Hello, everyone! I hope you all have been doing well and I hope I don’t put too much of a damper on anyone’s day. I’ve been afraid to post about this for so long, but it’s been about 10 months so I think I’m ready to hear some honest thoughts.
I adopted a senior cat (14M) whom I named Mister Poe in May of 2018. While uncertain at first, he turned out to be the most wonderful and loving, silly, perfect companion I could know. He had no serious health issues that I knew of.
One issue he always struggled with was eye irritation/discharge. We usually just treated this by wiping his eyes with damp cotton balls, as this was recommended by his vet. We were also prescribed generic eyedrops which we tried out with little progress. However, after dealing with this issue for so long and not seeing any change, we asked the vet if there was any medication to resolve it (January 2020). She put him on a 10-day round of antibiotics as she thought it may just be some kind of conjunctivitis. Throughout the first couple days of the med, we noticed Mr. Poe was more lethargic than usual, and didn’t seem very hungry. On day 3, he had an accidental run-in with a german shepherd and had a scare but stood his ground! However, on day 4, I noticed the additional symptom of a slight wheezing sound, and called the vet. They told us to bring him in that evening.
When we arrived at the vet, the vet tech asked a few questions and Mr. Poe seemed normal - walking/jumping about the room. When the vet came into the room, though, she started to really pull back his eyes and stretch his face to see his eyes (usually touching by people he doesn’t know makes him very nervous), at which point he started panting. I’d never seen him do this before, so it was very alarming. The vet took a listen to his heart and said it did not sound good at all, and mentioned a bad heart sound from a previous visit, which she never before mentioned to me or listed on any visit paperwork.
She said she was going to take him into the back to get some scans done and put him on some oxygen. About 5 mins later, she comes back and asks us to join us with her in the back room where he is. There, we see him still panting, lying on his side on the operating table, with an oxygen mask next to his face. By this point I’m very scared and don’t understand why this was happening all of a sudden. She shows us some scans she just took, and points out some white-ish spots near his lungs/chest. She says she thinks they are growths of some sort, likely tumors she guesses, but can’t be sure unless an ultrasound was performed (which she doesn’t have available there). At this point, the vet tech seems very worried and is asking her for assistance because “he’s really not doing well and I don’t know what’s going on”.
The vet checks his oxygen levels and basically then and there tells me it’s time to say goodbye. I’m shocked and horrified at this, and ask her what is going on and if I can take him to the ER vet which is about 20 minutes away. She says it’s up to us, but personally she thinks he might not make it, the car ride would be awful, and it would be a much more moral choice for me to make. She explains that even if I got the ultrasounds done, it probably wouldn’t be treatable, and repeats that it would be moral to say goodbye now. At this point, we notice the oxygen has been shut off. After two hurried minutes of crying and frantically weighing options, I tell her that I have chosen to take her advice and have him put down.
She proceeds with the euthanization, and it ends up taking 3x the usual dose for his heart to stop... the first dose in his leg did virtually nothing (he was still trying to get up, which was awful to watch), the second dose went in his stomach (not sure exactly where), and it was taking a while, so she decided to do a third dose directly in his heart, which ended it.
I have thought this night over in my head so many times. I don’t know if I made the right decision, and I don’t know if this vet really knew what she was talking about. I don’t know what was happening with my Mister Poe or why he suddenly began panting and wasn’t stopping. I don’t know if I should have taken him to the ER or even just paused for a moment to see what would happen... we didn’t have a very close relationship with this vet (she was newer) and I leaned towards not liking her very much because she always seemed rushed and didn’t put very much effort into answering any of my questions or helping me understand different situations.
If anyone has any insight, thoughts, or experiences that could provide any info at all, please do share. I’m hoping to get what I can from this experience so that I know better moving forward in the future and can be more confident, as I’ve adopted two cats since the passing of my Mister Poe.
Sorry for the long post, but thank you for reading and taking the time. It means the world. If any additional info is needed for consideration, I’m more than happy to answer anything.
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/j8z4h9/was_it_right_to_have_my_cat_euthanized/
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