Casmeow, I am so sorry about your beloved Wilbur. I'm glad he's feeling okay for now. Maybe I'm not the right person to reply, since I have not been through this with any of my cats. I had a cat with kidney disease, but he passed away suddenly from another cause so I never had to make any decisions. I had another cat that a vet recommended being put down, but I refused to do it (becuase I had had a similar condition and recovered nearly completely). She did, indeed, recover, so once again I was never forced to make the decision of treatment or not when the only result is prolonging life as opposed to curing the disease. But I think I can add a few ideas to help you. First of all, cancer treatment is agonizing for us humans, too. But we thoroughly understand what is going on and why. Your poor Wilbur will only know that life has gotten pretty bad and he won't know why.

Also, I have been hearing the last few years about cats being put on dialysis. Kidney disease is very common in cats, especially as they age, and of course it is eventually fatal if something else doesn't bring about their demise. I think this is horrible and selfish. Having worked in a dialysis facility (human) and being a kidney patient myself, I can tell you that dialysis is a terrible thing to go through. You NEVER feel well again, it takes hours for each treatment, and you need treatments every couple of days. Many people decide it's not even worth it, discontinue their treatments, and die. To think that some people would drag their cats to the vet three times a week to stay for hours only to feel bad afterwards - and not even be able to understand why - I can't even fathom it.

Of course, whatever you decide about Wilbur's treatment is only your decision to make, and no matter what you do you will probably always think you did the wrong thing. I just pray that whatever you do, you will be able to make the decision based on whether or not his life is worth living anymore instead of how much you will miss him when he's gone. I know that will be very, very difficult because you DO love him so much. And, of course, the tragedy of life is that it ends in death. In other words, you are still only putting off what is going to eventually happen (based on what you say your vet has told you). The basis of the decision should be on whether the "putting off" allows Wilbur a few more months or years of joy or agony.

I hope I have not come off as being harsh, because my intention is the opposite. You clearly love your kitty alot, or you wouldn't be agonizing. I wish your kitty and his people the best and hope that my comments help.