vet tend to my old guy that died of the same complications in May 2010. He ultimately went into heart failure and I had her euthanize him at home on Memorial day afternoon. Yes, the stress of the car trips and injections could easily cause her heart to fail, not a fun experience.

I suggest finding a housecall vet on standby for home euthanasia and just love her up, keep her comfortable and stress free during these final days/weeks.
The cost of home euthanasia and the house call runs around $200–250. Not much to spare your old friend the extra stress and suffering of vet ravel in her last days.
I am sorry for your pending loss. :-(

As long as Spoony isn’t in pain and continues to respond to you, enjoy whatever time you have left.

It’s only human to want to do everything possible to keep a beloved animal alive. Nobody wants to say “goodbye” and let go. But, it sounds as if you’re able to let your head rule your heart and tell you what’s right. Another trip to the vet, followed by injections at home, would traumatize Spoony and cause her to suffer. You don’t want to put through all that, just to prolong her life by maybe a few days.

If Spoony stopped eating, she knows that her little body’s shutting down. Love her, keep her comfortable, talk softly to her, and keep her safe from stress and pain. Be grateful that she shared your home and life for all these years.

I’m so sorry for your loss.

@ETpro I’ve done SQ fluids at home on my pets. It’s quite simple to do at home. You’d save yourself the trip every other day, plus you’d have the fluids on hand in case Spoony takes a sudden turn.

Either your vet or a vet tech can take about five minutes to teach you how to do this properly, then set you up with a week or two worth of supplies.

Thanks to all for the good wishes. I asked the Angel Animal Medical Center to fax her test reports to the animal hospital that’s in the big shopping center a few blocks from here. The vet there is going to go over the results, then will talk with me about the possibility of some analgesia. From what I can find online, it looks like a fentanyl patch is one of the few things that will work safely with a cat. She’s so weak she can barely move, and she’s stopped taking water as well as food. She will tolerate gentle petting, but even that drives her heartbeat way up. Grabbing her to hold her for fluids injections is something my wife and I agree isn’t the right thing to do. It might buy her a few extra days, but at the cost of great trauma. And the hypothyroidism will lead to liver failure anyway.

Put her in one room with water and food and a litter box. Get some of your old clothes and put them on a heating pad or something similar. She might be ok with that. Just pet and love her as much as you can.

She might want to hide. That’s why I suggest keeping her in one room.

Find a vet who will come to your home when the time comes.

So sorry.

@tinyfaery She’s in my room under my bed. This morning, she got up and went into my bath, and amazingly she managed to climb into the tub. Perhaps she felt feverish and wanted the coolness. I put food and water in there, but she just lay still. She just got out and went back under my bed. It’s clear when we try to pet her she doesn’t want it. Close to her is good. Touching is not. I’m not planning to euthanize her, just ensure she doesn’t suffer as nature takes its course. I hope when my time comes, I can leave nature to make the call on timing but receive palliative care till that hour.

I just went through this with my Smoochie a month ago and your instincts are correct.

By the time kidney problems show up on tests, so much of the kidney function has been destroyed that there are no miracles.

The fact that she is neither eating nor drinking is the clear sign that she’s close to the end.

Follow the suggestion of TF so she doesn’t go hiding in some impossible place to find and just continue letting her know how much you love her.

I really feel for you. It’s just so hard to let go. Even tho I knew that I had given Smoochie an extra 9–10 months (she was a lot younger than Spoony) it was still hard.

But they know when it’s their time. It’s just so hard for us to accept it.

I’m so sorry to hear about this. Perhaps your vet will do a home visit?

I’m sure that the vet talked to you about this, but if her renal disease is so advanced that she’s having seizures, subcutaneous fluids is unlikely to be all that helpful. Her heart murmur also means that there’s a possibility that the high rate of fluids needed may fluid overload her and send her into heart failure. All of that combined with the hyperthyroidism (you mentioned hypothyroidism, but I suspect that’s a misunderstanding – the opposite is much, much more common in older cats) would mean that even with intensive treatment (hospitalization, diuresis, electrolyte correction, feeding tube placement, etc), thousands of dollars may gain you a few months, if that.

The decision is yours, and it needs to be a decision that you are comfortable with. Talk to your vet as much as you need, until all of your questions are answered as much as possible.

If you’re concerned about the stress of travel, check your area for a mobile vet service. They could come to your home and perform the euthanasia. If you opt not to go “all out”, it’s the kindest thing to do – letting her die on her own while waiting for a miracle is a selfish act. I don’t say that cruelly – I speak from my own experience, from my own mistakes over the years. I have been selfish in the past, waited too long, and extended the suffering; I hope that you don’t have to suffer from that memory, too.

Love her, de-stress her, and if she’s in any discomfort, make the call. The outcome is clear, just make it easy for her. And my condolences. A well loved pet is a special thing. Do right by her, even if it’s tough on you. She’s earned that.

If you continue to keep her alive, will she still be in pain?

I do not understand – cannot possibly understand – your selfish and wrong-headed idea not to euthanize. What is to be gained for the cat in keeping her alive? She’s obviously in great distress, and like all living things she is going to die sooner or later anyway. What is the gain for her in keeping her alive at this point to go through this “natural” death?

I’m sorry for your pending loss, really I am, but the desire to “keep her alive at all costs” is an idea of yours that does her no good and simply prolongs her suffering.

Cats instinctively go off and hide to die. Most of the palliative measures are to make you more comfortable. Do what is best for your cat.

As above. What the cat needs least of all just now is any added stress.

@CWOTUS I think the point was that stuffing her into a cat-carrier and carting her across town to the vet would cause her more suffering than letting her pass away peacefully at home.

Kitty treats…and tuna. privacy and petting.

Thanks to all who expressed your concern and understanding.

@syz Your expert advice is very much appreciated. There is one vet service that advertises home visits. I called them and got an answering machine saying that they were booked up till August 1st. This is September 1st. That told me volumes about their professionalism.

@CWOTUS I’ve looked for ways to euthanize her myself. There are no acceptable options for that. As feeble as she is, she is able to make it abundantly clear to me she does not want to be picked up, much less put in a cat carrier and taken to unfamiliar surroundings.

@talljasperman I tried that. Canned tuna is her very favorite food in the world, and she did not show any interest in that. She wouldn’t even drink the juice poured off from the can.

@ETpro i’m pretty sure home euthanasia not done by a vet is illegal. Please don’t eHow yourself into jail.

You had said, in this direct quote, “We don’t want to take her in to be euthanized, nor do we want to do it ourselves.” I just don’t know what’s true any more.

Although I can and do sympathize with the pending loss, as a responsible owner you have to buck up and “do the necessary”, regardless of “how she feels about it”. Take her in and have her put down.

Yeah, it sounds cold-blooded and heartless, especially if “she makes it clear that she doesn’t want to be touched or to go anywhere”, but the alternative is prolonged suffering for her. And for you, too. She’s going to die. The alternatives are that she can take a long time to do it in pain in your home, or you can have it done in a few minutes, even if the gathering up and transporting her also causes some discomfort.

@drhat77 Interesting. None of the sites describing methods mentioned legality.

@CWOTUS Right now, if she’s in terrible pain, she isn’t showing it, and she is ordinarily very vocal about pain. She’s mostly sleeping. What I wanted was to find some form of palliative care I could give her if she does start exhibiting pain and distress. That doesn’t seem to be available without taking her back to a vet. If I sound like I don’t know exactly what I want, it’s because that’s exactly how I am feeling right now.

She is shutting down. It may not be painful for her. Cats and people, at the end, stop eating. And cats, like people, want to turn their faces to the wall. If you choose not to put her down but let her die naturally, let your soft voices and presence be near her, but let her lie in a space that’s comfortable but darkened and somewhat sheltered.

—-probably cats, like people, lose the ability to hear last. Loving words from her people would be soothing.

And the vets give valium for such things as tooth cleanings when the cat is not strong enough for anaesthesia. Perhaps you have some kind of tranquilizer around the house and can break off a piece proportionate to her weight.

Don’t force hydration on her. That is for you not for her.

My Rosie-cat, died, at 21, on my bed. and the slipping from life to death was imperceptible. She grew cool before I was sure.

Cats who know they are dying, by choice, find a dark place to hide away in, even loved cats. My Zoli-cat went to the little “house” I had made her in the garden that was a plastic table with a tablecloth and rug over it and a rug inside it. Stupid me, I didn’t leave her alone but took her to the vet.

She said that all her systems were failing, but put her on an IV anyway and when I came back the next day to see her she was comatose. I held her for over an hour [the vet put little curtains down in the room and left] but could not even tell whether she was alive or not. I guess I was supposed to say goodbye but didn’t even know if she was there. Finally the vet just came in and took her away. It was not a good experience for me but I am sure Zoli didn’t notice. Although she may indeed have noticed getting the IV.

@anartist Thanks. I do have a prescription to diazepam for muscle spasms I occasionally get due to osteoarthritis.So far, she acts like she doesn’t need it. She’s mostly staying in the bathtub in the bath off my bedroom.

perfect. you are set. although if she does not drink you may have to dissolve it and wet her tongue with the solution.

why the bathtub? Does she like it because it is cool?

Avoid harsh light on her—maybe some sort of little arrangement that would serve as an umbrella.

@anartist We already picked up one of those baby medicine droppers I’m guessing the tun for coolness. Perhaps she’s feeling some fever. I closed the shower curtain enough to let her hide behind it.

I’m so sorry, @ETpro. Losing a beloved pet is hard, in any circumstances.

We went through a very similar thing with my cat Katy a while back, and because she didn’t seem to be in any pain, we made the same choices you have. When she was too far gone, we declined any further treatment and we let her die at home with our love around her. She spent her last few days in a hidey-hole (under a chair draped with a blanket) by my husband’s side, and passed peacefully.

I had to put my cat to sleep in December, 9 months ago. She was about 15 and she started getting a little wobbly, which I attributed to old age. A few days later, she pretty much stopped moving. i took hr to the vet and he said it was kidney failure, and I opted to have her euthanized, instead of suffering longer. It was very sad but I felt it was the best option for the cat.

I am all for euthanasia, rather than prolonging the pet’s suffering.

Just wanted to extend my sympathies to you.

@augustlan That appears to be just how she is going. She is barely breathing now and has not indicated any distress except for the trip to the Animal Hospital. Had I known what their diagnosis would be, I would have opted for euthanasia while she was still there, but I didn’t get her test results till two days later. My sympathies for your loss of Katy, and @jac’s as well.

@answerjill Thanks.

She is gone. She died without so much as a whimper, with dignity right to the end. I’m sure all those that berated me for not taking her to the vet to be put down were giving their best advice based on their experience with their particular pet. Each animal is as unique as each of us humans are, though. I believed I knew her well enough to read her wishes, and now I know I was right. She wanted to be here, with those that she knew and loved nearby, to breathe her last.

@ETpro – I am so sorry that your baby is gone, and yet, glad that you did right by her. I had a feeling that she was close, based on the description. Remember that you were a good pet parent. It’s hard to believe now, but the good memories will eventually help you to overcome the sadness. Trite but true. You have all the hugs I’ve got right now.

PS: I gave you a GA for taking care of Spoony.

@tedibear Thank you.

@ETpro My condolences to you ET. Spoony lived well and died well. That’s all we can ask out of life.

@ETpro Not a bad way to go for a cat or a human being.

So sorry. If you have other animals love them extra much.

@Adirondackwannabe & @flutherother Thanks.

@tinyfaery Thanks. RIght now we have no other pets and can’t think of one. Someday maybe. Not now.

Rest in Peace Spoony. If you happen to run into my Smokie, you might want to RUN AWAY! She’s kind of mean!

I’m glad you did what you did. I don’t think we realized she was going so fast. My Smokers went the same way. We just laid on the bathroom floor with her until she was gone. A few days later we went to “see” her, and a pretty butterfly had landed on her rock

@ETpro so sad for your loss, but I am happy that she passed in peace and at home. I think you did the right thing.

My condolences to you and your family @ETpro.

I hope my kids are as sweet to me as you were to your cat when my time comes. I hope your sad moment turns to happy memories soon.

@Judi I hope you can trust them at least that much. What did you do, spend their inheritance taking care of you?:)

@ETpro I’m so very sad for you. Please know that you were a loving, caring, and responsible human companion, and that you helped Spoony end her life without pain or suffering. Sixteen years is a long life for a cat; Spoony was lucky to spend those years with you and your wife.

Aw, @ETpro. It’s easy to see how much you loved Spoony THE Cat™. I’m sure she loved you, too. {hugs}

This hasn’t been a good week for jelly kitties…@AstroChuck lost his beloved Skywalker, too.

@Dutchess_III and @downtide Thanks. I am completely convinced now that we did exactly what Spoony wanted. We didn’t choose here, she chose us. We went to the SPCA intent on adopting a kitten. In a cage full of tiny, trembling felines, she spotted us and walked up to the mesh bars, clearly asking to be touched. It was mutual love at first sight. And while I have owned many cats, and given my best to each, so was one in a million—a gentle loving soul that did her best to understand us strange humans. Very unusual for felines.

@SpatzieLover Thank you so much.

@Judi I survived my eldest child but I am very blessed to have two surviving sons who I am confident would accord me the same concern.

@SadieMartinPaul Thank you. That is how I want to look at it.

@augustlan Thanks for the condolences and thinks for letting me know about AstroChuck’s loss. I like him very much, and will be sure to send him a note of condolence.

Be sure to have a wake or some sort of ritual to help you and your family and others who loved your cat feel closure. It sounds simultaneously silly and trite as I write it, but it would be terrible to regret missing the opportunity as it passes.

@drhat77 Silly or trite, it has already been done. Thanks for your concern.

Spoony, please tell my Jacky I still miss him.
@ETpro I am so sad for you, but Spoony, she is at peace.

We did what @drhat77 recommended when we finally buried Jacky’s ashes in my garden.
The dignity of it helped.

Spoony is gone? :-(

@anartist Yes, that is my consolation. That and that she died peacefully, with dignity.

@Coloma Sadly she is. We are still mourning her leaving us.