Mavis has had a large assortment of health problems over the six years I have known her, she is now 16.
She was pretty overweight and insecure. Her mobility has always been bad and her bone structure is very odd around her shoulders, she walks funny.
I worked with her closely to bring her out of her shell and build her confidence. She was always extremely affectionate and picked on by one of our other cats so we rallied to support her. She quickly became our favourite.
After a few years we noticed she lost a ton of weight and took her in for an exam. On the way there she began drooling everywhere which was alarming, and the vet told us she had a heart murmur. A year later we took her to another vet who told us she had hyper thyroid.
We tried every option as the HyperT medication actually made things worse for her before eventually arranging to get the radioactive idione treatment done 2 years ago. It was a success and her symptoms went away. During this period we have had to take her in for everything such as her kidneys being an issue (which we reversed), random infections, anal glands that were not expressing and making her sick, random episodes where her hair just fell out and nobody could explain why, lots of issues with going to the bathroom (which we fixed with CBD as we believe it was anxiety related)
A year later she is sitting on my lap and I notice her sneeze and something spray on me. I look down and my arm is covered in blood. I'm alarmed but she seems normal so I do some googling and move on with my life until it happens again a few weeks later. Now I am freaked out.
I take her into the vet when her breathing becomes extremely laboured - you can hear her from another room. The first vet wrongly diagnoses her as having asthma and after an infection in her nose, I take her to another vet who tells me she likely has cancer.
She starts getting sick more often now, her face swells particularly under her eye and she is leaking puss and blood from her eyes and nose constantly.
We take her to the vet and they give us an antibiotic which helps, and a month later she gets sick again - the vet recommends we permanently keep her on antibiotics and they do several tests (xray, bloodwork) and the cancer has not spread. I syringe feed her until she is healthy as she won't eat.
This seems to work well for about 8 weeks.
A few months later around christmas time she takes a turn for the worse - her eye swells completely shut and upon taking her to the vet, the vet tells us she has a tumour coming out of her nose. The swelling is pushing it out. We are devastated.
They prescribe us a super powered antibiotic and we take her home where she isnt eating and can hardly move, bleeding out of her mouth nose and eyes.
We are distraught, we are about to call and make the appointment when she started eating and doing better. Her swelling went down and after a few days she returned to her normal self - still a bit lethargic as she has never been super mobile, but enjoying life.
Between now and christmas it has been up and down.
At first, a month off antibiotics and she is sick again, give her antibiotics and she is well again after a week. 3 weeks later she is sick again, her eye almost swells shut and then she is well again, this cycle repeats once a month until it's every 2 weeks, then one week.
Each time I have to re-live the idea of her dying and putting her down.
I tried to bargain with god of what I would do positively in my life if she was just let go in her sleep peacefully. Every time we see the vet they say she has only days to live and should be euthanized.
I started spraying down every surface that she wipes her face on with disinfectant in hopes to help her and this process over the last year has been causing havoc for my mental health.
Last week I noticed her face was beginning to swell again after only being 2 days off her very powerful antibiotics.
Once a day I push near her eye and puss/blood sprays out in a massive amount. I think "Oh yay I found a new way to help her!" (as opposed to letting it just swell and shut her eye) then realize this isnt good....
Her eye is no longer swelling, but the top of her forehead is - its enormous. It's like tucan sam.
I cry for two days and consider putting her down on Monday.
We get her the antibiotics and we have plans to take her out to the park on Sunday, understanding her time is limited.
Sunday comes and somehow the swelling is gone, we believe that she is responding to meds or maybe she popped it and it leaked out.
We take her out to the park, she is super mobile and happy - more happy and social than I have seen her in months. What a beautiful day for us. We hang out in the park for an hour and take her back in.
Monday her face starts swelling again, Tuesday her eye swells shut - its massive and blood is pouring out of her and we discuss putting her down as shes not eating and we dont feel like forcing her with the syringe anymore. She drinks a lot of water and maybe eats two bites.
Today her swelling has gone down and her eye has opened back up, and her bed is covered in the blood that has leaked out. (we're used to this, she has went through like 10 beds)
She isnt eating but seems happy and receptive to cuddles, I'll try again tonight with food.
The problem is that she has been near death so many times, many of which were unexplained illnesses and she rallied back to live a healthy, happy life.
We booked the home euthanization for tomorrow at 3pm
Through giving this cat everything over the last six years and spending over 10,000 on vet appointments, procedures, and medications, I have grown extremely attached to her and seen her rally back from near death so many times that it is incredibly difficult to finalize her life like this.
I am wanting to know if this is a good time.
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/bp1fs4/euthanizing_my_cat_tomorrow_at_3pm_is_it_right/
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