Hi everyone. This is my first time around here, but i just wanted to open up to a place where nothing is expected of me.
I've adopted three cats sixteen years ago. Over the years they've had occasional medical problems, but were mostly healthy, albeit overweight at some point.
I was a kid when we got them, hadn't even experienced death in the family at the time. Then, as I moved out, sometimes I'd have crying spells from thinking of my cats' future deaths.
Recently, one of my cats, who happened to be the one who ate the most, started looking sick. A couple of days ago, she stopped eating food of any sort. We were only able to feed her some low-fat chicken ham. Luckily she's always been a bit of a chonker, so missing food wasn't the worst.
But we've discovered that cats only start showing signs of illness at very advanced phases. She was never very active, unlike the other two, so the decrease in activity went unnoticed. Only when she almost climbed up things instead of jumping, did we start paying more attention. She stopped purring. Stopped reacting to pets, etc. But still she wanted company. She stayed close to us, she cuddled with us, but always with very low energy.
Today we took her to the vet, who did some exams and found signs of kidney failure. Cats often have kidney problems. I knew that, but for some reason I was still caught by surprise.
She's staying overnight, they'll do a treatment to attempt to extend her life in comfort a bit longer. If she doesn't show signs of improvement, that means it's her time to go. Me and my family don't want to let her suffer. This is the particular feeling i am having trouble dealing with. It's like my family's sense of righteousness completely overshadows the sadness that this brings.
Remember to do vet checkups on your pets, and more frequently as they get older. Cats especially, because they hide signs very well.
I don't even know if I'll be able to say good bye to her. She was a meanie to the others sometimes, but very docile otherwise.
I'll miss her.
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/krcbiy/one_of_my_cats_might_be_put_to_sleep_tomorrow/
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