Her name is Madison. She's 15 years old, I've known her for five years, fiancée has known her all her life.
EDIT: It's cancer, and it's now in her lungs, hence the shortened life expectancy. The first tumor was surgically removed weeks ago. It came back with a vengeance.
Posted Apr 5, 2011, 7:14 PM UTC · edited
Spend lots of time with family.
If you haven't already you should consider planning when to have her put to sleep. Animals can't conceptualize pain the way we do, so as the cancer starts really bearing down her quality of life will go downhill rapidly.
When the time comes, be beside her, petting her, offering her a favorite toy or catnip or food or whatever, so that when the vet pushes the plunger the last thing she'll know is that everything's as close to a normal cat nap as it has ever been.
I hope the best for you, good luck.
Sorry for your loss.
I was going to say, "Your last check should bounce." but she's 15, and a cat. That sucks.
Thanks all. @Darth, yeah, vet already put in recommendation for planning euthenasia. It'll be tough as this is fiancée's second cat to have to put to sleep (they're sisters from same litter; other was just getting old).
Has anyone let their pet die peacefully at home (with pain medication), or is that not usually feasible (assuming we take time to stay at home when she deteriorates)?
First off, you really should have her put down rather than dragging it out. People often think they're doing good by their pets to stretch out their lives as much as possible, but at that point the owners are really just doing it for their own sake rather than for the pet.
And when you do have her put down, please, stay with her the whole time. I remember in another thread on this topic, a vet said that when they put pets down and the owners don't come in the room, the pet is always frantically looking for its owner, up until the end. You don't want her last moments to be spent panicked and alone.
I suggest making the few days leading up to it the best you can for her. Do all the things she loves doing. Is there some food that she loves but that you don't give her often/ever because it's unhealthy? Fuck it, give her all she wants. Make her last few days the best days of her life.
And after she's gone, recognize that losing a pet is a serious loss. You've lost a member of the family, and it's not something you can just brush off. Don't be afraid to cry, talk to people about it, etc. That all goes double for your fianceé, since she's known her for much longer.
Thanks! Yes, for the sister, fiancée was in room with her. We're giving Madison all kinds of treats and doing some fun outings (she's an indoor cat). Unfortunately she's not eating much anymore, so treats are no longer doing much for her. We're giving her extra hair brushing which she loves, and LOTS of petting! I miss her flop (she flops belly up when you pet her enough), and we're grieving the loss of mobility and other little Madison-isms already. Hopefully this process will make the final passage somewhat easier.
This was all made more bearable by having an awesome specialist vet (radiologist) who gave excellent professional advice, and in no way pressured us to go through treatments that she felt would not improve Madison's life at this stage.
Well, it got extremely aggressive and she needed to be put down last Friday after refusing to eat for days. Vet was much better this time around; with previous cat they were quite clumsy about the human aspect. Kudos for improving!
Lots of love.