I know that only I can make this decision but I don't really have support from other people and have to make the decision myself, so I would really appreciate some outside perspectives to make sure I'm not missing anything.
The story is very long and complicated so I've tried to summarise the main points.
I rescued 2 7 week old kittens (Lily and Bella) from the street around 3 months ago, sadly Bella died in the vets the next day. They were extremely underweight, malnourished and had respiratory infection symptoms. I thought they would just need some antibiotics and some good foster care for a few weeks and then I could look for a forever home for them. But unfortunately it turned out to be much more complex.The first vet diagnosed them with feline herpes virus and kept Lily for 2 weeks on IV fluids and medication but when I took her home she got worse, so I decided to get a 2nd opinion. The 2nd vet diagnosed her with feline panleukopenia and kept her for 3 weeks on IV fluids and medication. She developed neurological symptoms and now walks with a wobbly gait and shaky head. She's been home now for about 1.5-2 months and her condition worsens and then improves, then worsens again, and she has never came even close to being back to her normal self. I've spent so much time, money and mental energy trying to make her better and I really want her to have a chance at a good life. But I'm concerned that her quality of life is very poor and it may be more ethical to have her euthanised.
- Overall summary - deafness, cerebellar hypoplasia, seizures, incontinence and sitting in own waste, underweight/underdeveloped, lack of interest in usual activities, not using litter tray
- she developed seizures and was having up to 15 per day. She is now on her 2nd type of anticonvulsant medication but still has a few seizures per day, these sometimes last more than 5 minutes.
- she sometimes stares blankly, her eyes move around randomly and acts confused, I worry that she has suffered brain damage due to the seizures
- she is deaf
- she is eating well, but will only eat kitten milk mixed with royal canin babycat food. But she doesn't grow or gain weight. She only weighs 750g (she should weigh 2-3kg at 5 months old) although I feed her 6 times per day
- she has no interest in drinking water
- she hasn't been using her litter box for 2 months, and now lays in her own waste
- she also has newly started having dribbling incontinence when picked up
- her mobility is very poor due to her wobbly cat syndrome, she doesn't really move around and when she does she can only take a few steps before falling down
- she sleeps way more than she used to, at least 22 hours per day
- she doesn't groom herself at all and gets covered in her food and waste multiple times per day
- she has no interest in the things she used to love such as playing, cuddling and looking out the window
- if I stroke her then she does purr but she has no interest in me or my hands, before she was such a loving cat and would climb on me and follow me everywhere, rub herself all over me and purr constantly
- she is kept in a separate room in a large dog cage near a window because she doesn't use the litter box and for her safety as she is so small she could easily get stuck under furniture, plus I have another cat. So I feel like she is very isolated, although I do spend time with her throughout the day. I have built her a DIY disabled friendly cat castle with a ramp leading up to the window but she doesn't have much interest in it and seems to get a bit confused/unsure how to get up and down it.
- she doesn't seem to be in pain
- The vets in the country where I live (Turkey) are very underqualified so I have no trust in their diagnoses or treatments. They mostly just try to make as much money as possible and don't follow a proper protocol.
- my husband thinks that because she is still eating she wants to live and we should give her more time
- scored around 20-25 out of 70 on the quality of life scale
Any advice on how to improve her quality of life would be much appreciated
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/qdoa8d/is_euthanasia_the_correct_decision_for_kitten/
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