Tomorrow, my 15-year-old cat is going to the vet for his first blood test, which is needed to see if he can get his first vaccination. I’m really worried and scared that he won’t be easy to handle. I’m already stressing out about it. 😿

How do your “difficult” cats usually behave during blood draws?

Tl;dr: I made my cat a euthanasia appt and now she's doing a bit better, I swear just to mess with me

Pima is my (at least) 14 year old sassy tabby. I found her in 2018, dumped on the side of the road. Originally I didn't want her, and even made an appt to surrender her at my local Humane Society. But she wormed her way in, and has just been the best darn cat.

Unfortunately, she was declawed on all four feet before I got her, and it was done poorly. I had to have a revision done a couple years after she came to me. And now, she has pretty significant arthritis in every joint of her legs and up into her lower spine. Solensia didn't work, so I started her on routine meloxicam and considered her "hospice." While yeah, the meloxicam might tank her kidneys, I'd rather give her a couple good months vs possibly years of discomfort.

She's done super well on the meds, but two months ago she started coughing a lot, and after having some chest films done, was diagnosed with a very large lung mass. We don't know what it is, because it's not in a place where it can be easily biopsied, and at her age and with her other issues, a full on lobectomy (removal of part of the lung) seems unethical.

In the last week or so, she's slowed down. She's not suffering, but she's definitely starting to struggle. She stopped eating dry food (which she loves), and only picks at her wet food. I want to let her go before she gets to the suffering point, so I made her an appt for this coming Thursday to be let go peacefully here at home with me.

This morning, this damn cat walked up and just crunched away on her dry food like she hasn't been acting weird for the last week, and then went and happily laid down in her favorite sun spot to watch birds.

So now I am wavering on my decision. She's never going to get "better" than she currently is. Any actual treatment I could offer would be incredibly painful and invasive - removing part of her lung, or in the case of her arthritis, going in and essentially grinding down in her joints to remove some of the scar tissue build up. But she suddenly seems pretty content again, because of course she does.

I had a cat previously that I waited a bit too long to let go, and it still haunts me (and he wasn't even really that miserable). I'm terrified of her crumping on me at like 9pm on a Wednesday and having to take her somewhere unfamiliar and say goodbye suddenly. But I'm also wracked with guilt at the idea of giving up too soon.

Am I making the right decision to continue with saying goodbye? Or am I doing a terrible thing?

A month ago, I posted a “Sad Happy Birthday” for my kitty, Mr. Milky Paws. After a few days, he bounced back especially once I started adding rotisserie chicken to his regular food. About a week and a half ago, his bedding felt wet, so I placed wee wee pads on his bed again and he had at least 3 episodes of peeing on them. Then I noticed he was on partially walking into the litter box, so I placed pads there as well. I figured he was achy and it was hard for him. I put a litter box closer to his bed with pads underneath and the same thing happened. Friday a new, low entry litter box came… same thing happened. I just figured this was going to be our new norm for a bit. Saturday he seemed tired in the morning but perked up as the day progressed. While in the kitchen for a snack, he wouldn’t move, so I picked him up to return to his bed in the living room. He had a little bit of spit up around midnight, but at 1:15am, there was that very distinct meow. His breathing changed and I knew this was the end. I told him there are many waiting for him on the other side of the bridge and it was ok to go. He was having a rough time. I sang “Sleepy Man” to him twice and when I was finished, he was at rest.

By 6:30am after wrapping him up with 2 old toys, I dropped him off at the vet. But returning home was hard. This is the first time my apartment has been empty since 1996. Whenever a fur-baby has passed, I was able to distract myself by caring for the remaining siblings. But now there’s no one left. I walk through the apartment like a zombie. Looking at the litter boxes and food bowls still on the floor. This pain definitely is harder, especially since I’m struggling with health issues which is going to make cleaning up difficult.

The smell not thing I could accomplish today was making a list of everything I can donate to a shelter or give to the few people I know who are pet parents. My sister said I should sell the brand new items, but I’m not sure about asking my friends for money. I’m open to suggestions.

Hello, I am looking for advice on how to help my senior cat adjust to new pets in the home. For the record he has always been a grumpy cat, haha. He is very strong physically, eats and drinks very well, and gets monthly Solencia shots for arthritis, because he had both knees replaced after tearing the ACL on both legs around 2020 (unknown how he did this!).

My town is overrun with stray animals. We have a large transient population who get work here in the oilfield and then get laid off. They adopt pets when times are good, but have to leave suddenly when they get laid off. I always say, when things get hard for people in my town, they get hard for pets. Some will drop animals in nice neighborhoods on their way out, hoping that a family will adopt them, some leave them with animal control, some just leave them with family or friends. The end result is a lot of suffering strays and not enough animal rescues to help. This is how we found ourselves with two new dogs last year (dropped in our neighborhood, one with heartworms who has made full recovery), and one blind kitten this year (walked in front of us while we were walking the dogs, total horror show with a terrible eye infection). No one else could take them, and they would have died or been put down without us.

I never wanted this many animals. In total we have six! Four cats and two dogs. My senior cat got along well enough with the first two cats we brought in around 2017 and 2021. The two dogs that came next were a challenge, but he managed to maintain his “authority” in the home. This new little kitten who is blind has been tough for him though. He pulls out his fur and can’t get settled. He loves sitting on our laps in the morning, but if any animal moves or makes a noise, he growls and jumps to the floor. Then he will just stand and stare, unsure of where to go and angry.

We have gabapentin for him to help him calm down a bit, but it hasn’t helped the way we hoped. We got fences to put around the dogs in the bedroom at night so he can come and go as he pleases, and a fence to put around the couch where he likes to sit with us in the evening. He is starting to set boundaries with the blind kitten, and there are times that the two of them will be sitting together in a room peacefully. I am hoping our old boy can adjust to one last new pet. The kitten will be neutered in two months, and hopefully he will initiate play a little less with my senior cat when that happens. The kitten isn’t aggressive, just playful, and my senior seems to recognize that he is blind, and doesn’t fight him the way I know he could. He’s just annoyed that things are different and wants his routine the way it once was. We are doing everything we can to maintain that for him, but perfection is not possible.

I feel horrible. I didn’t want to take on any more animals and it has been an expensive task. My heart was bigger than my head and I have caused my old boy stress. All our animals are sweet in disposition except for this senior cat, he’s always been a grump but this is a little different. He sees the vet monthly and all bloodwork is clean, and we work from home so we are always here to monitor the animals interactions. He isn’t getting bullied, he’s actually the “boss”. He just doesn’t like all these animals around.

Have you had any luck soothing an older cat during a time of change?

I make custom paintings of animals 💜

unfortunately he went missing few days ago and not having the best of hopes viewing his age . Never posted on anything cat related on reddit . Treating this as a goodbye post to my little child .

after a scary diabetic crash, leaf had to go to the vet and get iv dextrose. he's feeling better now, but before we picked him up the iv got offset and the dextrose got under his skin, which required a hearty saline rinse. so now his arm is so itchy he couldn't stop licking it, which means on top of it all he unfortunately needed the cone. 4 hours at the vet, just to be restrained when he gets home! outrage he cries!! nobody knows how hard he's got it!!!

...oh well. atleast he was able to find a comfy spot when he got home. and there weren't any cats scheduled for surgery today, so he got all the nurses attention alllllll to himself (easily his favourite part of the vet)

(leaf is 13 and a half!)

Ole boy is mad 😠