Hi
I am a new member trying to find the best way to help my 17 year old cat die naturally,
She is an indoor/outdoor cat.
Over the past couple months, she has lost a lot of weight, I can feel all her bones.
I switched her to wet food which she gobbled up and started to gain a little but a couple days ago she stopped eating, or if she ate even the smallest amount, would throw up sooner or later.
She is barely drinking water as well. She is having trouble getting around
at times and sometimes just stares off at the wall.
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She HATES the vet and doesn't seem to be in any pain so I don't want her last moments to be trauma by having her euthanized.
She wants to be outside most of the time and hides which I know is normal.
I tried to keep her in but is made her distraught.
When she does come in, she lays on my lap purring for an hour or so and then wants back out.
Is there anything I can do to help her in her last days?
Seems like getting her to eat only ends up in discomfort.
But i wish she would drink a little.
That's a tough one, and I don't know that I have an answer that would be satisfactory. In the past when I have had indoor-outdoor cats, I have had older cats wander off by themselves to die, but I don't know what their last moments were like, and it saddened me to know that they were alone somewhere, perhaps scared and in pain. Yes, they often choose that but in their younger years, we haven't always allowed our cats to make their own choices, so I don't know.
I lost a 23 year-old cat to cancer a few years ago. She had cancer in the mouth and, given her age and the type of cancer, it wasn't operable. At first, she was having some difficulty eating. Feeding her only wet food, she gained weight and a few months of relatively good health except, of course, for the cancer. Then she had trouble eating even canned food, and could no longer clean herself. I started feeding her baby food, but then I realized that I was keeping her alive for me, not her.
I made an appointment for her at the veterinarians. She too, wasn't fond of the veterinary office, particularly the dogs that were in the waiting room. I remained in the car with her while my wife went in to see if they could send someone out to get us when they were prepared to euthanize her, so that she didn't have to sit in the waiting room. The vet came out to the car and euthanized her while she was in my arms. It was so quick, and so easy, that I knew that it was the right thing to do. I asked how long it would take, and she told me that she was already gone.
Her last two kittens are with me now. They are twenty-four and, while one of them is remarkably healthy, except for some arthritis, her sister is very thin, and I am afraid she won't be with us long. At this point, she still plays, and even picks on a one year-old who we have here, but she doesn't put on a lot of weight. She used to enjoy being outdoors but it's been a very cold winter here, so they've been in for months now. On nicer days, I carry her out sometimes at night, so that she can listen to the night sounds.
I'm thinking that if she's not in pain, and doesn't appear to be suffering, a natural death at home might be a good thing, but I don't know.
I don't like animals to be put down unless they are really suffering, so I understand your desire to let your cat pass naturally and not be traumatized at the vet.
It sounds like she is at the very end of her life though, if she is not able to absorb nutrients well and hardly has any appetite. Most likely she will know when her time comes and try to find a spot to hide. If she is outside, you may never find her when this happens as she may find a very good hiding place. I think it's best to keep her inside, or be outside with her if you let her out so she doesn't get into some place like under the house. I knew some people who's cat did that and it was really hard to get her out when they figured out what happened.
I think that this is one of the hardest decisions that we, as pet owners, have to ever make for our pets. Sometimes, the last and final way we can show our love for them is to have the pet humanely put to sleep. I think that if you can do like Kfander suggested and wait outside the vet's office until they are ready to euthanize her, that this would be the best way to handle it.
Sometimes, a vet will even make a house call and take care of it, depending on where you are at, and what the vet does.
When I had horses, it was a common thing for the vet to make a house call if we had a sick horse, and if your vet makes rounds like that also, then you can probably just have her put to sleep right at home.
Even if that is not possible, and you have to take her to the vet's office, then just be with her and hold her as they administer the shot and it should work almost instantly, as Kfander mentioned.
I think that , overall, this is better than letting her crawl away somewhere and die.
Even supposing she isn't suffering, she would still be out in the weather, and possibly predators who might kill and eat her, and at the very least, she would be dying all alone.
Just because many animals do have to crawl away and die somewhere does not mean that this is the best way for them to die.