I am so very, very sorry. This is so sad. What a beautiful cat.
You and he have given each other your hearts and all your love, and that will never be lost.
My deepest sympathy.
Love and hugs (very gentle ones for Duke),
Pat
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I am so very, very sorry. This is so sad. What a beautiful cat.
You and he have given each other your hearts and all your love, and that will never be lost.
My deepest sympathy.
Love and hugs (very gentle ones for Duke),
Pat
Thank you for your responses, everyone, it does help.
I may have to take Dude in to the vet even earlier than I thought. He's not in any apparent pain, he's not hiding, but neither is he eating or wanting to sit with me any more. He's just lying quietly on the bed with his eyes open. As with many cats in this stage of their lives, he seems to be turning inward. Except for the drool and his tongue sticking out a little, he looks totally healthy. He's still a good weight, his coat gleams, and somehow that makes it all harder.
When I brought him home from the vet yesterday, he was still pretty woozy. They'd given the sedative intramuscularly instead of iv so they wouldn't have to hold his head and cause him pain. That made it last longer. But the moment he staggered out of his carrier, he bee-lined to the bowl of dry food and plunged his head right in. As I took it away from him, he reached out a paw and tried hard to snatch it out of my hand. I checked with the vet and was allowed to give him small amounts of wet food, so he kept eating and eating all evening. Then he snuggled on my lap for some time, purring away. That's why I thought he could keep going comfortably for a few weeks.
Before this, whenever he received the pain med. he would want to eat within five minutes, so I don't think it's the medication.
This is one of those awful times when you look in your cat's face and beg "please tell me what is going on, tell me what to do."
Lizzie - I read your last post here - so you mean, even with the pain med, he doesn't want to eat? Sorry if I missed something here.
Unless the biopsy made his mouth a bit sore...
I am glad he had an evening of eating heartily, and enjoying a purring good snuggle with you! "Thank you, Meowmy..."
I keep thinking about poor Dude... Isn't there anything they can do for him? Is it the tumor that is causing his pain? It just seems so sudden, I guess I'm hoping that there is something that they can do to prolong his life.
My thoughts and prayers are with you and Dude.
It's rather a catch 22. The pain meds make it possible for him to eat, and that's how they worked for the first few days until Sunday. Monday, he was full of anesthetic sedation and pain med, and was raring to chow down. However, they can also diminish his appetite which is what appears to be happening now. As I type, he just went over to his food plate for the first time today - but then turned away. I'd assume it's because he associates eating with pain, except that he ate yesterday. That's what I mean about wanting to ask him just what is he feeling - woozy, nauseated, starved, in agony, miserable?Quote:
Originally Posted by Catty1
They couldn't do a biopsy because the tumor is in his jaw bone and the bone looked so fragile on the x-ray, they were afraid it would shatter.
I want to have a few more days of him eating as he did last night, cuddling on my lap, but I have a dreadful feeling that isn't going to happen. I'm going to have to accept that there is no more time. Dude really doesn't have anything else good to live for.
I didn't post about Dude before, when I knew his stomatitis was back and more severe than ever before, with the depo shots barely working on him because I was too upset about it all to post. I simply couldn't share the misery until the ultimate reality hit me hard. The vet said they could try radiation but it was less than 50% effective and a difficult procedure to put any pet through. The thought of Dude having to be handled a lot for the treatment when he screams, and I mean that literally, if I accidentally brush the sleeve of my soft flannel robe against his mouth, and the high probability of it not working is not to be borne. And in the time it would take to get something like that organized, we would have to keep him going by feeding through a sewn-in tube and on constant pain med. Add the fact that his jaw bone looks like lace-work from either the tumor or both the tumor and infection - it's very bad.Quote:
Originally Posted by jenn_librarian
Why didn't we see it sooner? It didn't show on the x-rays in January. The symptoms were masked by our being used to Dude having stomatitis and the fact that's it's been impossible for anyone to get near his mouth without sedation for a very long time. And squamous cell carcinoma is fast growing.
Yes, the tumor is causing him great pain. The stomatitis isn't bad at this time. The tumor not only causes a bulge on the outside but is a large lump from his left gum pushing into his tongue inside his mouth.
I'm going to ask the vet if they will give him a depo shot tomorrow morning. That will give him an appetite and make him feel good. If it's possible for them to do it, it will buy me those few days. If they believe it is the wrong thing to do, and he doesn't eat tonight, I am out of options.
Lizzie ~ I am so sorry to hear the news. You are both in my thoughts and prayers.
I'm so sorry to hear your news.... Dude will love you forever for not letting him pass to the bridge in a cold cage alone.
Poor Dude. My prays are with you and Dude.
Lizzie, I am so very sorry to hear about Dude. I know how much he means to you and how hard it is to make that decision. He is a beautiful handsome boy and he was lucky to have you to love him the way he deserved to be loved. I am so sad over this. I will be praying for you both.
Melissa
Oh Lizzie, I'm so sorry that it has to be that way!
I was caring for a kitty this past summer who had a tumor in his mouth as well. He was one of 12 cats that two little old ladies from NY had moved with them to PA. That in itself was a tragedy in the end, but the kitty, Alexander, was just this poor old soul. He drooled constantly, and I had to add water to the canned food so that it was like soup so he could eat it. He had to be in pain, I don't see how he wasn't, but the old ladies insisted he was fine. He had been all white, but because of the constant drooling, he was all brown/yellow down the front of him, and his skin had become irritated by it, and either the fur came out or he pulled it out. I have no idea which. He looked like hell when he came to me, and looked like hell when I gave him back, although I tried to do whatever I could for him.
He's out of misery now, but he and the 11 other cats died in a fire in the apartment house where the old ladies were living. The one woman died in the fire as well (she refused to leave without the cats), and the other lady died around Christmas, she had extensive burns and was in a coma as well. It was for the best actually, because had she known what had happened to her friend and her cats, she wouldn't have wanted to live.
I pray that you and Dude enjoy your remaining time together. You've given him love and a home and I'm sure he's very appreciative of all you've done for him. Hugs to both of you.
I'm scrambling here to make him comfortable. Last night made me feel much better. He climbed into my lap as I sat in bed watching a movie, the first time he's done that since Monday evening, and purred up a storm, lapping up all the stroking and massaging, loving being stroked with grooming wipes. He got down several times to eat a little and cuddled against my legs all night. It felt really good and I stopped thinking about taking him in early. But today, he's gone back to just lying on the bed, mostly with his eyes open so not really resting, and he's eaten nothing. He also hasn't peed since yesterday morning, so that's once in three days. I just called the vet and I'm taking him in for sub-q fluids in a few minutes so that he's more comfortable. I hate bothering him, but he's going to be dehydrated very soon and feel even worse. Hopefully, that and the steroid shot I gave him earlier and the pain meds I can give at 6:30 will give us an evening like yesterday.
In one of your posts, you thought that Dude might be withdrawing from you. Our Ralph Syracuse did the same thing as the end drew near.Could it be their way of protecting us from their pain...maybe. This is a difficult time for you and Dude. You both were so lucky to have the time you did and Dude truly knows all the love you have for him. Prayers for you both....
I'm afraid to ask.... how is Dude??
Hugs to you and Dude.
Dude is curled up on my bed, quietly asleep. He leaned against me all night, just where he is supposed to be. I'm spending most of the day on the bed with him, watching movies - except that my mind and heart are in so much turmoil that each movie becomes irritating after a short time. For the last few days, even now, I've looked for ways to change things and give him more quality time. But there is no way, and there is no more quality time. After eating a small meal hungrily on Wednesday night, he's shown no interest in food since. Even then he ate because he was starving, but then ran away from the plate probably because it hurt. He doesn't even drink water. I took him in for fluids on Wed. evening. Yesterday, he got up in a window, and several times over the past few days he's trotted out into the main area and wandered around. I think it's a combination of trying to escape the way he feels and trying to go back to his old life. It was hearwrenching to see him try to eat dry food again, which he prefers. I would love, I long for, one more time of his sitting on my lap while I'm on this computer, leaning into my body, I can feel him there as I write. It would be selfish of me to scoop him up now and sit him here, so I'll leave him where he feels most comfortable. By this evening, memories will be all I have, and then next week a box to put on a shelf of boxes with photos.
I always tuck in something special to the cat when I wrap them in their blanket before returning them to the vet, after it's over. I've been reassured that isn't disturbed. Dude didn't like toys that much so I'm cutting off a small lock of my hair to tuck in with him, and some dark red quince blossoms.
Thank you for listening, and understanding why I need to write all this down.