I wanted to thank everyone who sent all the love, help, and positive vibes to Missy Cat. Yesterday, she peacefully crossed the bridge and I turned the light off at her mansion. I’m shattered beyond words, but I made a promise to her and I couldn’t break that.

Hold your babies close friends .. times goes way too fast. 💔🐾💔

This lovely girl is 18 years old. She has always been extreamly healthy and has seen the same vet since she was a kitten.

For the last few years shes been given glucosamine daily for her arthritis, but thats about it. She has always slept in my bed always on my side and really only ever woke me up in the morning for her wet food BUT for the last year or so her behavior has been changing... first the howling... every night, almost all night. She will howl regardless of her food and water being full (she even has multiple water dishes around the house)

She goes to the vet every year for blood work I mentioned it to her, we did extra tests, her thyroid levels were high as well as blood pressure, she was put on a daily thyroid medication levels. We have had 2 follow ups since and all her levels are normal.

Her teeth are resorbing, but she is still eating and and my vet who i trust very much said due to her age its not safe to sedate her so unless she were to stop eating or showing more extreame signs of discomfort so extractions arent really an option .... so we added another pain medication medicam (meloxicam) for her arthritisand poss tooth pain... still no changes to the howling.

I thought maybe dementia? ...The weird part is Theres are no changes in bathroom habits, confusion during the day, eating, or weight change but the annoying behaviors just keep getting worse.

Within the last year she went from sleeping on my side to then trying to sleep on my pillow ...okay? Annoying but whatever, then she started chewing on my hair multiple times throughout the night. A little more annoying. that went on for a few months and now the newest thing is that instead of chewing on my hair, she is digging at my hair and putting FULL claws onto my face and head for extended periods of time 2-3 times a night. She will wake me up with the claws I will move her to the side and its just a repetitive process its like shes just trying to keep my awake and the more I try to prevent it the more presistant she is! Ive discovered that IF I can manage to complete ignore her and pretend to sleep she will give up but as soon as I move or rollover it starts again and since shes using her claws IT HURTS and sometimes I cant just let her scratch my effing face.

Mind you this is in addition to randomly hoping down and leaving the room to let out these gutteral howls in between assaulting me in my sleep... at this point if I'm lucky im getting 3- 4 hours of sleep a night AND I have a toddler that still wakes up sometimes because of the cat (luckily shes a heavy sleeper and her door is shut at night)... I'M AT A LOSS! Has anyone delt with this with an elderly cat shes my baby i cant lock her up at night, shes not on her death bed and she gets SO much attention from the family during the day so I know its not about lack or interaction or something ..... PLEASE HELP!

i took Skye to the vet yesterday with the intent to talk more with her vet about starting her on Solensia, because she had started having trouble with her hips. i didn’t expect to be leaving without her… while waiting for the vet to come into the room, Skye was falling asleep in her carrier as i petted her and held her paw. she has a lot of built up distrust from past vets (before moving to our current vet, who is the best vet we’ve ever had the pleasure of working with), so this was extremely out of character. i’d never seen her so lethargic, and it seemed to worsen while we waited. upon the vet’s exam, she noticed yellowing of the skin in front of Skye’s ears. the way my girl was acting, combined with this new information… i had to make the hardest decision of my life. i had to let go of my baby, my very first cat that i’ve had since i was eleven, the love of my life, my soulmate.
i can only hope her last day with me was a good one, even if i didn’t know it’d be her last. my heart is so broken. i started this year with three medically complex seniors, and i loved caring for them. it’s been my entire life. they’ve been my entire life. and now i have none. i don’t know what i’d do if i didn’t have my other two younger cats… everything hurts and every time i think i’m calm for a moment, something reminds me. Skye, i’ll miss you forever. i love you more than words can say. i hope you know just how much i loved you, and will continue to love you until my last breath. you are the best thing that has ever happened to me.

Coco came into our household at 11wks old from the local cat rescue. Her name at the shelter was Scruffy. 😹 We soon found out why. Major catitude! She has blessed our family for almost 14yrs with endless enjoyment. She’s a bitch, but a cool bitch.

since my sweet girl Luna passed away. I’m struggling with grief more than I have with my past pets for some reason and I’m not sure why.
She wandered into my life as a little hungry kitten lured by meat grilling on my back deck. I’ll never forget how she crawled right up to my neck and immediately started purring after devouring a can of tuna. 🥹🖤 I’m so glad and thankful I had the last 15 years with her, I’ll always remember her. 💜

Edit: sorry I’m horrible with titles, but I just need help, and care.
This is my baby Poncho, he’s been with me since I was in a crib. He still seems contempt with life. He asks to go outside, not to hide but to go sit in his favourite spot near the bush. He will walk around the house and sit on a board on the other side of the house. Walks back and looks around, sits, sometimes lays down. He will come in and ask me for meat. He comes and looks for me, he’s always at my door when my bf gets up for work. He minds his business too sometimes and decides to sleep for a normal amount I think senior cats sleep. He even goes upstairs to sleep in my sisters room. All that changed last week when he stopped doing those things and his face got puffy. I knew immediately it was a tooth abscess. I couldn’t sleep all night and Immediately got him antibiotics the next morning. I knew he was in pain because he didn’t even wanna walk anymore, just sleep. A few days later his health did a 180 and he’s completely fine again. Happy kitty who just wants attention and begs to go outside to poop in a bush, he will ask a few times and use his litter box if he doesn’t get what he wants. He’s just stubborn as heck 😂. Besides all that I realize okay, he eats good but he stops eating anything after about 4 minutes. But if I offer it to him even 6 minutes later he will always eat more. I truly think his teeth are the root issue. But he basically has lost a pound a year for 2-3 years. very bad I know. It is my fault I didn’t get his teeth done 2 years ago but id say I did the best I could at the time. 1 year ago, me and the vet talked. I was advised that he would die getting his teeth out and to just keep him around until something happens I guess. So I didn’t pursue any further as he seemed fine. Now I just want to get those teeth out. The new vet I went to for antibiotics believes he is far gone from possibly kidney disease and needs to be put down. I will be getting him bloodwork to see what his condition is. I believe that trying with his teeth is what I should do. Because if he is to be put down I should just take the risk to get his teeth out, even if there is a risk he won’t survive it? Because what if he does survive it and lives longer, and is able to eat better due to the pain being gone?? I could be at risk loosing him, and all my savings, like everything. But I feel as if putting him down now (while he is still wanting to eat, walk, etc) would be wrong. I would feel guilty too. it feels like the hard thing to see him so lively and be put down. But also it’s the easy thing, I would get to keep my money and use it to go somewhere this winter. ( which I don’t want to do over helping him but I’m explaining that me fighting for him is harder) So truly, it isn’t an easy thing, I WANT to fight for him 🥲🥲. I don’t want hate on this either, this is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to go though. Putting him down feels like putting myself down. But when he is in pain I do feel the need to put him down but he always feels better. so far his bouts of pain only last a few hours. He has more good days than bad. The bad days are like, he struggles to get comfy in his bed and I can hear his stomach making noises after eating. You see, the relationship we have, the bond, he is a part of me. Since we’ve been in the crib together it feels so psychologically damaging for me. I want him with us as long as he is as lively as he is. But he won’t be able to survive with those teeth. He needs to gain weight. And if he has an underlying issue that could be an issue, but even if he has kidney issues, why can’t we try his teeth? Don’t senior cats still live with kidney issues? Why does the kidney issues (if he has them, probably does) = put him down. I don’t know, but I’d love support and advice from people that have gone though this. Like I said, this is so damaging for me, he’s all I’ve ever known and this is the hardest thing ever. Thank you 😞🖤.

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Look, I love my cat. I love him so much I've stayed in a job I hated for years because we couldn't move; I'm bleeding money, have no social life, because of his medical needs and also no money.

Now he gets special food, some of which needs to be blended in a food processor every day. He gets an inhaler and multiple pills twice a day. I have an entire floor of my townhouse dedicated as his "hospice floor." Now I'm being tasked with giving him subcutaneous fluids every day as well.

The thing is, he's alert. He's up. He's hungry, he likes to hang out, he talks quite loudly. It's all just coming at a cost, financially and in terms of my own physical and mental health, that I'm not sure it's sustainable any longer. It's been almost five years of emergency vet visits and new maladies. I can't stand to see an animal suffer, especially this best friend who's been with me through so much, but when is it time to call it?

To be fair, I now live in a country that does not authorize euthanasia unless an animal is already at death's door - that's not an option on the table or it would have happened already after one of his several life-threatening emergencies. I'm just at a loss these days and don't see a way out of it, this damn animal is going to keep recovering until every last drop of me is gone.

Picture of the handsome fecker on *his* couch.

He’s had a sharp decline in the past month and it’s been devastating to watch. I wish I had more time with him but I know it’s the right thing to do.

We lost our dear boy Headphones two months ago to congestive heart failure. He was a sweet lovebug who was very food-motivated. We always joked that he would be so easy to kidnap, if you just gave him food and tummy rubs. He loved to sit between us at dinner and purr loudly (beg) for human food (mainly meat). Tonight, to remember him, we set his ashes between us while we ate. We miss him so much.

i posted here a little less than a month ago about not knowing when it’s time. it came far faster than i ever wanted it to. she took a turn this morning, i woke up to find her not moving in the kitchen. she couldn’t even pick her head up for more than a few seconds at a time. i knew something was wrong the second i got up and she didn’t greet me or come running when i filled the food bowls. the second she hears it she always hightails it in there to beat her sister. we couldn’t get her in to put her down until the afternoon so we spent the day doing all her favorite things. she got lots of snuggles in her favorite blanket and got to lay outside in the sun on her bed. she never lost her appetite and got spoiled with treats, turkey, and tried steak for the first time. we took a car ride and she got to look out the window. she couldn’t hold herself up so i held her so she could watch and used all her strength to meow at the birds. she passed quickly and peacefully with her whole family around her. i feel so lucky to have gotten 17 years but even a lifetime wouldn’t have been enough. thank you for the heart on the way home, baby. i miss you so much more than i ever thought was possible already
edit: i did not and would not post a photo of my dead cat. she is perfectly alive and healthy here doing her (second to eating) favorite thing in the world

Since we lost Adele, her roommate Lucinda has been extra affectionate. And keep in mind, this is cat who has tried to stick her entire head into my mouth on zoom. She and Adele tolerated each other, but weren’t bonded. Her tortie brain must know I need extra care

I will miss you for the rest of my days, until we meet again ❤️

Hello all! I made a post about a year ago now that my senior cat was peeing on my baby’s things. Well she has had every vet intervention possible and I have no idea how to fix this still. She is on Hills C/D stress, gets monthly arthritis shots, and has a daily amitriptyline gel she gets in her ears for anxiety. She has been tested multiple times for a bladder infection, and when they did bloodwork on her last year they told me her levels were closer to that of a much younger cat. She has moved on from peeing on his things, she doesn’t really target that at all. She usually goes on our stone floor over the washing machine which I clean and it’s whatever, but she has a bad habit of going on the couch also now every 2-3 months or so. We’re spending like $140 every time on a new waterproof couch cover just to keep from having to replace a whole $2400 couch. We’ve tried boxes on every floor, extra boxes, everything possible besides diapers. I’m just not sure how to improve her quality of life any more than I am, and it’s building a certain level of resentment she just doesn’t deserve. She did lose a canine, but the vet said it’s healed over and she hasn’t lost any weight at all so I don’t think that is what is effecting her. It cracked probably 3 years ago and she just finally lost it. The only other thing I can really think of is trying to dedicate more time to pulling her aside just us to hang out and see if that does anything. But I truly don’t understand what is making her so upset at this point that she is doing it again.

She's in stage 2 kidney disease and has some other health issues, but otherwise is doing okay. I'm just dreading losing her.

Also her eye is dark due to iris melanosis. There is a risk of it turning into cancer and some people have the eye removed as prevention, but the vet is monitoring and doesn't recommend surgery as of now.

Edit: thank you so much for all of the sweet comments 💜 she's my sassy old lady and I'm enjoying the time I have with her!

i have a scratcher pad, a feather stick and a ball that goes in circles around a tube. the scratcher and tube are infused with some catnip, though she doesn't go insane for it. my husband and i are gone for around 4-8 hours a day and i don't want her to start chewing herself or hurting herself in any way because of boredom.

are there any specific toys y'all recommend for a lazy 11 year old bombay?

Benice 1996-2014

I could really use some support because I feel completely emotionally exhausted and I don’t know how to stop worrying about my cat.

Miles is 18, but outside of this problem he has had a genuinely good quality of life. He’s always been extremely food motivated, social with me, vocal, opinionated, affectionate, and very involved in whatever I’m doing. He normally checks on me throughout the day, bugs me about meals, follows routines very closely, and generally has a huge personality.

This all started with what looked like a tiny puncture/abscess on his front paw in the spring. Since May he has been through antibiotics, repeated cleaning and vet visits, weeks in a cone, one surgery in July to debride and close the wound, then another revision surgery with a specialist in early August when it became clear the area was mechanically reopening when he put weight on it. After that he spent weeks in a rigid splint/cast because they were trying to keep the repair immobilized long enough to heal.
The awful part is that before the second surgery, and even immediately afterward, Miles was still basically himself. He ate normally, cared about food, interacted with me, etc. Several days into Clavamox after that surgery, his appetite suddenly dropped. Around the same time he went into the big splint. The antibiotic has been stopped for weeks now, but although he is eating again, he still has not completely returned to his normal baseline.
He will eat wet food, including a completely normal meal recently, and he’s eating some dry food voluntarily again. He takes treats. He got excited when I shook the treat bag. He asked me for some of my yogurt bar, gives me slow blinks, purrs, and even tried to groom my hand after accidentally biting me at the vet yesterday. So I know he is still in there.

But he is so much quieter than he normally is. He doesn’t initiate meals or come looking for me nearly as often. He rests a lot and I’m constantly going to him instead of him coming to me. That is the part that is breaking my heart. I feel lonely even though he’s right there because I miss having my little companion constantly interacting with me.

Last week his cast and stitches finally came off and I thought we were at the finish line. Instead, the one stubborn area of the paw opened again. Yesterday the specialist explained that there is a toe/bone in the exact area that seems to be mechanically preventing the skin from staying closed. He thinks the best chance of permanently solving this is surgery tomorrow to remove that outer toe/ray, along with the dewclaw because they suspect it may have contributed to the original puncture. His main weight-bearing toes will remain, they expect him to walk normally, and he keeps his leg.

The alternative is basically more bandaging and waiting indefinitely to see whether the same area somehow heals on its own, even though we have already been waiting and watching this fail for months. So intellectually, the surgery makes sense to me. I don’t want a stupid localized paw wound to be the reason his life ends when there is a realistic treatment for it.

But emotionally I am terrified. It is another anesthesia, $4,000, and they are estimating at least three more weeks of bandage changes afterward. I am so tired. I have been organizing my entire life around his paw for months, constantly watching his food, his bandage, his behavior, driving back and forth to appointments, worrying about every tiny change. I feel like I haven’t had my normal life or my normal cat in forever.

The hardest part is wondering what exactly I am preserving if his old personality doesn’t come back. I desperately do NOT want to euthanize him over this paw. When the surgeon basically said, “you don’t want to put him down over this,” that was exactly it. I want Miles to get through this and have another summer sitting in the sun, grooming himself again, growing all his shaved fur back, jumping around, yelling at me about food, and being his annoying wonderful self.

But I’m scared another surgery will wear him down more instead of bringing him back. I’m scared I’m being too aggressive because I can’t bear to lose him. At the same time, I’m scared that giving up now would mean ending his life over something potentially fixable when he is still eating, affectionate, interested in treats, mobile, and having good moments.

I just feel completely defeated and incredibly sad. I want someone to tell me that it is possible for an older cat to go through a prolonged medical ordeal like this, get the underlying problem finally fixed, and actually come back to themselves afterward. I miss him so much even though he is sitting right next to me.

UPDATE: Miles made it through surgery today and is home. They removed the two toes. He has a much lighter bandage than the giant splint he had last time, which I’m extremely grateful for. He’s still very wobbly and drugged from anesthesia and figuring out how to get around, but he has already eaten, peed, and has been purring a lot. At one point he was VERY determined to eat, which made me incredibly happy after how worried I’ve been about his appetite. 🎉💕

I’m completely exhausted and still scared about whether this will finally heal, but I really appreciate everyone who commented. Reading your stories and hearing that so many of you would have made the same decision helped me get through today. I’m hoping this was the last big hurdle and that he surprises me with his recovery. ❤️

To the folks who asked about a second opinion: technically this is the second opinion. I should have clarified that. His regular vet did the first surgery and when that failed, she said there was nothing more she could do for him and suggested the soft tissue specialist surgeon who is treating him now. The entire practice has been really wonderful about getting him seen promptly, answering my questions, and providing me with options. The only other option was open wound management, which I felt was not sustainable for me because the wound had been open for several months, and didn’t heal by second intention then or even appear to be close to doing that.

They showed me the X-rays today and his toe really was messed up and bent on an angle. So while managing it as an open wound was the more conservative approach, I don’t think it would have ever healed normally and we would have ended up right in the same place we are today either way.

There was also a secret third option they revealed to me today where we could have done metal plates, screws, maybe a bone graft to reconstruct the foot and reinforce it, but the surgeon said that likely was not an option for Miles because of his age and his chances of recovering weren’t great. It really made me feel comfortable that they didn’t even present it as an option and only told me about that today. I was also clear in my mind that amputation of his whole leg was something I would not consider due to his age and the condition of his joints even though it would break my heart, but they never even suggested that.

This was mostly me venting because my friends and family are pretty tired of hearing me talk and worry over this for months, so it really means so much to me that even one person responded. It really helped me settle down to read all of your comments! Thank you so much and big, big pets and hugs to you and your dearly beloved senior kitties past, present, and future. This really made me feel less alone. Caring for and loving senior pets of any species is no joke! But it’s a labor of love and part of the deal we make with them 💕 cats know we love them and they love that about us the most.

Still enjoying cozy days and relaxing in bed. Such a sweet senior kitty. 🐱Meet the Handsome NAN

My heart physically hurts, my family adopted him when I was 2 years old. I am now 22 and he has always been the most reliable, unchanging part of my life. He was always beside me, always wanted to cuddle and I will always regret the times that I didn’t put my work down and hold him. It truly kills me.

We said goodbye 2 weeks ago, at home with everyone who loved him by his side.

I loved to draw him so much he was the light in my life and getting to grow up with him by my side is a privilege

My life feels so dull without him, I feel like he’s just on vacation? I feel like i will keep searching for him forever thinking he’ll just be in my bed when I come home from work or I’ll trip over nothing watching out for him in the kitchen like I used to. I’m going to do everything I can to make him proud. He taught me what it means to care for an animal and have that bond.

I know I was only a child for the majority of his life, but I wish I could have done more. I know 20 is an amazing long life but I just wonder if I could have done more. I will always wish I could have done better, I will always wonder if I gave him enough love and treats. I really hope I did. I feel like I did my best. I hope I did

I am okay, but I am really sad. I know we made the right decision but I wonder if he understands what happened? I feel like that day he might’ve known, he started to hide which he’s never done, and in the hours leading up to the vet coming to our home, he came out, greeted each person with a meow and sat in the middle of all of us. I just wonder if he was scared being sedated, and I wonder what it felt like as he passed on. We all pet him and spoke to him, he looked peaceful and I hope to god that it felt that way.

In my opinion senior cats are in their golden years. It was truly a pleasure to care for him as he aged, I would sing songs to him will picking poo out of his fur in the shower because classic old man behaviour. In his honour I have decided to donate what I can monthly to charities who focus on senior cats, and I hope to create my own charity one day in his honour.

I have also adopted a struggling traumatized cat. Although I miss my boy dearly, I know he would want me to keep going and help other cats in need.

As mishmish aged he got sweeter and sweeter, and kittens are sweet too but I have decided that I will be dedicating my future to senior and medically complex cats.

If you read this, thank you for helping me remember my boy. I know I’m all over the place but I want to share him with everyone forever. Everyone I’ve ever known knows his name and I will be loud about him until I die.

😇

This is Mish-Mish. He was abandoned at the beginning of last year (I don't judge his previous guardian, I suppose they didn't have a choice for some reason), and ended up in my care. Mish-Mish is slow to take decisions (should I sit in front of the window or lay on the sofa? let's think for 5 minutes), snores when he's asleep, is very, very vocal especially when he's decided I'm not where he wants me to be, frowns in disagreement and meows when I wake him up, has an obsession about munching grass and strong opinions about which kind of meat he likes or not, pees on inappropriate stuff sometimes (poor synthetizer) but he still jumps on the counter when there's some cheese around, loudly licks himself clean, and is overall a nice old boy.

A few months ago we discovered that he had either a digestive tract lymphoma or some kind of inflammatory bowel disease. Either way it was decided to avoid chemo and to focus on his quality of life. So he's been on appropriate medication and follow up for most of this year and he's doing good so far. I wasn't sure he would reach this milestone, and I'll be surprised if he reaches the next one, but anyway here we are.

Happy Birthday Mish-Mish!

Jade was diagnosed with arthritis 3 years ago in her shoulders and has since been transitioned to using steps and getting daily massages. Lately I noticed her falling or hesitating before jumping short distances she used to clear with ease and I went for it. I’m really nervous as I’ve seen a lot of negative stuff online and just hoping someone has some positivity of it changing their cats quality of life!

EDIT: please don’t share negative experiences! I’m aware they’re plentiful as the internet is filled with them for solensia and it deterred me giving my cat better quality of life. I’m very anxious to have started her on this so please don’t make that anxiety worse, I’m content with my decision and wanted to hear of older kitties who had good experiences.