The kitty in this avatar has been treated for diabetes for the last year or two. Well, since we left that crappy apartment for a house, she’s been crying and yesterday was walking around like a drunk & missing the litter box.
Well, I guessed hypoglycemia and the only time this has happened put corn syrup on her gums. Vet said her glucose was normal, don’t give her insulin if she doesn’t eat.
She’s eaten a little, but not this morning. She usually lets the food (from fridge, a special diabetic cat food), warm up a bit before eating.
I simply don’t have money to keep pumping into labs and vet care, and maybe this is prolonging the inevitable. She’s been a great little friend, even snuggling up with me when I was at my sickest, but she’s struggling and, at 13, it may be time to relieve her pain.
Don’t think I’ll get another pet. Much as I love ‘em & would like to, I understand those who don’t keep ‘em for various reasons.
So sorry for this. It’s definitely a painful decision to let them go…pets are like members of the family and when you put them to sleep you always wonder if you could have done more.
I’ve put two pets to sleep, and had two die naturally (one on the way to be put to sleep). I feel your pain.
However I would say now, though I understand your feeling at the moment, please stay open to getting another pet some day. The love you get and give in the lifetime you have them is more than worth the pain you’re feeling now. I know it’s hard to see that now.
Yes… I know the feeling of not getting another pet.
One of our neighbors from where my wife and I have a cabin up in Maine is a retiree and for years has taken in elderly cats and a couple of dogs. She is one of those gruff standoffish types that keep to themselves for the most part but once you get to know her she will give you the shirt off of her back. She also likes being a hermit. After having a couple of her dogs die back to back she pretty much said no more… until a three legged Huskie Puppy named Muki came into her life.
That dog seriously changed her life. She is much more social, she now has dog walk dates with people that she has met.
I’d love a dog or cat, but just don’t know. The husband loved this one from the beginning (he’d never before had a cat), but doesn’t want to get attached again.
I’ll just have to wait for awhile and see if he changes. I do understand the choice not to keep one much as I’ve loved the dogs & cats I’ve gotten as strays & Shelter pets.
The irony is, in leaving a living situation that wasn’t healthy—it just wasn’t a nice unit for someone with a child and there was hostility from certain owners towards families with children—my little friend was fine, even with the diabetes.
We’re constantly up and down stairs in this place, and not having just one space on one level to navigate may have lowered her glucose. When a human gets a Glucola drink as part of a Glucose Tolerance Test, usually there’s an hour wait to do the first draw, and the patient can do anything desired but vigorous exercise as that will lower glucose & give false normal or low results.
Get the nice place, lose my best friend. Loss is inevitable, but this one is especially hard since we have a beautiful place for any pet.
Sometimes a person will talk about their pet like it’s a human, and other people will look and them and say, it’s only an animal.
The problem with that is that Pets give a human unconditional love and ask very little in return. Over time, they become like part of the family.
In my life, I don’t like a lot of change, so definitely trying to let something go as determining weather or not to put a pet down would be a hard decision for anyone, including myself.
However, I don’t believe in an animal suffering either. Once I had a cat years ago, that
I found partially ran over. It’s bones were nearly crushed, but it’s guts were sticking out, and it was suffering blinking at me, and still alive. I knew that even if I ran it to the vet emergency that it would be dead before I got it there. It pained me to do so, but I took it in the back yard, and cut its head off with a shovel. It went to a better place, and it’s suffering had ended.
Only you can make this decision in the end. I wish you luck in your decision, no matter what you decide.
It’s possible I may want to euthanize her. She’s been a wonderful companion—the best, even snuggling up with me at my sickest—but the poor little thing is merely existing, struggling to move with the nerve damage.
I don’t want her to suffer. Maybe she can go back to her original, lively way in the next life, free of suffering.
I hope she’s the first I meet again when I get there. I’m crying right now, sorry to be this way.
Part of the price of loving these little beasts as much as we do is having to make the hard decisions for them when they rely on us to relieve their suffering. I’ve got 4 dogs myself, and will face this difficulty soon enough. Hopefully you can find some peace through the process, and remember how much joy she brought into your life.
I had a cat that I had to give twice a day insulin shots too as well as monthly bloodwork. She made it about another two years than she would have so I don’t regret it. She died at home one night.
I understand the sentiment about not wanting to go through the pain of losing a pet again but that pain is worth the joy they bring in the rest of the years. I got another cat after a while and she is quite possibly the sweetest, most cuddly cat I’ve ever had.
Cats and dogs are the most pure, amazing love. I know we all die, but it saddens me anyway.
She stumbled out to greet me in spite of the impaired gait. They don’t care if you’re old or young, black white something else, thin or fat, got a piercing or a tatt.
Can you feed & will you take care of them? They ask for very little & give totally unconditional love in return. They’re accurate judges of character the first time.
This was a love at first sight relationship. She meowed for me to pick her at the shelter 7 years ago & I did. My husband would text me videos of her looking around for me when I went out of town.
Feel like it’s partially my fault the condition she’s in, maybe should have done a kidney disease lab about 2 weeks ago when offered it. Don’t have a lot of money for stuff like labs and she’s a middle aged to senior cat. Don’t want her stuck with needles any more than she already has been, or subjected to other tests.
I so wish she could be healthy & whole but it isn’t possible. Going to vet tomorrow for evaluation & see can I do anything besides these outdoor sit downs she seems to enjoy to keep her more comfortable.
Sorry to babble on. If I ever had a heart, it’s broken now.
Well for about a week, after some outdoor time with her, it looked like if nothing else, her morale was lifting. Even with her nerve damaged legs, after my end of life consult with the vet, she started coming up stairs to see us, going to her old spots.
Started going to the doors of the house & meowing to be let out. And we enjoyed our outdoor time together.
It appears she isn’t feeling well this morning, bunkering up in the basement again. As I’ve said, I know everything but roaches & apartment witches dies some day, but, to make things seem sadder, it’s pouring rain today.
No outdoor time & am having a hard time sleeping. I just pray, knowing God wants his cat back, she goes in love & minimal suffering—actually no suffering as she has been the best friend I’ve had.
